Behind the Scenes on Induction Day in Arizona

Behind the Scenes on INDUCTION DAY Introduction By Colonel Macdonald

"In the Armed Forces Induction Station, there is a sincere desire on the part of the officers and personnel to remember that there is a psychological side to this very vital moment when a man steps from civilian life into the completely different military world. The Recruiting and Induction Staff is charged with a heavy responsibility, not only to eliminate the unfit, but to start off the physically sound and mentally alert in the right frame of mind. There is no need for a man to face his duty in a negative mood and induction day is the psychological moment to truthfully point out to him that war is not all destruction, and that he can pull out of his experiences a personally constructive way of life if he has the will to do it.

"We are just as much at war in the heart of Arizona as our comrades at the front. We too have got to 'get the job done,' and Induction is the beginning of it all."

The men can learn a lot from thirty years' experience in the Army, which is what Master Sergeant Glen R. Simpson has to offer to the Arizona Station. (Sgt. Simpson is Assistant Executive and Administrative Inspector of Station activities.) There is on old saying that "It is the Sergeants who run the army." This is no reflection on their superior Officers. It is simply a popular salute to the men who take the orders and follow through. After all the Master Sergeant in any military detachment must be all things to all men. (Sergeant Simpson seated at right.) What makes the wheels go around? In Army administration there are highly developed standards of office procedure and, like the spokes in a wheel, all the departments revolve around the hub which is none other than the Chief Clerk. His office is the nerve center through which all paper work must travel. He must know the operations of the entire station and upon him rests the responsibility of insuring the fulfillment of the instructions and policy of higher authority.

IN ARIZONA

WHAT goes on behind the scenes from the day the Arizona selectee walks into the Armed Forces Induction Station, until the time he entrains for the Reception Center at Fort MacArthur, California? Thousands of Arizonians, husbands, and fathers and sons, who will shortly face the necessity for induction, are asking this question right now, and these pages carry the intimate story of "John Doe," selectee, as he goes through each step. It is at this time that he will first have revealed to him the sig nificance and soundness with which Uncle Sam is building the mightiest military machine of all time to solve the world's mightiest problem.

If "Getting Off to a Good Start" counts most in our personal affairs, then nothing could be more true than this good old slogan in Military tary Life. This is the ideal upon which the entire tire Recruiting and Induction Personnel in Ari zona bases its operation. It is on the day of induction that a man makes his first point of contact with the Army. The Officers and Enlisted Men of the Induction Staff know that a man in becoming a soldier, is entering upon a strange and different sort of life totally apart from anything he has ever known, and that he will find, judged by civilian standards, that the life of a soldier is hard, simple, and full of action.

After the selectee has become accustomed to a soldier's routine he will find many simi larities between the Army and civilian life. In his civilian job he learned that faithful dis charge of his duties plus efficiency and initiative opened up the way to advancement. He found that the impression he made upon his fellow worker, his foreman, the higher executives of his company, was important. He found that qualities of leadership were quickly rewarded. Above all, he found that team-work was neces sary whatever his job if the organization of which he was a part was to function to its best advantage. At the Induction Station he will be impressed with the fact that he will find all of these experiences repeated in the Army. From start to finish, the Army calls for team-work. To secure this team-work, from squads and platoons and companies through battalions and regiments and divisions, the individual soldier must conform to the aims of the particular unit of which he is a member.

This is the reason for military discipline, which includes cheerful and instant obedience to the orders given him by his commissioned and non-commissioned officers. They have had their duties determined by still higher authority, and, in turn, must have their instructions carried out by him. This insistence upon discipline is part of his training. Without it, disaster in battle would result, for in battle there is no time to reason the "why" of an order. Obedience must be instant and instinctive.

The Arizona Induction Staff is well aware of the fact that the manner in which the Army contacts the selectee on Induction Day may well color his military career in a way that is truly constructive. The job of the Induction Staff is to make it exactly that. That is why no effort has been spared in Arizona to provide the finest possible facilities for taking into the Army the type of men who will be able to fulfill every military requirement.

