 Step number one in the preparation of a hamburger sandwich. Meat for QM Commissary sales only is purchased in Europe. Troop messes all get frozen meat purchased in the United States. Whoever told you that a soldier overseas today has a lot of beefs was giving you a right steer. Selected meat is carefully inspected by Army veterinarians who work closely with a quartermaster corps and personally supervise every phase of the slaughtering process. These Plymouth rocks who never saw a Plymouth rock are busy working for the U.S. Army QM too. Eggs for breakfast next week or for storage against the season when they'll be scarce and higher priced. Everything's been inspected and it's all first quality. When it comes to food processing, sometimes it's more efficient for the QM to operate its own overseas plants. When this is finished fixing it will be ice cream. Throughout the world American servicemen have become famous for their appetites for ice creams and chocolate milkshakes. It's almost a military necessity for the Army to make sure it's always got the makings. This milk processing plant in Amsterdam is not owned or operated by the U.S. Army quartermaster corps but since it is one of the plants where the QM makes regular purchases its routine operations are a QM responsibility. There can be no compromise with sanitary standards relating to personnel and equipment. There's an Army inspector on deck to make sure every bottle is spotlessly sanitary. The game of spin the bottle Army style. The sanitary supervision is conducted in cooperation with the U.S. Army Veterinary Service. Every year the United States forces stationed in Western Europe consume more than a quarter of a billion glasses of fresh milk that has to be shipped in from selected dairies in Holland, Denmark and Northern Germany. Grade A pasteurized milk from tuberculin tested cows, every bottle of it. And all QM purchased milk is laboratory checked regularly for bacteria count by Army veterinarians. The same vigilant supervision is set up to assure the high standards of all the products the services contract for. This is a mobile petroleum testing laboratory. In many of the major foreign port cities the Army also has permanent installations for checking the quality of its purchases of gas and oil to make sure that everything comes up to QM specifications. Just as with military purchases made in this country military goods purchased overseas must measure up to the rigid QM specifications. How good is this sample of cloth? Good enough to be bought by the U.S. Army? From upholstery fabrics to china dishes for mess halls everything the Army buys must measure up. Almost at its destination now but not quite this QM purchase has traveled a long way. This time it's sacks of coffee beans that have been imported directly from South America. Throughout Europe the QM operates 11 plants like this where Army coffee is roasted, freshly ground and shipped out daily to troop messes and commissaries. Testing the roast. It's beginning to look and smell like the top quality product that it is. Such is the life of a coffee bean preparing to join the Army. It's always a tough grind but once you've gone through it your future is in the bank. It takes a lot of dough to feed the service personnel and their dependents stationed overseas and savings can be accomplished by having the QM bake its own bread. Bread that measures up to Army standards of quality that are ordinarily higher than civilian standards. Frequently civilian personnel and specially trained military personnel work together side by side in QM bakeries. This is one of 13 QM bakeries that operate in Europe to turn out over a third of a billion pounds of bread every year. The oven's a bit larger than the one in your kitchen but then the QM family in Europe is a little larger than yours is too. The freshly baked bread wrapped like stateside is sent out in a fleet of trucks to be delivered daily to the homes of dependent personnel as well as to Army mess halls. Another household chore of the QM Corps is the family wash and a mighty big laundry it is. As in the case of Army bakeries, big Army laundries like this generally utilize civilians as well as military personnel. It's all been marked of course to make sure it'll be returned to its rightful owners. Everything from personal clothing to shirts and towels goes into the wash. Here are the sheets you saw being unloaded. Already through the washer, they're ready for the mango. Notice how they press the shirt sleeves and the way they dry the socks to guard against shrinking. In areas of sparse troop concentrations, the QM has its mobile laundries operating. This is the system that's used for a number of our smaller installations in France. Everything is mounted on wheels. The washers, the dryers and the ironers. Ten of these laundries are presently in operation. New and needed items of equipment may be developed by QM personnel right here in Europe. There was a need for dry cleaning units to operate along with the mobile laundries in France. So the QM's designed and built portable units like this, which can clean and press 4,500 pieces of clothing a week. You take your shoes to the cobbler. The Army takes theirs to the quartermaster corps. Whether it's soles or heels or a complete renovation, the QM cobblers are competent to take care of the job. Like old soldiers, old soldiers' pillows never die. At least this is the case in Europe where the quartermaster corps saves the Army upward to half a million dollars a year by operating a QM plant for disinfecting, washing and remaking Army pillows and mattresses. Finally, the American soldier has found the answer to the age-old question of what makes his mattress tick. It's his own QM plant that's set up and operating in Munich. It's only after an Army mattress has been completely rebuilt that anyone can truthfully say that it can't be beat. No, he's not testing this product for durability. It's part of the manufacturing process. On each rebuilt mattress, the Army saves eight dollars. Here they are, good as new, maybe better.