United States Army in World War II: The Technical Services
The Corps of Engineers: Construction in the United States
by Lenore Fine and Jesse A. Remington
1972
Table of Contents
Chapter 1: Legacy of World War I
A Backward Glance—Mobilization: 1917—Centralization—Congress Investigates—The Compromise of 1920
The Construction Service, 1920–1938—Preparedness and Public Works—Mobilization Plans
Chapter 3: Coming of the Emergency
The Expansion Program—The Quest for Funds—Questions of Responsibility—Quartermaster Plans and Preparations—Construction Gets Under Way—The Period of the Phony War
Chapter 4: First Steps Toward Mobilization
The Defense Program—Early Preparations—Creating an Organization—Site Selection—Mounting Pressure
Chapter 5: Launching Defense Construction
Policies and Policymakers—Engineering—Real Estate—Selecting Contractors—Negotiating Contracts
The Administrative Setup—Preliminary Work at Camp Sites—Lumber and Other Materials—Construction Equipment—Labor—Management and Supervision—Nearing the Goal
Chapter 7: The Reorganization of Late 1940
The Engineers’ Predicament—Growth of the Engineer Mission—A Separate Corps?—Reorganization and Restaffing—Transfer of Air Corps Construction
Chapter 8: Completing the Camps
The Deficit Problem—Additional Funds—Winter Construction—Closing Out Contracts—Maintenance and Operation
Chapter 9: Creating a Munitions Industry
Status of the Program—December 1940—Dollars Versus Days—Demands for Greater Speed—The Steel Shortage—Completing the First-Wave Plants
Advance Planning—Camps and Cantonments—A New Approach—Munitions Projects—A Stronger Organization—The Building Trades Agreement
Publicity and Public Relations—Congressman Engel Investigates—House and Senate Committee Investigations
Chapter 12: Real Estate: A Fresh Departure
The Case of the Brokerage Contracts—Changes in Organization and Procedures
Chapter 13: Toward a Four-Million-Man Army
Budgetary Politics—Contractual Refinements and Reforms—The Pentagon Project
A Test for the Engineers—Reaching a Decision—The “Madigan Bill”—Consolidation
The All-Out Program—The War Construction Command—The Big Push—Peak Construction
Chapter 16: The Materials Battle
Bare Essentials—Procurement Problems—Lumber Crisis—The Last Ounce
Cost-Plus-A-Fixed-Fee—Modified Fixed-Price—Competition and Negotiation—Renegotiation
Chapter 18: Cutback and Continuation
Curtailment—Topping Out—Late Programs
Chapter 19: Airfields for Very Heavy Bombers
The Technological Barrier—Breakthrough and Advance, 1942–1944—New Horizons
MED: Origins and Early Efforts—Clinton and Hanford—Zia
Appendix—Army Construction in the Continental United States, 1 July 1940–31 August 1945
Tables
1. National Army Cantonments, 1917
2. National Guard Camps, 1917
3. Appropriations for Maintenance and Repairs
4. Construction Workers in the United States, June 1940
5. Schedule of Minimum Fees for Construction Services
6. Schedule of Average Fees for Architect-Engineer Services
7. Schedule for Housing National Guard Divisions
8. Revised Induction Schedule for Fall 1940 Quota of Selectees
9. Reserve Officers on Active Duty With Construction Division, 13 December 1940
10. Number of Persons Employed on Projects Under Jurisdiction of Construction Division, OQMG, July-December 1940
11. Cost of Air Corps Projects
12. Summary of Quartermaster Projects Completed and Under Way, 5 December 1941
13. Revised Schedule of Fees for Architect-Engineer and Construction Services, 23 June 1941
14. Division Engineer Service Command Assignments
15. Status of Projects, 15–31 March 1942
16. Hospital Cost Estimates
17. Breakdown of Delaying Factors, 31 May-31 October 1942
18. Lumber Purchased by CPA, 1942–1945
19. Variations in Barracks Capacity
20. Unfinished Construction, January 1944
Charts
1. Organization of Construction Division of the Army, April-November 1918
2. Volume of New Construction in the United States, 1925–1939
3. Organization of Construction Division, OQMG, June-November 1940
4. Organization of Engineering Branch, Construction Division, OQMG, September 1940
5. Organization of Fixed Fee Branch, Construction Division, OQMG, November 1940
6. Organization of Construction Division, OQMG, 16 December 1940
7. Organization of Office of Assistant Chief of Engineers, December 1940
8. Organization of Operations Branch, Construction Division, OQMG, January to March 1941
9. Rate of National Guard Inductions
10. Rate of Selective Service Inductions
11. Progressive Improvements in Divisional Cantonment Layouts
12. Value of Work Placed by Month on Quartermaster Construction Program, 1 July 1940 to 30 November 1941
13. Comparison of Costs—Quartermaster Construction Program, 1 April to 15 December 1941
14. Organization of Defense Projects Branch, Construction Section, OCE, April 1941
15. Construction by the Corps of Engineers at Air Corps Stations—U.S. Army
16. Position of Corps of Engineers in War Department After 9 March 1942
17. Organization of Construction Division, OCE, April 1942
18. Value of Work in Place, Monthly Additions
19. Organization of Engineering Branch, Construction Division, OCE, Spring 1942
