turn physical for overseas, in which my back injury and the others are recorded.

Mr. ELSTON. Proceed, Colonel.

Colonel MUGGET. Well, when the board reconvened the second time-that is, the third board meeting-the fourth board meeting, on the 6th of September 1946, the board found him not permanently incapacitated and recommended that he be reexamined after a period of 6 months' temporary limited service.

Mr. ELSTON. What board was that?

Colonel MUGGET. The board at Halloran General Hospital.

The Surgeon General concurred, and in such cases I believe the personnel board in their department concurred in that.

Captain BREADY. May I interject

Mr. ELSTON. Well, suppose we let the colonel finish his statement and then we will be glad to let you explain anything you want to. Colonel MUGGET. You see, at that time Captain Bready was on an inactive status already. I believe you were separated on the 8th of May 1946?

Captain BREADY. I was still on the same basis, I was between retirement and-I don't know what.

Colonel MUGGET. I think you were on inactive duty at that time. Captain BREADY. That is right, sir.

Colonel MUGGET. As Captain Bready stated, he has been treated at home. I have learned through Mr. Clason more details than I have from anyone else. At the Leahy Clinic he received treatment. I also understand that he had to pay for it.

The report of the Leahy Clinic I have not seen. As he stated before he was returned to active duty on May 9, 1947, and went to the Walter Reed General Hospital.

Out there he continued to have this low back pain on all motions, although Dr. Crain thought his motion, perhaps was improved over what he was 2 years ago-although perhaps Captain Bready is the one to say whether it has or not.

Captain BREADY. I might add that the first time Dr. Crain saw me he diagnosed it as rheumatoid arthritis and recommended I have radiation therapy, which was given.

Colonel MUGGET. That is correct. He made a tentative diagnosis. He felt Captain Bready should be given the benefit of X-ray for his pain.

Mr. ELSTON. In view of Captain Bready's present physical condition, Colonel, does it not appear to you that the retiring boards' recommendations in every instance were correct?

Colonel MUGGET. In retrospect, perhaps they are. However, the final analysis of his case has not been made at the hospital.

Mr. ELSTON. Just how long is he going to have to stay there before you make the final analysis?

Colonel MUGGET. Colonel Spitler saw him last week and I pre

sume

Captain BREADY. I saw Colonel Spitler and he recommended a low cast and a spinal fusion.

Mr. JOHNSON of California. Colonel, in these kinds of cases how much credence to the doctors give to what the man says is his condition and feeling?

Colonel MUGGET. I believe they give considerable credence to it.

Mr. JOHNSON of California. As I get the testimony, they consider other things and if they do not show anything, what the man says does not amount to anything or count?

Colonel MUGGET. A condition, as I stated before, of this sort, even though you call it chronic, you usually have remissions, an acute exacerbation, with it being perfectly well in between, frequently the acute attack lasts only a few days. If it is that type of case there is no incapacity in between times, as a rule. Captain Bready's case seems to be more persistent than the case I just mentioned.

Mr. JOHNSON of California. When a man claims that he has pain, has difficulty in moving some of his limbs or joints, is there any way you can test the veracity of that statement by him?

Colonel MUGGET. NO.

Mr. JOHNSON of California. But you do give it weight?

Colonel MUGGET. Surely do.

Mr. JOHNSON of California. Some weight?

Colonel MUGGET. I do.

Mr. JOHNSON of California. Should not the board give some weight to it?

Colonel MUGGET. I think so.

Mr. JOHNSON of California. Nobody in the world does know, besides the man, he has a pain?

Colonel MUGGET. He is the only one that knows that he has a pain. Mr. JOHNSON of California. These boards apparently did not agree with this man that he had pain?

Colonel MUGGET. I do not think that is so.

I think the question was whether this was going to be such a long continued condition as to warrant retirement. As I have stated ordinarily conditions of this nature are not a long-continued condition. You get over it.

Mr. ELSTON. In what period of time?

Colonel MUGGET. Well, it took me almost 5 years to get over mine, but I have no trouble now.

Mr. ELSTON. You did not have an injury such as Captain Bready, did you?

Colonel MUGGET. I had a rather severe injury, Mr. Elston, but I was not hit by anything. It was lifting something.