Supplementing the pictorial story in these pages, let us look at the local organization in back of our new soldier to be. Under the direc tion of Major General Kenyon A. Joyce, Ninth Service Command at Fort Douglas, Utah, the U. S. Army Arizona District Recruiting Headquarters, and the Armed Forces Induction Station in the Luhrs Building, in Phoenix, carries on its administrative services in a network of offices and examination rooms covering approximately 20,000 square feet of floor space. The facilities were, a short time ago especially re-designed to expedite the handling of the hundred and one details of induction i. e., of the examining, recording and shipping of men from the entire state at Phoenix. If you are being inducted soon, or know a man who is to be, you will be interested to learn how well your state's Army and civilian staff is set up. There are seven commissioned officers, and thirty-six non-commissioned officers and enlisted men at this Headquarters. In addition there is an average of twelve civilian doctors on duty each induction day. These comprise psychiatrists, dentists, heart specialists, eye, ear, nose, and throat specialists, a roentgenologist and general medical consultants. Completing the personnel are thirty civil service employees -clerks, typists, bookkeepers, and accountants.

The Commanding Officer is Lt. Col. George F. Macdonald. Captain William L. Bowick is the Adjutant and Assistant Recruiting and Induction Officer. Captain C. T. Cramer is also an Assistant Recruiting and Induction Officer as is Lieutenant Albert S. Lawrence; Captain William A. Goodrum is Station Surgeon and Captain John D. Pollak is assistant Station Surgeon. Lieutenant William B. Sin ger is the Psychologist. Presiding over the Armed Forces Medical Examining Board with Captain W. A. Goodrum, U. S. Army, is Lieutenant David Singer, U. S. Navy. Master Sergeant Glen R. Simpson is Assistant Executive and Administrative Inspector of Station Activities.

The seven WAC recruiting officers are 2nd. Officer WAC Roberta L. House, and 3rd. Officers Helen Whitbeck, Elizabeth Holman, Ernestine Stephenson and Elizabeth Sprague, the latter two, being on recruiting duty at Tucson. The two new officers are Lt. Elisa Schlott hauer and Lt. Romaine M. Attick. Included in the WAC section are 14 non-commissioned officers and auxiliaries.

The new soldier may not realize it, but this station's highly trained personnel, besides its services of information, recruiting and induc tion, conducts a vast administrative system absolutely necessary to efficient military operation and control from the very start of a man's entrance into the Armed Forces. One hears much about military red tape, but if you too go into service, you will realize that the Armed Forces must deal with the uncertainties of the human element. Millions of men must be fitted into a well-knit fighting team. This can only be done by strict regulation, a high systemization of records and rigid control of individual conduct. The operation of this extensive induction process naturally requires ample physical faciliThe operation of this extensive induction process naturally requires ample physical facilities for carrying on efficiently. Recent increases in the scope of the organization's activities have necessitated the amplification of the quarters formerly occupied, and, in some cases, the installation of completely new facilities. The Executive Offices were enlarged and new offices added to the WAC Section. A new office devoted exclusively to Aviation Cadet Recruiting was installed. Since the Army abolished direct recruiting for any one branch of the service, with the exception of Aviation Cadets, this Army Recruiting Section has grown most popular and it is but natural. Many men who can qualify for the air forces naturally would rather insure their assignment to this branch rather than enter the Army without knowing into which one of the numerous departments they would eventually land. The interest in the Army's Aviation Cadet Training Program has become so wide-spread in Arizona, that the American Legion is sponsoring a statewide "Aviation Cadet Week" under official proclamation of the Governor, The Hon. Sidney P. Osborn. This celebration will be under way about the time this issue of Arizona Highways is off the press The story is being told throughout the state of how victory for our armed forces is largely based on command of the air. Flying aces from the recent battle fronts are appearing before many audiences. They are relating the significant values underlying America's Aviation Cadet Training program, both as a war-winning wing of the operations of all the Armed Forces, as well as its peacetime aspects in a totally air-minded America.

In the training program, men of 17 years of age may apply for the Air Forces Enlisted Reserve and if qualified, be called 6 months after they reach their 18th birthday. Men 18 to 26 can apply for voluntary induction if they pass the tests. The Army cadet openings are for Pilots, Bombardiers and Navigators. Men, 18 to 26, already in the Army may also request the opportunity to take the Army Aviation Cadet examination. America's air power has already awakened the world to what our men who build and fly the ships can do, but the great and growing Army of American Aviation Cadets who are taking over every day will There are still some enlistment privileges in the United States Army and here is where they sign up. Voluntary enlistment for a particular branch and duty assignment has been abolished except for the seventeen year olds who volunteer and can qualify for Aviation Cadet Training prior to reaching their 18th birthday. Men of 18 to 26 who can qualify for Aviation Cadet Training may also apply for voluntary induction. Men over draft age, between 38 to 54 inclusive, also can volunteer for enlistment in the Army of the United States, Unassigned, providing they possess a skill needed in various services.

