The War Department is composed of three groups, the Army Ground Forces, the Army Air Forces, and the Services of Supply. The last group—namely, the Services of Supply—is under the command of General Somervell and I am in his Resources and Production Staff Division. My responsibility is to cover all phases of organic protective coatings involving conservation, from the standpoint of seeing that General Somervell's policies are carried out. This necessitates reviewing all Army tentative specifications and of giving final approval to all Army specifications to make sure that they are practical and not too restrictive. It involves, also, initiating action to revise specifications requiring raw materials that should be conserved for more essential purposes and to standardize specifications, not only with the individual supply services such as Ordnance, Quartermaster Corps, Engineers, etc., but also with the Navy and all other Government Departments. With raw materials required for protective coatings becoming ...