Happy Valley
Headquarters
The Operations Section
The Operations Section at Headquarters was charged with the establishing and maintaining of camps for the training and equipped of Chinese in guerilla warfare and with the formulation of plans for the most effective field operations of these troops after their graduation. At times Operations has been charged also with the establishing of special training classes, such as those dealing with coast watchers.
The Supply Department
Due to the highly classified nature of SACO made advance logistic planning very difficult for anyone outside of the organization. This included those in Washington. The Bureaus of Supplies and Accounts and Naval Personnel had little or no knowledge of actual conditions under which personnel would work in China or the problems they would face.
Supplies had to travel thousands of miles and the logistics of delivery were staggering.
Unlike most other naval supply organizations, that of SACO could not be planned. The requirements of Headquarters changed with the tactical situation. Decisions had to be made on the spot. Chinese coolies, worn out trucks, operating on a mixture of gasoline and alcohol or vegetable and pine oil, and ox-carts were the handling and transportation tools of the trade.
The Postal Service
With the inception of U.S. Naval Group China, one of the first and foremost thoughts was the how, where, and when of setting up postal facilities. At Headquarters, space was immediately provided for the Navy Post Office. The Navy Post Office was practically ready for business at once, but the problem which confronted it was the ever-present delay in getting the mail to distribute.
In the early fall of 1944 a Navy Post Office was established at Kunming and set up as a central distribution post office for all navy mail in China.