THE WAR DEPARTMENT tells how Bases Like
BRUNING ARMY AIR BASE are built

In the office of nearly everyone of the area engineer of the Missouri River Division of the Corp of Engineers, there hangs a cartoon depicting an area engineer receiving orders to build a war effort project on a piece of marshland while the orders from his superior are:"We are in no hurry for this project, you may take your time, just so it is ready for occupancy in ten days."

Under the fast setting pace set by Colonel Lewis A. Pick, the Division chief, that order is not as far wrong as it would seem at first. What should be in ordinary time, take a year to build, must be constructed in one-sixth to one-twelfth the time. Speed, the all essential element in this war, is the living symbol for the offices of the division.

A close knit organization, supervised by the Division and directed by three districts--Kansas City, Mo., Omaha, Nebraska and Fort Peck, Montana--sends officers and men in the field to keep the Missouri division "ahead of schedule" all the time. Mena and material are shifted just as a commanding officer shifts his men and material in battle.

The construction program under the nine states of the Missouri River Division is in reality the background of the home forces. Huge maps are the working grounds for each chief of a division. Each hour will change the map when new installations are authorized and men and material must be shifted. Lines of communications and avenues of transportation opened. An area engineer is placed to direct the work.

It matters little whether the order is to build an air base, a satellite field, a containment, an ordinance plant , a depot, a warehouse, a hospital, a storage area, a relocation center or a dog kennel it must be constructed at once.

The site selected may be removed from railroads, bus travel or phone service. These must be installed and lines of communication, hundred of telephone lines made available.

The material sections must have all available material in use at the moment that the new war effort project is authorized. All of the big machines are working at top speed, , but the new project must have attention. Material is pulled from several jobs as machines, taken from this place and that place, are either on the road or on a flat car bound for the new jobs almost before the area engineer arrives to hold on until something Army be forgotten.

Real estate men set up their offices and began to buy the land. Surveyors, in many cases, are on the land almost simultaneously with the real estate men. They are laying out roads, runways, barrack sites and drainage systems while the real estate men purchase the land. Complete office forces must be recruited and set up by the area engineer, who in all probability has just finished building a large airport 30 to 60 days ahead of schedule an has left his assistant in charge of mopping up that project while he takes over the new one.

Equipment, material and man power must be planned in advance and orders sent out.. Trainloads of material must be arriving each day to keep the schedule, and the men busy. To illusta\rate this, the average small air field must have at least 150 train cars of material alone each day from the time that they are pouring concrete to keep the pavers busy. These must come in an uninterrupted flow either by train or truck.

Sewerage systems must be planned and installed. If sufficient water is not available, then wells must be dug. This may mean that miles of pipe will have to be laid. The local power system is called upon for electricity, but this is supplemented with a power plant for the projects.

Some idea of the magnitude of the job that confronts some of the area engineers may be realized when it is understood that runways are constructed in sixty days or less. That is starting form the time the area engineer arrives -- the plans, the surveying, the forms must be done before a yard of pavement can be laid. If a runway could be stretched out in a standard 20 foot highway, it would reach from Lincoln to Omaha.

He still must build his barracks for the men, recreational halls, theater buildings, commissary, post exchanges and churches. Roads that will stand years of usage must be constructed along with the rest. Then, too, he must see that the roads into and away from the site are suitable for the usage to which the user will demand of them.

Hangars for the air bases and shops, along with miscellaneous warehouses, are by no means a small part of the project.

The division real estate section must work at top speed so that nothing is built on land that does not belong to Uncle Sam. The personnel branch must have available names and suggested persons for immediate shift to a job.

The operations division must know the exact status of the work of every project so as to be able to suggest changes of equipment. They must know the exact amount of material on hand so the surplus can be moved within the hour if necessary.

The engineering division stands ready with available information as to cost and engineering problem. The contracts and labor relations of the division must stand ready to facilitate all contractors and assist in placing of workers on the job.

Because of certain military censorship restrictions all of this information must be kept in secret.

As little less than a year ago Colonel Lewis A. Pich was placed in command of this Division. Under his leadership, the organization has grown to perfect teamwork and into fast moving, hard hitting efficient division whose motto is the Colonel's own making:

"MAKE NO DECISION THAT WILL NOT SPEED TO A SUCCESSFUL AND EFFICIENT END, THE JOB YOU ARE ASSIGNED."