“The Body of the letter will be followed by the Signature. If the Rank and the Regiment, Corps or Department of the writer appear at the beginning of the letter, they will not appear after his name; but if they do not appear at the beginning of the letter, they will follow under his name.”[21]
To illustrate fully what we have said, let us write the Body and Ending of the first illustration of the Brief:
The Department Commander directs that you submit without delay the report of your recent inspection of the Organized Militia of the State of New York, and that you also submit an explanation of your failure to comply with par. 6, S. O. 25, c. s., these headquarters.
J. L. Thurst,
Lieut. Col., 24th Cav.
One-half inch below the Ending of the letter comes the first of the Indorsements, and the succeeding Indorsements follow one another serially, with a space of about one-half inch between Indorsements.
Letters in the military service are not answered in the sense in which we use the term in civilian life. In other words, the person who receives a letter does not retain it and reply thereto by another. Instead he states what he has to say in an Indorsement, which is put down in continuation of the original letter. Thus everything which has been written in regard to the contents of a letter appears as a part of the letter when it is finally filed.
When Captain Douglas’ request for leave of absence, for example, reaches the headquarters of his regiment, it has added to it the Colonel’s indorsement which appears as follows, provided the Colonel wishes the Captain to obtain the leave:
1st Ind.
Hq. 99th Inf., Madison Barracks, N. Y., Jan. 11, 1940—
To the Comdg. Gen., Dept. of the East.
Approved recommended.
E. F. Hush,
Colonel, 99th Inf., Comdg.