Manual of Military Training / Second, Revised Edition

by James A. Moss

Property Responsibility

[886]. Special attention should be given to the care and accountability of all company property.

1. All property (tents, axes, spades, chairs, hatchets, etc.) should be plainly marked with the letter of the company.

2. Keep a duplicate copy of every memorandum receipt given for property, and when such property is turned in or another officer's memorandum receipt is given covering the property, don't fail to get your original memorandum from the quartermaster.

3. See that the quartermaster gives you credit for all articles turned in, or property accounted for on statement of charges, proceedings of a surveying officer or otherwise.

4. Have a settlement with the quartermaster at the end of every quarter as required by Army Regulations, taking an inventory of all property held on memorandum receipt and submitting to the quartermaster a statement of charges and a certified list of the china and glassware unavoidably broken during the quarter.

5. Keep an account of all articles issued to the men, turned in to the quartermaster, condemned, expended, lost, stolen or destroyed.

6. Worn out and unserviceable, property that is beyond repair in the company should be submitted to the action of a surveying officer, the Survey Reports (Form No. 196, A. G. O.) being prepared in triplicate, and submitted to the commanding officer, who will appoint a surveying officer. No property that can be repaired in the company should ever be submitted to the action of a surveying officer or inspector. In this connection company commanders and supply sergeants should be thoroughly familiar with Ordnance Department pamphlet No. 1965 and G. O. 26, 1917, the two covering the care, repair and disposition of unserviceable Ordnance equipment.

7. Property that is to be submitted to the action of a surveying officer or an inspector should always first be carefully examined by the responsible officer in person, who should be prepared to give all necessary information in regard to it.

The property should be arranged in the order of enumeration in the survey or the inventory report, and should be arranged in rows of five, ten, or some other number, so that the numbers of the various articles can be counted at a glance.