HISTORY
of
THE 308th INFANTRY
By
L. Wardlaw Miles
1927
The Personal department
THE PERSONNEL DEPARTMENT
It was shortly after the departure of the Regiment for
overseas service that the new office of Regimental
Personnel Adjutant with the rank of Captain was created.
At the same time an additional Regimental Sergeant-Major
and two additional Sergeants were authorized, together
with such other enlisted assistants as might be necessary
for the work contemplated. Thus was created the Personnel
Department of an Infantry
Regiment. One of the most important
functions assigned to the Regimental Personnel Adjutant
was the taking over of the responsibility for the
preparation of the payrolls for each organization of the
Regiment. This was decidedly an innovation, since the
preparation of payrolls and the keeping of the proper
records from which to prepare them had always been one of
the most important and most onerous parts of Company
administration.
The idea of making the payrolls in Regimental
Headquarters under the supervision of the Personnel
Adjutant seemed worthy of elaboration. Why not remove all
regimental paper work from the scene of active operations
and thus leave the minds of the Company Commanders
entirely free, or almost so, for the conduct of purely
military operations? It was the 308th Infantry, which at
the direction of its Commanding Officer first put this
new idea into actual and successful practice. Captain G.
C. Graham was appointed Regimental Personnel Officer in
June, 1918. The Company Clerks of all Companies were
assembled at Regimental Headquarters together with all
the Service Records, all correspondence files, all
payrolls, typewriters, and even Company Fund records
where the Company Commander so desired. From that time
on, the administrative work imposed upon the Company
Commanders was negligible. This was going further than
existing orders required or prescribed, but it soon
proved an excellent idea and was adopted, as will appear
later, by higher authority.
The Personnel Department of the 3o8th Infantry was first
assembled in accordance with the plan outlined above,
while the Regiment was attached to a British Division in
Flanders. This happened, however, so shortly before the
whole Division moved to the Baccarat Sector that the
department did not begin to function properly and
entirely until the new sector was reached. The Company
Commanders, it is true, had to submit daily a change
report and had to maintain such clerical functions as
were necessary to keep track of their men in lines. But
outside of this minimum, everything else was done for the
Companies by their Company Clerks in the Personnel
Department.
The idea of centralizing the paper work spread. It was
only one month or so after the organization of the
Personnel Department of the 308th Infantry that most of
its members and the bulk of its work was taken over by
the Statistical Section, Headquarters, 77th Division. The
clerks went with all of their service records to the
Division Statistical Section where were assembled similar
units of the other organizations of the Division,
creating a sort of Divisional Personnel Department or
Statistical Section, precisely on the principle on which
the Regimental Personnel Department had been created.
Since the service records accompanied the clerks to the
Division Statistical Section at Division Headquarters,
the work was now divided between that higher department
and the Regimental Personnel Department which still
remained to function as an individual unit. The Personnel
Department, greatly reduced in numbers, continued its
work of relieving the company commanders as far as
possible of paper work, forwarding for proper attention
to the Division Statistical Section such matters as
required the services of the company clerks on duty
there. Naturally, the work of the Personnel Department
could not be performed in the front line trenches; but
neither was it performed in a suite of offices. It is
recalled that on the Vesle sector not even a tent was
available, and the only shelter was a piece of canvas
rolled in the mud with studied carefulness to avoid
attracting the attention of enemy aeroplane observers.
But the rain beat in on every side and there was nothing
to check the wind. One of the greatest problems in the
midst of all the rush and hurry was to keep the papers
from being blown away. The men did their work with their
helmets on, and it was not because these head dresses
were comfortable or ornamental. Where combat conditions
made it difficult for company commanders to forward
reports, a representative of the Personnel Department, as
well as of the Division Statistical Department, was
stationed day and night in the advance dressing stations,
and in the " triage " from which all the
wounded were evacuated to the hospitals in the rear, so
that not a single casualty might escape unreported. The
regimental chaplains Cooperated by turning in their
reports. Members of the Personnel Department on occasion
accompanied the burial parties.
It will require little imagination to appreciate the
difficulty of keeping track of the twelve hundred new men
who arrived before the Argonne offense. Unknown to their
comrades and to their commanding officers, they were put
into action where numerous casualties immediately
resulted. To have kept track of these replacements and to
have made the proper record of the casualties among them
as the fighting of the Argonne Forest continued was an
achievement in itself. One particular instance may be
cited to illustrate the difficulty of the situation.
Among these replacements there were three men of the name
of "Hansen" and two of them, by some strange
error, had identical army serial numbers. In the course
of the fighting one of these two gave his life for the
cause. Reams of correspondence passed between the
Personnel Department and the Divisional Statistical
Section definitely to identify the man who had been
killed and to persuade higher authority that the whole
report was not in error, This is one instance of the many
that might be cited. Two other lots or replacements in
almost equal numbers arrived subsequently and the same
process had to be repeated. In the meanwhile also, there
was a steady stream of former members returning to the
organization from the hospitals, all of whom reported in
the first instance at the Personnel Office and were there
sent and assigned to their proper companies. In the
meanwhile, also, other work was proceeding. Authority had
to be granted in written orders to each wounded man for
the wearing of a wound chevron and to each man who had
seen six months service in France for the wearing of a
war service chevron. Special orders were entered
appointing and promoting non-commissioned officers who
had proven their worth in the face of the enemy.
Recommendations were prepared and forwarded for the
awarding of Distinguished Service Crosses and Medals of
Honor. The work of the Personnel Department in connection
with the soldiers' mail was constant.
On February 1st, 1919, the Statistical Section at
Division Headquarters was broken up and the company
clerks who had been on duty there were returned to the
regiment. The Personnel Department was reorganized in its
original numbers and all the company records were kept
and all the company paper work was once more done under
the immediate supervision of the Regimental Personnel
Adjutant. The work of preparing for embarkation for the
United States was done in the same manner and required
additional assistance. All the work was performed with a
view to the preparation of the passenger lists which had
to be done in thirteen copies. Certain prescribed forms
and rules were to be followed, and any deviation was
considered a grievous error. The work progressed rapidly.
Word came by telephone from the Division Adjutant one
evening at 6 p.m. that everything-passenger lists
included-was to be finished within two days next
succeeding. It was suggested that night-shifts might be
necessary, and there were, in fact, long hours of work
after midnight. But it was all performed by the same men
who had worked all the day. The final test came when the
embarkation center inspectors arrived for their final
inspection. They were plainly astonished at the accuracy
with which the work had been done, Their work was to find
errors and to wait for their correction, and they had
announced that they were prepared to stay up all night.
But by 9 o'clock that evening the inspection was
completely finished and the inspectors stated in all
frankness that the 77th Division was easily the best they
had ever inspected, and that the 3o8th Infantry made the
best showing in the 77th Division. Upon arrival at the
port of Brest for embarkation, all the records were
checked against the service records. It was amusing to
observe the blank look of astonishment with which one of
the clerks who did the inspecting at the port of
embarkation went through the passenger lists and records
of one of the companies of this regiment without finding
a single point for criticism. When the passenger lists
were turned over to the Personnel Adjutant of the Port
they bore the notation in large letters "No
Errors." The Regiment embarked without the slightest
difficulty of any kind with its records or passenger
lists. The highest praise is due Captain Graham, Sergeant
-Major Cohen, Sergeants de Dufour and Chapman and their
hardworking associates Of the Personnel Department.