Within weeks the Chief of Staff of the United States Army, General George C. Marshall, implemented sweeping changes to the War Department designed to reduce the number of people reporting to him so as to free his time for planning and conducting a global war. Three huge new commands were created by Executive Order Number 9082 of 28 February 1942, "Reorganizing the Army and the War Department": the Army Air Forces under Lieutenant General Henry H. Arnold, the Army Ground Forces under Lieutenant General Lesley J. McNair and the Services of Supply, under Somervell. As such, he was not only promoted to the rank of lieutenant general over the heads of many more senior officers, but some of them, including Reybold, now found themselves his subordinates. He was answerable to two men: Marshall, and Under Secretary of War Robert P. Patterson. Somervell built up a good working relationship with both. Senator Harry S. Truman of the Truman Committee disapproved of Somervell's cost overruns, declaring: "I will say this for General Somervell, he will get the stuff, but it is going to be hell on the taxpayer. He has a WPA attitude on the expenditure of money."
