Army Struggles With Reserve Assignments

Under-staffed and over-powered by the sudden influx of ERC applicants, the First Service Command has been laboring long and late over the long-expected ERC orders for Harvard and neighboring colleges, the Army's public relations division announced last night.

The bureau said that it looked as though Harvard would get its orders now within a few days," and that other considerations had prevented the College from having them earlier. Hampered by a severe shortage of trained clerical work, and swamped by the number and intricacies of each of the individual orders, the office announced that no college had received any preference over Harvard, but that certain groups of necessity had gotten first call.

Devens' Capacity Limited

Chief headache for the much-maligned unit has been the fact that although all inductees in the New England area have to be cleared through Fort Devens, a reception center cannot handle more than a certain number of enlistees a day, and the First Service Command cannot issue more than that number of orders per day.

Special groups take precedence over the unassigned ERC. Included in these groups are the meteorologists, the Army's specialized training schools, and men who have enlisted in order to join a certain unit. All these must be taken care of and sent to Fort Devens before the regular ERC can be taken care of.