chart shows how the interest in Regular commissions has declined among various groups of those eligible to apply.

(The chart follows:)

THE DECLINE IN APPLICATIONS FOR OFFICER COMMISSIONS WILL BE REFLECTED IN THE QUALITY OF FUTURE MILITARY LEADERSHIP

Whereas more than half of the eligible officers in the Army, Navy, and Air Force submitted applications in 1949, the numbers applying in 1954 were extremely low.

The Army comparison reflects experience with distinguished graduates of the ROTC and OCS. In the Navy, aviation cadets only were permitted to apply in 1949, whereas 16,000 officers were eligible to apply in 1954. The Air Force comparison depicts applications from among all eligibles during both 1949 and 1954.

It is evident that the military career holds much less attraction to the young officer today than it did only a few years ago.

Mr. BLANDFORD. May I ask a question at this point?

Mr. RIVERS. Yes.

Mr. BLANDFORD. In order that we won't get ourselves into a situation that could be embarrassing later on, is there any way of determining the accumulative effect of people here who have once applied for a Regular commission and have been turned down, but stay on active duty and, therefore, do not apply again?

In other words, your high percentage of applications back in 1949 was, we will say, when everybody took a crack at it. Now, as the percentage starts to come down, what portion of those people either won't apply again, having been turned down, or perhaps applied but weren't accepted?

Because your selection factor starts to go down even though you may be working with a large number of the same people. In other words, is this proportion as bad as it looks statistically?"

Secretary BURGESS. I don't have those figures, Mr. Blandford. I think one of the things we have certainly got to do, and I believe Mr. Wilson discussed this the other day with the committee, and that is we have to consider some broader integrations into the regular com

missioned ranks, by coming first and deciding how many Regulars there should be under the new end strengths that we have that we hope are fairly stable and also the legislation which would be required to increase the numbers into which we can move officers toward Regular commissions.

Now, that is one of the studies that we have going on right now, and that may be a partial answer to your question. But I do not have the figures that would bear out the condition which you state there. Mr. RIVERS. Could I inquire there, Mr. Blandford, of the Secretary? By that do you mean, Mr. Secretary, that it would broaden the base of ages in these respective groups to take in some Reserves?

Secretary BURGESS. I don't know just exactly what the effects of this study will show. But I think we are running fairly low percentages of Regular commissioned officers against the end strengths which we are now working toward.

In other words, the gap is being made up with officers who do not have Regular commissions. Now that we have gone through this endstrength adjustment discussion, and the desire is to hold that at a fairly stable point, we have to decide how many Regular commissioned officers we need to run an establishment of that size and increase the percentages as they are now set, to offer more people opportunities in the Regular grades.

Mr. RIVERS. Could that mean that there is a possibility of you letting a man, first, be a J.G., or lieutenant commander?

Secretary BURGESS. That is where one of the problems exists, and the effect of this would be to open up more opportunity for Reserve J.G.'s to move into Regular commission status.

Mr. BLANDFORD. They have the authority to integrate which expires July 1 of this year. They have asked for renewal of the authority. The problem of integration is the age-old problem of adding to the hump. The Navy now has a hump problem as well as a valley problem. They have insufficient numbers in the J.G. grades and too many people in the lieutenant commander grades.

Now, the Navy has, I think very wisely, decided to allow people serving as, say, senior lieutenants to apply for integration but knowing that if they integrate they will have to be integrated as lieutenants, J.G.'s. In other words, they will lose numbers, but the Navy has got to always be conscious of their hump problem because it just compounds itself if you add more people to it.

Now, that goes right into the face of this pay bill, because all of you have received letters and you are going to hear more about it, people who are being released from service who want to stay on active duty. Mr. RIVERS. That is right.

Mr. BLANDFORD. And the service on the one hand says we can't get the officers we want, so we have got to make the service more attractive. On ther other hand, they are letting officers go that want to stay in. Mr. RIVERS. In answer to my inquiry, the Secretary of Air Force some time ago said a lot of these Reserves who desire to remain on active duty as Regulars were too old an age group and you may have to broaden that age group to meet that inevitable shortage which will happen in some of those categories to which you are referring.

