The Army's supply chain suffered from three main problems—a shortage of specialized personnel, decentralized organization and diverse uncoordinated functions. When the United States entered the war, the Quartermaster Corps had suffered a loss of personnel—most officers were sent to the front—this was the first problem demanding attention. Believing the Army's business could be best organized along civilian lines, he hired military men who could get along with industrialists and built with and around a number of highly trained executives and businessmen (among the new recruits were Hugh S. Johnson and Robert J. Thorne). Some of these men were commissioned and some were dollar-a-year-men, most of whom never collected the dollar. From General Goethals down, practically everyone was on the job from early morning to late at night, seven days a week.