Mr. ELSTON. That is quite different than falling 1,500 feet from an airplane

Colonel MUGGET. Yes.

Mr. ELSTON. After all these reports came into the Surgeon General's office, what was your final decision, what is the decision now? Colonel MUGGET. Well, at present we are waiting on the decision of the hospital as to whether he is to have more treatment, whether he should meet a disposition board at this time.

If he should meet a disposition board he will certainly meet a retiring board, no matter what the recommendation of the disposition board is.

What the retiring board will find or recommend I have no way of knowing.

Mr. ELSTON. What if the recommendations of the retiring board are similar to the previous recommendations? What will be the disposition of the Surgeon General's office, send it back again?

Colonel MUGGET. I would see no reason to return it again. If the evidence is all in order—I am sure it will be

Mr. ELSTON. How many times do you review a case of this kind ordinarily?

Colonel MUGGET. At present it may be a little different than it was a few years ago.

The hospitals were very crowded several years ago. It was necessary perhaps to try to dispose of cases too soon. That situation is

not so now.

They are, perhaps, kept too long in certain cases. Could be disposed of quicker.

I mention that because now it is not necessary to send as many cases back for reconsideration because they had more time for consideration prior to meeting a retiring board.

Mr. ELSTON. You would not say, in view of the long periods of time that Captain Bready spent in hospitals under supervision of competent doctors, that ample opportunity was not given for a complete examination of the captain and for a complete review of all of his disabilities would you?

Colonel MUGGET. I would say it was sufficient.

Colonel HOOPER. Mr. Elston, may I inject one point?

Mr. ELSTON. Yes. State your name, please.

Colonel HOOPER. I regret that General Dahlquist cannot be here. I am representing the office of the Department of the Army. I am with the Director of Personnel Administration. I am Lt. Col. Phillip L. Hooper. I commanded a National Guard regiment in the past.

I just want to bring out this point, sir, if we may.

This is an obvious example where the Army feels the law is at fault. The law says that we have to find Captain Bready permanently incapacitated. We pass that over to the doctors and they have to make a decision today as to whether this officer when he is 45 or 50 years old is going to still be considered permanently incapacitated.

If he were a Regular Army officer he probably would have been handled by them like this:

He could have returned to duty, temporary limited duty, appeared before these various boards, except they might have been disposition boards, and if he had trouble with this 10 years from today, why, then again he could go up and be retired.

But Captain Bready is in a position of getting out of the Army and we had to make our decision at the time-quick.

Mr. ELSTON. If he were a Regular Army officer he would not have been out of the Army and on his own expense for a long period of time. Colonel HOOPER. That is right, but the Army has no way of every one realized that Captain Bready deserved something at the time. We do not know what the final analysis will be. But 2 years ago they realized something was wrong. There is no way in which you can find qualification in law until this determination is made. Mr. ELSTON. All right.

Captain Bready, do you have anything further to add?
Captain BREADY. No, I believe it has all been covered.

Mr. ELSTON. All right. You may step aside then, Captain and Colonel, and we will call the next witness. Captain Ogden.

STATEMENT OF CAPT. CARLOS C. OGDEN, SAN JOSE, CALIF.

Mr. ELSTON. Captain, your full name is Carlos C. Ogden?
Captain OGDEN. Yes, sir.

Mr. ELSTON. What is your present address?

Captain OGDEN. My home address is 1540 Walnut Grove, San Jose, Calif.

I am now a patient at Walter Reed Hospital.

Mr. ELSTON. How long have you been a patient there?

Captain OGDEN. Since January 7 this year.

Mr. ELSTON. Would you state what your military experience has been?

Captain OGDEN. All right, sir. I have a written statement I would like to read.

Mr. ELSTON. You may read it, if you care to, and make any comments on it that you wish.

Captain OGDEN. I entered service April 24, 1941, as a private and was assigned to the Infantry.

Following 13 weeks of basic training, I was assigned to the One Hundred Tenth Infantry regiment, Twenty-eighth Division.

After serving with this regiment for 18 months, 5 months of which were on the training cadre, I was urged to attend OCS at Fort Benning, Ga., which I accepted and after completing the required training, was appointed a second lieutenant on November 11, 1942, in the Infantry.

