 to Germany, from Alaska to Puerto Rico. All over the world, the United States Army is on the alert to defend our country, you the American people, against aggression. This is the big picture. An official television report to the nation from the United States Army. Now to show you part of the big picture, here is Sergeant Stuart Queen. Manning the sentry posts of democracy throughout the free world, are units of the United States Army permanently stationed in overseas bases. How are these hundreds of thousands of service personnel and their dependence provided with healthful food, proper clothing, and the supplies and equipment needed to face up to difficult and potentially dangerous jobs far away from home? The Army Quartermaster Corps is sort of a combination of the biggest mail order house in the world and the biggest boarding house in the world. Today we're going to take a look at how it's been doing its job for the United States Army in Europe. A Sergeant and his family living in a U.S. Army housing development in Germany. Facilities for officers and non-cons are identical and the Quartermaster Corps is responsible for supplying their food and household goods. Most of the men in our Army do not have wives and children with them overseas, but the QM's job, of course, covers everyone and food is mighty important for men who are facing up to man-sized jobs. There has to be a continuous supply of food, the right amount, so there will always be enough but nothing will be wasted. And a stock of the right sizes of the right kinds of clothing has to always be at the right place at the right time. Those with families get the things they need at QM Commissaries, American kind of things. And when the milkman comes around to the back door, here it happens to be the front door, even this is a kind of QM operation. Bread gets delivered too. Here's real stateside service, courtesy of the U.S. Army Quartermaster Corps. Big U.S. Army Quartermaster sales stores are situated in all foreign localities, where there are large troop concentrations. And in places where the demand isn't so great, a railroad engine pulls the store around and it sets up for business for as long as the supply of customers holds out. The well-dressed soldier today must have a minimum of 125 pieces of clothing and equipment. She'll think you look fine, Joe, the man who's been overseeing the job of supplying all of the food, clothing, general supplies, and gasoline for our Army personnel in Western Europe is Major General William H. Middleswart, Quartermaster for USERR. Generally, our job is divided into two major parts. We provide Quartermaster supplies and services for the United States Army in Germany and France. But primarily, we must be prepared to support our forces in the event of war. This task involves supplying and servicing hundreds of concerns and troop detachments spread from Bordeaux to Berlin and from Bremerhaven to Burgesson. The Giesen Depot, one of half a dozen big warehousing installations in Western Europe which receive, store, and distribute 2 million tons of Quartermaster supplies annually. Everything coming in, everything staying, everything going out, how much of everything there is on hand, how much has been requested, it can all be calculated with the wiggle of a forefinger by a cumulative system of punched out machine record cards. The record system here at Giesen is the master control for the entire string of supply depots. Items of supply are ordered through procurement offices located in the major marketing centers of Europe. All centers are in continuous contact with each other by teletype network so that everything can be purchased at the lowest competitive price. Here at a procurement center in Frankfurt, Germany, a QM draftsman draws up specifications for one of the numerous items that it's more economical to buy on the continent. Over two thirds of the $143 million worth of subsistence items that our troops in Western Europe use each year are shipped in from the United States. From the moment a crane load of a new shipment touches down on foreign soil U.S. Army checkers are on hand and alert to make sure that all of every shipment is properly accounted for and will get into the hands of the people for whom it is intended. Once safely ashore, the transporting and warehousing that started months before in Chicago, New York or perhaps even in the Canary Islands begins all over again. It sort of looks like there will have to be some new holes punched out on a few of those machine record cards back in Giesen, doesn't it? Even most Texans agree that the pipelines leading out of their state don't extend quite as far as Bremerhaven, Germany. So the vast quantities of gasoline that must be continually brought in to supply the U.S. Army, Navy and Air Force units in Western Europe comes in by tanker. The gasoline and oil business is a joint operation of the Army, Navy and Air Force with the quartermaster cord charged with the major responsibility of storage. Like every other QM job, it's a big job. Pull out the barrel. We'll have a barrel of Class III supplies. That's what the folks in the Army quartermaster corps call the juice in these drums. Just plain old motor fuel to you. Unless maybe you lived over here, turned a bit continental and are calling it petrol now. Whatever it is you want to call it, this much is sure. A modern Army has to have a whale of a lot of this stuff. The farmers barge in with their products at a vegetable auction near the Hague, Holland. Just one of the dozens of buying centers throughout Europe where QM personnel are always on hand, checking for quality and bidding for price. If it comes up to the high Army standards of quality, before the week is out, much of this food may be on the dinner tables in Army mess halls or on sale in Army Commissaries.