In 1949, as part of the unification program, the Defense Department began the task of combining all the different items of equipment used by the Army, Navy, and Air Force into one standard purchasing catalogue. By last week, over 1,500,000 items had been identified. The catalogue was less than half complete, but it had already cost $10 million. Some discoveries on the way:
¶ 200,000 kinds of lumber items are used by the three services.
¶ 12,000 types of window shades are catalogued, 9,000 of them Venetian blinds.
¶ Horse collars and Civil War cannon balls are still carried on Army...
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