This disregard of routine
was essential; but how much to be desired is a system suited to the
exigencies of the service, both in peace and war!
There is a lesson to be learned from these experiences, and it is
this: The commanding officer of any army organization should not be
hampered in the matter of supplies by having to obtain the approval or
disapproval of a junior in rank, in a distant bureau, who knows
nothing about the circumstances. In other words, the system which
causes the staff departments of the United States Army to regard a
civilian as their head, and makes them virtually independent of their
line commanders, is an utterly vicious system. If an officer is
competent to command an organization, he should be considered
competent to look after the details of its administration, and should
be held responsible, not only for its serviceable condition at all
times, but for the care of its property and for all the other details
connected with its service.
The quartermaster, or commissary, or other officer of a supply
department should not know any authority on earth higher or other than
the officer in command of the force he is to serve, except those in
the line above such chief, and then only when such orders come through
his chief.
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