20. Dollar Value of Work Placed During 1943
21. Field Employment During 1943
22. Organization of Military Construction, Civil Works, and Real Estate Divisions, OCE, December 1943
23. Value of Work Placed on War Construction Program, Continental United States, June 1940-August 1945
24. Tentative Design Curves for Flexible Airfield Pavements
25. Design Storm Index
26. Wheel Loads as Columns of Concrete 3 Feet 8 Inches in Diameter
27. Organization of Manhattan Engineer District, April 1943
Maps
1. Inland Zone and Five Strategic Areas
2. Quartermaster Construction Zones
3. Boundaries of Engineer Divisions, December 1942
4. Clinton Engineer Works
5. Hanford Engineer Works
Illustrations
Camp Custer, Michigan—Tents at Camp Wheeler, Georgia, 1917—Barracks and Lavatories, Camp Dix, New Jersey—Brig. Gen. Richard C. Marshall—Old Hickory Powder Plant, Tennessee—Chanute Field, Illinois, Showing Dilapidated Structures—Post Chapel, Randolph Field, Texas—Officers’ Club, Fort Belvoir, Virginia—Camp on Levee, Arkansas City, Arkansas, During 1927 Flood—Col. Charles D. Hartman—USS Houston Passing Through Panama Canal—Barracks Burning at Hickam Field After Japanese Attack—Maj. Gen. Julian L. Schley—Maj. Gen. Edmund B. Gregory—Equipment Arriving at Borinquen Field, Puerto Rico—Maj. Gen. Richard C. Moore—Ferdinand J. C. Dresser, Forrest S. Harvey, and Francis Blossom—Barksdale Field, Louisiana, in Late 1930s—Excavation at Fort Devens, Massachusetts—Robert P . Patterson—Harry W. Loving—Capt. Leslie R. Groves—Michael J . Madigan—Frank E . Lamphere—Mess Hall, Camp Grant, Illinois—Hangar Construction, MacDill Field, Florida—Site of Plum Brook Ordnance Works, Ohio—Cantonment Construction, Camp Edwards, Massachusetts—Clearing Swamps at Camp Blanding, Florida—Railroad Bridge Over Big Piney River, Camp Leonard Wood, Missouri—Camp San Luis Obispo, California—Building Barracks, Camp Leonard Wood, Missouri—Prefabricating Yard and Sawmill, Camp Blanding, Florida—Standard Chapel, Exterior View—Standard Chapel, Interior View—Bonneville Dam—Col. Brehon B. Somervell—Col. Wilhelm D. Styer—Maj. Clinton F. Robinson—Col. Edmund H. Leavey—Brig. Gen. Thomas M. Robins—Camp San Luis Obispo After Heavy Downpour—Pouring Concrete in Subzero Weather, Pine Camp, New York—Camp Blanding, Florida, Late November 1940—Men of the 29th Division at Camp Meade, Maryland—Barnes General Hospital, Vancouver, Washington—Spillway Under Construction, Camp San Luis Obispo—Aerial View of Camp Jackson, S.C—Frank R . Creedon—Construction at Indiana Ordnance Works, 1940—General Grant (M3) Rolls Off Assembly Line—Night Shift at Work, St. Louis Ordnance Plant—Constructing Standard Igloo Magazine—Somervell Addressing Construction Force—Morgantown Ordnance Works, West Virginia—Experimental Steel Barracks—Lake City Ordnance Plant, Missouri—James P . Mitchell—Flag Raising at Radford Ordnance Works, Virginia—Fitzpatrick Cartoon on Senator Truman—John J . O’Brien—Pentagon Building, Main Entrance—Cartoonist’s View of Controversy over Pentagon Site—Concrete Drainage Culvert at Brookley Field, Alabama—Paving Runway, Lowry Field, Colorado—Bradley Field, Windsor Locks, Connecticut—Fort Worth Aircraft Assembly Plant, Texas—Maj. Gen. Eugene Reybold—Transfer Proposal Approved by the President—Hutments, Fort Sill, Oklahoma, July 1942—Maj. Gen. John R. Hardin—Col. Samuel D. Sturgis, J r—Pentagon Under Construction—xvii Page Heart Mountain Relocation Center, Heart Mountain, Wyoming—Brig. Gen. James H. Stratton—Harry B. Zackrison—Bachelor Officers’ Quarters, Sioux Fails Army Air Force Base, South Dakota—Corbetta Beehive Magazine Under Construction—Wood Truss Construction, Pennsylvania Ordnance Works—Col. Fred G. Sherrill—Airmen on Grounds of Stevens Hotel—Double-Decker Bunks in Permanent Barracks, March Field, California—Winter Construction at Mountain Home Air Base, Idaho—Holston Ordnance Works, Tennessee—Work in Progress on Tulsa Bomber Modification Center—Conference at Stockton Test Track, California—240,000-Pound Pneumatic Roller—Brig. Gen. James C. Marshall—Col. Kenneth D. Nichols—General Groves as Head of the Manhattan Project—Mrs. Jean M. O’Leary—Cemesto Houses on Black Oak Ridge—Y-12, Electromagnetic Process Plant—First Pile Area at Hanford, June 1944—S-50, Thermal Diffusion Plant Under Construction—K-25, Gaseous Diffusion Plant Nearing Completion—Separation Building at Hanford, Summer 1944—View of Los Alamos
Illustrations are from the following sources: E. I. du Pont de Nemours & Co., Inc.: page 26. National Archives: pages 78, 108, 386, 515. AGC, Carolinas Branch: page 147. United Press International, Inc.: page 159. Charles T. Main, Inc.: page 197. Leeds, Hill and Jewett, Inc.: pages 283, 299. St. Louis Post-Dispatch: pages 326, 337. Library of Congress: page 436. Stone & Webster Engineering Corp.: pages 530, 534. J. A. Terteling & Sons, Inc.: page 595. Sverdrup & Parcel and Associates, Inc.: page 597. Atomic Energy Commission: pages 671, 685, 688, 689, 691, 692, 699. Other photographs came from Department of Defense files and through the courtesy of private individuals.