Mr. BLANDFORD. But the point is that if we do that, you are either going to slow down promotion, you are going to add to the hump,

and you are going to create a much worse morale situation in the services than what the Career Incentive Act is intending to overcome.

So they are on the horns of a dilemma, and we have to recognize it; and this committee is going to be criticized when the House considers this pay bill because every Member has a communication from some officer who is being released that wanted to stay. He has a very fine record and why don't they let him stay. They talk about officers getting out; he wants to stay in. Why do they have to increase the pay of lieutenant colonel to keep lieutenant colonels in when they are releasing lieutenant colonels?

But you run right smack into this problem of this fantastic hump and if you keep them in there, then there is no promotion down here and that abolishes all incentive for going ahead.

Mr. RIVERS. If there is a shortage there shouldn't be a hump?

Mr. BLANDFORD. There is a shortage only in the junior grades. They have valleys and if these officers up here [indicating] as reservists are willing to go down and take a drop in rank, they will integrate them and be delighted to have them.

On the other hand, a reservist says to himself, "Why should I take a bust in rank when just to become a Regular junior grade-just to become a Regular officer."

Mr. GAVIN. He either has to take that or be separated from the service.

Mr. BLANDFORD. That is what it boils down to.

Mr. GAVIN. Where is the hump in the Army and Air Force?
Secretary BURGESS. Majors and lieutenant colonels.

Mr. BENNETT. It seems to me in view of what has been said it would be better to allow these men to stay in, and have a lesser grade than it would be throwing them out if they are not material. In other words, I think a new look has to be taken by the armed services at these humps to see if they can't, on account of the hump, allow men to stay in the service with the lesser rank.

Mr. BLANDFORD. The Navy is now doing that.

Mr. GAVIN. Most of these officers have been passed over twice, or some of them?

Mr. BLANDFORD. Some of them have very low index-we might as well face it, some of these officers just don't have it.

On the other hand, there are a large number of very fine officers with very fine combat records who are approaching the point of being over age in grade.

Then the question comes up of having too many people, because of your Officer Grade Act you have to stay within limits. So somebody has to get out. Obviously, you are going to eliminate the Reserve before you eliminate the Regular.

Mr. RIVERS. We will have to just try this pay thing and see if that remedies some of this.

Secretary BURGESS. That is a very important element of it.

Mr. MILLER. Mr. Blandford, isn't it true that while we have this. hump now, followed by a valley, that if we don't correct it, we are building another hump on the other side of that valley to make the valley that 10 or 15 years from now is going to pass through and still bother us the same way that we are being bothered today.

Mr. BLANFORD. It won't pass through so much, depending on how they administer it. What it is going to mean, as I understand it.

I can't think of a better opportunity a young man could have today than to join the service as a second or first lieutenant because he is practically guaranteed promotion, because he is right behind everything; he is in a valley all along. Now, when they start filling that up and they get to the normal attrition that they like to have to keep the flow of promotion going, then the thing will level itself off.

But this hump that you see here in the class of 44 in the Navy is going to come back to haunt this committee in about 10 years, and we will be here 10 years from now trying to figure out what to do with those people, because too many are moving up to commanders, yet, you are going to have to eliminate a lot of them.

Then the taxpayers are going to say it is ridiculous to eliminate people with this much training, this much service.

Mr. MILLER. You have those people now, that potential thing, because we are in this bog right now.

In other words, it is like a wave and it is going to continue on. Mr. BLANDFORD. This is a mistake made at the end of World War II. Mr. MILLER. I may say, Mr. Chairman, that I realize that a lot of these men have to be separated but I think it is rather cruel to sometimes separate a man who only has a year or 18 month to go where he can earn some retirement, somehow or another he is taken out at that critical period, where he can't fit into an Active Reserve unit in his rank, and after we have taken 15 years out of his life we throw him out with no place to go.

