U. S. Army Trains [0GGII|G and SAIITMILIII|G UI|ITS at Gamp Glaiborne, La.

The lumberman, already a key man in civilian industry in peace and war time, has come into his own in the Army. Timbermen, loggers, sawmill operators and ex-foresters and the like, have found their place in Ergineer Forestry courpanies, activated at the Engineer Unit Training Center, at Camp Claiborne, La.

These forestry units, the present war's version of legiments similarly employed in the first World War, prepare at Camp Claiborne to send their enlisted personnel and officers into the theater of operations. Their duties there are virtually the same as those found in any sawmill operation in civilian life-to provide small and mediun-r-size coustrttction lumber and timbers.

The program embraces both logging and sarvmill worl<, and training follows the operations later to be employed in the field, utilizing the same machinery. NIore specifically, forestry companies trained at the EUTC will enter war zones to cut the ties for Allied railroads, herv timbers for bridge construction, provide planking for the bridges, roads and docks, boards for housing. In short, the E,ngineer Forestry companies are ready likewise to man their ou,tr rifles if trouble from the enemy comes their way.

The nuclei of the Forestrv comDanies are skilled and experienced lumbermen, hand-picked from the rosters of Engineer troops. Around these key men the companies are built, with men from other walks of life filling in the ranks. Thus an ex-logger from the pine forests of Colorado's Western slope may be giving the benefit of his years in the woods to an ex-salesman, while both are in training in a Forestry company. Needing skilled men necessary to fill the ranks of a specialized organization, the Engineers are developing their own.

The training the companies receive is divided into three classes, to conform to the make-up of a Forestry unit. The men of one platoon, representing roughly a third of the company, are trained as loggers. Their work is comparable to any srnall logging operation, utilizing tractor oPerations, loading rigs with cranes, loading by cross-haul (or parbuckle, as the West Coast terms it), gin-pole, and, of course, the hand lift. The loggers learn to mark their own timber for cutting.

Another third of the company-a platoon-lsa1n5 5t!vmill and yard operations, and develops specialists for one or the other of these two divisions. The sawmill section has its head sawyers, block setters, doggers, edgermen, filers, and the like; and the yard section sorts, stacks, arrd has charge of the finished products of the mill. A third platoon deals with supply and administration work for the company.

The first five weeks of the training program are devoted to the basic subjects that every soldier masters. Men of the forestry company learn military discipline, marching, camping, rifle markmanship, rigging, demolitions. Thus prepared, they can enter the woods of a hostile territory and take care of themselves in just about any emergency that comes along-a handy attribute in this day of fastmoving warfare, when an attack may come any place, at any time.

So the foresters can stack rifles and work with one eye peeled for the enemy, just as did their forefathers in the early days of America.

Then at the end of basic training, the specialized work begins. For a time, the companies are under close supervision of the staff of the EUTC, who see to it that the salesman from Milwaukee works beside the logger when first he picks up an axe. At the end of that time, the responsibility is shifted gradually onto the companies themselves, and the units move from the sawmill and logging site at the edge of the Engineer Unit Training Center to another in nearby Woodworth, La., formerly occupied by a CCC camp. Five weeks at the latter site, where they set up their own mill and act much as they will in the field, and their 13 weeks of basic training are over. Next comes their disposition where they are needed.

The equipment rrsed in training at the EUTC is just about what the Foresters will find in the field. The Corinth Heavy Duty Portable, Model 1-C, serves the sawmill platoon, R-4 Caterpillar tractors pull the logs. It goes without saying tl,at the axe and the cross-cut saw are ever-present.

The number of F'orestry companies thus trained at the EUTC should not be announced, of course, nor the disposition of "graduates" in the war zones. The nrain burden of the program has been borne at the Engineer Center, although other foresters have been trained elsewhere.

As to the success of moulding experienced timber men and soldiers frorn other walks of life into a smooth-working unit-the men of the Center's plans and training staff are enthusiastic. The graduate forester, the ex-logger, the bookkeeper, the clerk, all have their place, and find it.