Here they come, out of the old life into the new, some happy, some sad, some good, and some bad. Out here in Arizona, is probably one of the most interesting parades of varied personalities that could be found anywhere. There is the Navajo, with his long black hair gayly tied with the brightest red ribbon he can find. the cowboys, Americans of Mexican ancestry and men of the Negro race men from all walks of life. That old one about the banker, the baker, the butcher, and the candle stick maker, certainly comes true on Induction Day in Arizona. This is a Democracy at work.

"What is your name? What have you done?"...and the selectee is now off to his first peep behind the scenes on induction day. He is now in the Receiving Room. He is called by his name, is given a number, envelope, Physical Work Sheet and the Information Sheet.

The men pass through the laboratory where such tests as urinalysis are made and blood samples taken. Required shots of tetanus and typhoid are administered to members of the command. Various chemical solutions are prepared here and other laboratory work is carried on.

Uncle Sam gets the inside story of the inside man with the finest X-ray equipment. Greatest care is taken here.

A picture may be worth a thousand words, but many times an X-ray is worth a thousand tests. In this examining room, films are studied by a skilled Roentgenologist, for all sorts of maladies which may now appear.

"Fitting the man to the job" is no empty phrase in this man's army. Here we see a group of selectees getting their first "fitting," under the direction of Lt. Wm. B. Singer, Pre-Induction Classification Officer. The army personnel system conceives of classification as being a continuous process extending from his induction untill he leaves the service.

Selectees who are unsuccessful in the group tests are given carefully conducted individual examinations. Above we see the Classification Officer conducting an individual examination in complete privacy in a special room.

And so to bed after a hearty dinner. As all induction for Arizona is done in Phoenix, men from out of town are well fed and comfortably housed in near-by hotels. The men are well cared for, medical and police attention is available at all times, and supervision is maintained by a non-commissioned officer. A group will have menfrommany places.

JULY, 1943 Bright and early the next morning the selectees are awakened and escorted to the Armed Forces Day Room. They will be at the station for a whole day, and much of their time will be spent in this Day Room. The furnishings and decorations in this attractive room were planned to create a restful and interesting spot for the men during the various waiting periods between examinaitons, etc. Photographs of the various branches of the Armed Service are on display here.

PAGE TWENTY-SEVEN

The dominating decorative effect of the new Day Room is a display of four large wall murals done in colorful poster style. Each one represents scenes dramatizing four famous slogans of the Armed Forces. They are "Keep 'Em Flying," "Keep 'Em Rolling," "Keep 'Em Firing," and "Keep They get to know you very well through the next step of induction called "Schooling." It is just an examination process whereby groups of men are coached in filling out a form revealing their personal history, such as birth, citizenship, marital status, languages, occupation, relatives, children, beneficiaries. The examining then takes the group on a review of their past physical history, wherein they fill out a form telling about past illnesses and the like. What the Army won't know about you isn't worth telling, and you can't fool them either. Pictured above at microphone is Chief Petty Officer Ray E. Schaefer, of the U.S. Navy, aiding in the work of induction and assisting selectees with problems.

Soon to astound our enemies. The day of Axis judgment is drawing near the Aviation Cadet of today the flyer of tomorrow, must and will hasten it.

To get back to the presentation of this head quarters' physical facilities for recruiting and induction, a special room was established for the Army Classification Officer and many other improvements for giving privacy, efficiency, and dignity to the conduct of the physical examinations.

Probably the installation of the new Day Room for the selectees has created the most comment among Arizonans because of the lift such a pleasant room gives to the spirit of a man during the more or less tedious details of examining and waiting. The Commanding Officer, Col. Macdonald, has expressed the wish that any Arizonan who is interested in the Armed Forces Induction Station visit there at any time. Orders have been issued to the de tachment to welcome such visitors and take them on a tour of the entire installation. Civic, fraternal and charitable organizations who are interested in the welfare of the servicemen and his family are always welcome. It is felt that too little has been told about this first great step taken by a man as he leaves civilian life to enter the Army and it is the desire of the Arizona headquarters to give the public in this state an accurate understanding and interesting viewpoint of this particular service of the Army.

