Another example of a Brief would be:
Madison Barracks, N. Y.,
Jan. 10, 1940.
From: Captain James L. Douglas, 99th Inf.
To: The Adjutant General of the Army
(Through C. O. Madison Barracks, N. Y.)
Subject: Request for leave of absence.
The heading consists of the name of the office, place, and date. In the first example the name of the office was “Headquarters, Eastern Department.” In the second, “Company A, 99th Infantry.” In the third, there was no office named because the letter was written by an officer as an individual and not as an executive of an organization. The place is the post-office address of an officer’s station in any case. “Indefinite expressions of locality, which do not indicate where the letter was written,”[19] should never be used. The date is written on the same line as the place, except where no office is designated; and it is written not as in communications dealing with combat, but in the ordinary way.
The “From” in the From Whom Sent begins one line (if typed, two lines) below the heading and at the left-hand margin. It is followed by the official designation of the writer, or in the absence of any official designation, the name of writer with his rank and regiment, corps, or department. The rank is written before the name; and the regiment, corps, or department after the name.
Directly below the “From” is placed the “To” in To Whom Sent, followed by the official designation or name of the person addressed. What follows “To” is written in the same manner as what follows “From.”
Directly below the “To” comes the word “Subject” which is followed by an expression which will give the gist of the Body of the letter. This expression will be boiled to a minimum and will not exceed ten words.
The words “From,” “To,” and “Subject” will be immediately followed by colons, and the “F,” “T,” and “S” will be on the same vertical line.
The Body of the letter will comprise one subject only. A leave of absence and a decision, for instance, will not be requested in the same letter. Two separate communications will be written. This procedure is merely that of carrying out the principle of unity in the whole composition. A violation in this regard causes endless worry to the receiving office and a deserved rebuke for the writer.