I think that is a part of the morale factor.

Mr. GAVIN. Will the gentleman yield at that point?

Mr. RIVERS. Mr. Wilson.

Mr. WILSON. Don't you solve two problems at once when you allow the men in this hump category to set back their date of rank a couple of years and fill up the valley?

It seems the Navy's program is very commendable along that line and should be encouraged to get these men. It is only a matter of a setback of a couple of years to allow them to correct both of these situations. I would like to ask the Navy particularly how far they allow a man to set back his date of rank?

Captain MARTINEAU. I am Captain Martineau, Bureau of Naval Personnel.

Mr. RIVERS. He is one of the authors of this bill so he is a good man to tell you.

Mr. GAVIN. Very able officer.

Captain MARTINEAU. I appreciate those remarks. Mr. Wilson, the Navy's augmentation program that is on at the present time, that Mr. Blandford referred to, and the authority for which expires this summer, permits augmentation in grades not above lieutenant, and we are permitting those officers who hold grades as high as lieutenant commander to revert to a lower grade to be placed on the linear list that will enable him to fill up that valley if he so requests, of course. If he volunteers and understands fully the conditions, the Chief of Naval Personnel has the authority to so place him.

Mr. WILSON. Does it actually mean reverting to a lower grade or does it mean

And he

Captain MARTINEAU. It is only Reserve officers, of course. is reverting to a lower grade only in a relatively few cases. In other

words, we cannot permit all of the Reserve lieutenants on active duty right now to augment, because some of them are in the hump. Now, the majority of the people that will accept a lower lineal position are lieutenants, who are simply moving back and there are a few who are lieutenant commanders. But no higher.

Mr. RIVERS. And most of them are line officers.
Captain MARTINEAU. Line and staff corps officers.

Mr. HÉBERT. Captain, you mean that a lieutenant commander, say, for instance, a Reserve lieutenant commander who is to be relieved of duty could apply to be retained on duty if he fell back to lieutenant? Captain MARTINEAU. That is correct.

Mr. BLANDFORD. Not as a Reserve?

Mr. HÉBERT. I am talking about a reservist.

Captain MARTINEAU. He could apply for augmentation into the Regular Navy.

Mr. HÉBERT. That is what I mean.

In that new rate, and he could serve his full time out.

Captain MARTINEAU. He could apply and would be considered, of course, by a board who would go over his qualifications and he would be so eligible.

Mr. HÉBERT. What part would age play in that request?

Captain MARTINEAU. Age would be a factor that would be considered by the board.

Mr. HÉBERT. Probably he has passed the age and he could be dropped into the lieutenant's ranks.

Mr. RIVERS. That was my point to Secretary Burgess. You may have to broaden that age base to alleviate some of these obvious things that are causing these deficiencies in these critical grades.

Secretary BURGESS. This is receiving very active study from the Personnel standpoint, across the board among the services. Mr. RIVERS. Mr. Bennett?

Mr. BENNETT. I will yield.

promo

Mr. MILLER. Where do these men who go back fit into the tional scheme, do they have a running mate that they pick up? Captain MARTINEAU. They fit right into the Regular line. The policy in the Bureau of Personnel now is to move a man back the minimum amount necessary, and then

Mr. MILLER. He doesn't affect your lineal list, he goes on with a running mate with some other man on the list.

Captain MARTINEAU. He has a running mate if he is in the staff

corps.

The line of the Navy that is shown by this chart right here [indicating] the lineal list of the line is the basis for the entire Navy rank structure.

Mr. MILLER. That is right.

Captain MARTINEAU. No, we move this individual we are referring to back as necessary to put him, help him, or have him help fill up the valley, and he gets a new lineal position.

Mr. MILLER. He is a lieutenant commander that goes back to lieutenant, if that happens, does he go back to the head of the list of lieutenants or does he go to the foot of the list?

Captain MARTINEAU. He would be moved back on the lieutenants' list only far enough to take him out of the hump and put him into the valley.