Page "Leslie Groves" Paragraph 10

Groves was promoted to major on 1 July 1940.

Three weeks later, he became special assistant for construction to the Quartermaster General, Major General Edmund B. Gregory.

The two men had known each other a long time, as Groves ' father was a close friend of Gregory's.

At this point, the US Army was about to embark on a national mobilization, and it was the task of the Construction Division of the Quartermaster Corps to prepare the necessary accommodations and training facilities for the vast army that would be created.

The enormous construction program had been dogged by bottlenecks, shortages, delays, spiralling costs, and poor living conditions at the construction sites.

Newspapers began publishing accounts charging the Construction Division with incompetence, ineptitude, and inefficiency.

Groves, who " had a reputation as a doer, a driver, and a stickler for duty ", was one of a number of engineer officers brought in to turn the project around.

He was tasked with inspecting construction sites and checking on their progress.