I was then assigned to Camp Roberts. I was an infantry instructor and after approximately 1 year, I was sent to the Seventy-ninth Division which was ordered overseas in April 1944.

My division landed in Normandy on D plus 6 and at that time I was a first lieutenant in command of a weapons platoon.

June 24, 1944, while in the grade of first lieutenant as an infantry company commander, I was leading my company in assault on Fort Du Roule, guarding the approaches to Cherbourgh, France, which we were to take at all costs. During the attack, I was struck by two machine gun bullets in the right side of the head, knocking me to the ground, fracturing my right wrist. I was holding an active (live) grenade in my right hand at the time I was knocked down. Also in this same attack, I was struck in the right cheek by a shell fragment and had both ear drums perforated by direct fire from a German 88 millimeter gun. For action during this attack, I was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor.

I was ordered to the battalion aid station by my battalion commander, Lt. Col. Ernest Purvis. I turned my company over to the weapons platoon sergeant and notified him I would return the next morning. When I got to the battalion aid station they told me they would give me a shot to make me rest better and I could return to my company the next morning.

When I woke up, I was in an evacuation hospital. X-rays were taken here to determine whether or not my skull had been fractured and also if my wrist had been broken. The results of X-rays showed my skull was not fractured, but I had a shell fragment in my right cheek and my right wrist was broken and also perforation of my ear drums was determined bere. Knowing I was the last officer in my company and remembering that I had told them I would return as soon as possible, I returned and rejoined my company on approxi

mately the 1st or 2d of July. My right wrist was in tape and supported.

On July 5, I was again injured in an assault on La Raye Du Puits, France, while attempting to escape from direct enemy fire. In attempting to take cover from this enemy fire, and in going through a hedgerow, both by my own momentum and as a result of a concus sion from enemy fire I was thrown down a 12-foot bank onto a railroad bed, landing on my left shoulder and back, suffering deep lacerations of the left knee. As we were a patrol in force of company strength, and not in physical contact with our battalion, I was unable to go to the battalion aid station but had a company medical man dress my left knee. Both of my arms were numb and I was unable to talk for 3 or 4 hours. After this period of time the numbness left my arms and I regained my power of speech. My company continued the attack and the next day, July 6, I was wounded in the left hand by enemy rifle fire. I was then evacuated by air to the Sixty-eighth General Hospital in England. After my hospitalization, I rejoined my company in October of 1944 and because of my wounds, which were disabling, I was assigned as aide to the XV Corps commander on November 7, 1944.

At the close of hostilities I was placed in charge of a hotel rest center. While making my regular outside inspection at 2430 in July 1945. I was attacked by unknown assailants, receiving severe blow on the head, lacerations of the right eye, requiring nine stitches to close and a fractured left jaw. An officer board was convened and determined that these injuries were suffered while in line of duty. I was subsequently returned to the United States by hospital ship and arrived in the United States in October of 1945.

I appeared before a disposition board at Camp Atterbury, Wakemen General Hospital, Indiana, in March of 1946.

As I had told by the medical officers at this hospital, the ringing would leave my ears, that my left knee would stop swelling, that the tendon in my left hand would not draw and cause loss of use of this hand, and that the feeling would return to my left jaw-with this advice in mind, I made the following statement to the disposition board. "That if all of my disabilities were going to clear up, I did not want to appear before an Army retirement board."

The disposition board recommended general duty and I was discharged June 10, 1946. Terminal leave started March 19, 1946.

I had intended going into the grain business at Fairmount, Ill., with my father but during my stay at Camp Atterbury, Ind., I found that I was unable to stand the severe winter because of my left hand, left knee and my left jaw and so in April of 1946 I moved to California and started to work in May of 1946.

After I started working, my disabilities became more severe and I went to Dr. Edison French, in San Luis Obispo, Calif., at my own expense where he treated me for several of my disabilities.

Realizing that I was unable to defray the cost of medical treatment and possible hospitalization, I requested to be called back to active duty for the purpose of treatment and hospitalization and an appear ance before an Army retirement board if warranted. I was recalled to active duty and ordered to Letterman General Hospital on January 16, 1947, where I was treated for all of my disabilities and it was found that I still had an ununited bone in my right wrist.