Perhaps these guys were a bit tardy crossing into the realm of Naziland.  Perhaps they never had to tangle at close quarters with the Nazis.  Perhaps they were never subjected to mortars and artillery and snipers.  Perhaps they never had to sweat out counter attacks and night patrols and water-filled foxholes.  But what they did do counted for much.

Personnel might not have had Nazis to tangle with, but anyone who has ever tangled with Army paper work and red tape will tell you that they are equally formidable foes.  If not more so, because there is no end to them.  When the bleeding Wehrmacht threw in the to well, the fighting was over for the doughs and they could relax.  Not so. for the boys doing the paper work Cessation of hostilities in the ETO meant only an increase in the mountains of work to be done.  With important changes of personnel within the Regiment looming in the future. with the probability of redeployment around the nearest corner, the Personnel staff had to pitch in with increased vigor.

Figuratively speaking, each man in the Army goes in to battle trailing yards of paper and red tape behind him.  Naturally, with his hands full of enemy he can't take care of his personal affairs.  Which is the particular job of the Personnel section, and one extremely vital to the success of any military endeavor.  A man can fight much better when he knows, for example, that the monthly allotment check is getting to his wife and his kids.  When he knows that the War Bonds he has taken out are coming through regularly.  When he know that his first three years of Army life finished, he will get that longevity pay which is due him.  When he knows that the cash he is sending home monthly will be taken care of.  When he knows that automatically as he steps on that gangplank his overseas pay will commence.  It is nice not having to worry about such items.  And the boys in Personnel are the ones who wield the typewriters and the shears and hack their way through the mountains of paper and the thousands of forms to take care of the sometimes small, but none-the-less important personal matters.

Back in the states, the lads in Personnel had gotten the name of "typewriter commandos".  Now that the Regiment is on this side of the ocean, the name has been forgotten in gratitude for the job they have done.  It was always a major miracle that at the end of the month, no matter what the situation, pay rosters were forthcoming and the pay was dished out.  Of course while the War went on there w little use for money, but it was re-assuring to get it.  Reassuring to know that everything was being taken care of.

That is the way it has always been with Personnel.  The Clerks and their assistants under Lt. Nusbaum and T/Sgt. Adams have done a commendable job.  They have done an important job.  And they have taken loads off a lot of minds.  The Regiment is grateful and knows that Personnel can always be counted on.  The Rear echelon in more ways than one has never fallen behind the front.