General Bruce Palmer, Jr., who succeeded Engler on 1 July 1967, elevated the logistic advisory group within the USARV staff to a general staff section, which he designated the Military Assistance Section. This action was prompted by Palmer's conviction that logistic advisory responsibilities were equal in importance to the mission of supporting U.S. troops. In the summer of 1967 a study called Project 640 was conducted by MACV. Its purpose was to examine the problems that had arisen because the MACV organization lacked a single staff focal point to coordinate and monitor all aspects of the assistance effort. As a result of the study, Westmoreland established the post of Assistant Chief of Staff, Military Assistance, in the MACV staff to provide that focus. He also appointed a temporary committee to determine what functions could be transferred between MACV and USARV headquarters. On the committee's recommendation, logistic advisory functions were transferred from USARV, back to MACV in February 1968. USARV controlled the activities of all U.S. Army service and logistical units in South Vietnam through ten major support commands and also supervised 71 smaller units under the organizational titles "offices", "agencies", "groups", "facilities", "centers", "depots", "teams", "activities", "elements", "companies", and "detachments". Its ten major commands were: 1st Logistical Command 1st Aviation Brigade 1st Signal Brigade 18th Military Police Brigade 34th General Support Group 44th Medical Brigade 525th Military Intelligence Group U.S. Army Security Agency Group U.S. Army Engineer Command (Provisional) U.S. Army Headquarters Area Command (USAHAC) USARV was commanded by COMUSMACV, but in practice the deputy commander of MACV actually supervised its operations. In early 1967,in order to improve South Vietnamese military morale and reduce desertion rates, COMUSMACV ordered USARV to assume responsibility for improving the South Vietnamese military field ration utilization, for garrison ration commodities and for the distribution system. In addition USARV assigned responsibility for the construction of dependent housing for the South Vietnamese military. In June 1967 COMUSMACV approved the replacement of a USARV staff section that had handled civil affairs and civic action with an assistant chief of staff for Civil Operations and Revolutionary Development Support. By mid-1967, USARV, 1st Logistical Command, and many other Army units dispersed in Saigon were moved to Long Binh Post to resolve centralization, security, and troop billeting issues. When General Creighton Abrams succeeded Westmoreland as COMUSMACV in June 1968 he continued Westmoreland's policy of delegating most Army logistical and administrative matters