The new Selectees Day Room in this station has been described as one of the finest rooms of its kind in this country, and the designing of the room was handled by a committee of non-commissioned officers who themselves have been through the induction process and who know how strange a man feels at the first mo ment of ontering the Armed Forces. Every ef fort was made to present the constructive phases of military affairs. Four colorful wall murals highlight dramatic scenes of action in combat. An interesting photographic gallery surrounds the room with illustrations of activi ties in many branches of the U. S. Army. These pictures reveal intimate close-ups of the Air Forces; Armored Forces; Anti-aircraft; Cavalry; Chemical Warfare; Coast Artillery; Engineers; Field Artillery; Infantry; Medical Dept.; Mili-

Itary

certain amount of drill and calisthenics, gets an Army haircut, attends motion pictures on health instruction, has an opportunity to learn some thing about fatigue duty (maybe even K.P.), dines on the fniest food to be had and all he can eat of it and if he behaves himself, and if not scheduled to ship out immediately, he may get a week-end pass to visit Los Angeles. He gets back Sunday evening and then on Monday morning he assembles with the group shipping out that day and learns to which Army branch he has been assigned.

there he goes off with his fellow soldiers in a Pullman, on his way to serve his country. If you could be there with him you would see for yourself that every last man on that train has already oriented himself from civilian to military life and is raring to go to do his duty wherever it may lead him.

"So, here's Good Luck to you, soldier, and millions of others like you who are doing their part to fill up the ranks of Uncle Sam's Streamlined Army. You got the right start on the day you walked into the Induction Station the rest is up to you."

For the man who wants a book there's a library nook for all men of all tastes... short stories... picture books... joke books plays..

Crime detective adventure language. and a bit of philosophy all selected especially by the Ninth Service Command Librarian with Headquarters at Fort Douglas, Utah. It is perfectly natural for any man to become restless during certain times of inactivity and nothing can be more boresome than waiting, whether it be on a street corner, watching a wife flitter around a department store, or twiddling thumbs on Induction Day. In the Arizona Induction Station there is a definite understanding of this mental attitude of waiting around for the final answer for the final order and no effort has been spared to relieve this suspense and to provide ways and means for the prospective soldier to occupy himself in the way he likes.

Some of the men like to fill in their waiting time in the cheerful patio outside the Day Room, reading, limbering up, playing games. Men cannot leave the Induction area, but here they get a chance to stretch their legs and move about and have a change of scene.

"They're in the Army now". The fingerprint experts take the tell-tale impressions that never lie. No matter where a man may go or whatever may happen to him, the indelible signature written in his hand is carefully preserved. When fingerprinted, the suspense is over.

You know you're entering a new world when you place your signature on your papers as a member of the United States Army What you make of this life is largely up to you.

It has been a busy morning and the brand new soldiers go out for "chow" in local restaurants at Uncle Sam's expense and it's a fine dinner too. The Sergeant doesn't have to call twice at this period.

While the men wait in the Day Room, many unseen operations are being carried on by the Administrative or organization necessary to record all the operations mentioned, and more. Both in the Administrative offices upstairs in the Luhrs Building and downstairs in the Induction Station, various enlisted men and clerks are busily engaged. In this picture the typists are writing up each man's service record and enlistment and induction papers. These are further reviewed by the soldiers at the checking table. Volumes of paper work are necessary every day.

In a solemn ceremony, with the presentation of the colors and the military detachment at attention, the new men take the Soldier's Oath of Allegiance followed by the playing of the National Anthem. Captain C. T. Cramer, who administers the oath, has the Articles of War read to the men and impresses them with the fact that they are now soldiers in the United States Army.

Just before the men receive their special orders assigning them to the reception center, they are presented with a going-away gift of various necessities. This parting gift is donated by the city of Phoenix, through the American Legion, Luke-Greenway Post.

Some citizens of Phoenix did not forget that the Army Recruiting and Induction Staff also needs moments of relaxation and this very cozy Day Room was furnished for them. Here, at odd moments when off duty, enlisted men can rest, read, play games, take a shower, etc.

Where is it? Who wrote it?... What did he say?... and so go the endless queries pouring into the file section. There is no such thing as "I can't find it, Sir" when it comes to the Induction records.

"What the public should know"... and how and what it can be told, is the function of the Army Public Relations Section. All information which is not restricted and which is pertinent to an accurate knowledge of the Army of the United States, is what Public Relations is charged with disseminating, within certain prescribed Army Regulations.

"Where are they going?" "When do they leave?"... and here is where we find the answers to these and a dozen other questions relating to transportation of selectees, distribution of papers.

"She is saying "I want to be a WAC," and here is where she is told how. This is the reception room of the Women's Army Corps. The trained WAC recruiting personnel provides complete information on the WAC and along with other recruiting duties aids in filling out applications. The Induction Center examination facilities are used.

In the private office of the WAC executive staff, originate the orders relating to administration of all plans and conduct of WAC recruiting for the State of Arizona.

The WACs are in the Army and the WACs keep Army records. This is the record section. Here applications and examination papers are made up, transportation and other orders are issued according to U. S. Army procedure.