The Forestry Training program under the Plans and Training Section of the EUTC is headed by Captain Warren G. Tilton, of Seattle, Wash., the former logging engineer for the West Coast Lumbermen's Association. C^ptain Tilton is assisted by a staff of pratical ofificers who have obtained their experience in the woods from Maine to California and from the bayous of Louisiana to the lake country of Minnesota. Assisting this stafT is a group of non-commissioned officers; these men when called upon can do any or all the work connected with the sawmill operation-they show the novice by first actually doing the job for him and later when the novice becomes just a bit cocky about his job the non-commissioned officer can step in and do his job just a little better. The untiring work of the non-commissioned officers, such as John W. Richards, Bayfield, Colo.; Thomas If. Nugen, Norton, Mo.; Charles Lee, Jr., Ashdown, Ark., and Victor McNally, Grand ['orks, N. D., has contributed greatly to the success of the sawmill Engineers.

Within the camp units are other prominent leaders such as William M. Bailey, a former forester for the Southern Kraft Corporation, and Gene Roberts, formerly director nf

(Continued on Page 22)

\(/holesale Hardwood Distributors Annual Meeting

(Continued from Page 6) sociation through the passing since the last annual meeting of D. J. Cahill, president of Western Hardwood Lumber Co., Los Angeles, and F. J. Wurzburg of General Hardwood Co., Tacoma. Resolutions of sympathy were adopted and ordered to be sent to Mrs. Cahill and Mrs. Wurzburg.

The remainder of the session was taken up with a general discussion on the subject of "Hardwoods for Victory," with practically everyone present contributing'

The annual dinner was held in the Rose Room of the Benson Hotel at 7:00 p.m.

Leo Hennessy, in charge of the Central Procurement Agency, Portland, was the first speaker at the Wednesday morning business session.

Reports from the various committee chairmen were received.

Santa Barbara was announced as the place of the next annual meeting.

W. E. Difiord, managing director of the Douglas Fir Plywood Association, Tacoma, discussed the technique of the operation of the plywood distributing business under the new order, effective July 1, 1943, known as Limitation Order L-150 Amended.

Following his talk Mr. Difiord answered many questions. The golf tournament finals were played in the afternoon, and there was a bridge tea for the ladies.

.Robert Sullivan, San Diego, was the winner of the golf trophy, which was presented at the dinner in the evening.

The registration was as follows:

C. H. White, White Brothers. .San Francisco

P. R. Kahn, Forsyth Hardwood Co.........San Francisco

Fred Smales, IJ. S. Plywood Corp.. San Francisco

Nelson Jones, Jones Hardwood Co.. .San Francisco

C. R. Taenzer, American Hardwood Co.. Los Angeles

Milton Taenzer, American Hardwood Co.. Los Angeles

C. M. Cooper, W. E. Cooper Lumber Co.. Los Angeles

Jack Murphy, Owens-Parks Lumber Co.. Los Angeles

LeRoy Stanton, E. J. Stanton & Son......Los Angeles

Joe Tardy, E. J. Stanton & Son Los Angeles

N. J. Sorensen, IJ. S. Plywood Corp.. .Los Angeles

YES SIR!

Lclt: herideat Cbcrler ffir,*".r1""*r#dt: SecralqtY-Trecsurcr

Frank J. Connolly, Western Hardwood Lumber Co.... .Los Angeles

Robert Sullivan, Sullivan Hardwood Lumber Co.... ...San Diego

Norman Sawers, J. Fyfe-Smith Co..... ...Vancouver, B. C.

Dallas Donnan, Ehrlich-Harrison Co. .. ......Seattle

K. C. Hopey, General Hardwood Co.... .....Tacoma

Karl Bates. General Hardwood Co.... .Tacoma

Bruce Mclean, General Hardwood Co.... ..Tacoma

Joe Ahern, Emerson Hardwood Co.... ....Portland

Fred Ahern, Emerson Hardwood Co.... ...Portland

Ernest Hall, Lumber Products, Inc.. ... . .Portland

Roy W. Petterson, Emerson Hardwood Co....... 'Portland

Gordon Mesner, Lumber Products, Inc.. .. .Portland

Leonard Hall, Lumber Products, fnc.. Portland

Adolph E. Wanke, Wanke Panel Co. Portland

Geo. F. Cornwall, The Timbernlan. Portland

W. T. Black, The California Lumber Merchant ....San Francisco

LiIe is sweet iI you lorget crbout bullets and bombs. BUT our boys are still up front fightingr lor cr principle. Think oI them then think oI Bonds