Mr. JOHNSON. But on the other hand, he may end up on a Coast Guard vessel.

Mr. BLANDFORD. That is correct.

Nor would you also tell me what benefits commissioned officers of the Public Health Service are not now entitled to since they are no longer, since the end of the war, no longer a member of the Armed Forces?

Mr. JOHNSON. Yes, the President in his health message to the Congress stressed the inadequacy of the survivors health benefit program applicable to commissioned officers of the Publis Health Service. Today I can state that we have a far from adequate survivor benefit program for officers dying on active duty. We are of course under the Contingency Option Act which is the survivor benefits for officers dying after retirement.

I am hoping and I can say this here-Mr. Hardy, chairman of the select committee, who probably knows a little something about this too. The Secretary sent a letter to Mr. Bates when he was chairman of the committee, in December, outlining the inadequacy of the survivor benefit program of the commissioned officers of the Public Health Service.

Mr. BLANDFORD. You are not covered by Veterans' Administration benefits except if the officer is serving with the Coast Guard, is that correct?

Mr. JOHNSTON. They are entitled to VA benefits only while serving or because of service with any one of the Armed Forces.

Mr. BLANDFORD. In other words, if a Public Health Service doctor is injured or killed while serving with one of the Armed Forces, then his dependents are covered?

Mr. JOHNSTON. He would get death compensation and death gratuity, but if he dies just on plain Public Health duty today

Mr. BLANDFORD. Then he is covered by federal employee compensation benefits?

Mr. JOHNSTON. He gets federal employee compensation benefits on a casual relationship basis.

Mr. BLANDFORD. On an proximate cause basis?

Mr. JOHNSTON. Yes.

Mr. BLANDFORD. In other words, if he is injured and dies from the injuries he is covered, but if it is a disease it must be the proximate result of the performance of active duty?

Mr. JOHNSTON. Yes.

Mr. BLANDFORD. So in some cases he is entitled today to the far greater benefits of FECA. On the other hand, it must be a direct cause from disease or must be an injury which causes death, but the benefits that he does not get unless serving with the Armed Forces are the VA benefits which are not payable concurrently with FECA benefits, and death gratuity benefits. How about burial expenses?

Mr. JOHNSTON. We are under the burial act that the Congress enacted.

Mr. BLANDFORD. So what it boils down to is VA benefits, particularly, in those cases where FECA are not applicable; in that case, he ends up with no benefits.

Mr. JOHNSTON. I would like to say that our experience has been that the survivors of only 16 percent of our officers in the past 13 years have had allowable employee compensation claims.

Mr. BLANDFORD. That is employee compensation claims?

Mr. JOHNSTON. Yes.

Mr. BLANDFORD. How many of those have had VA claims?

Mr. JOHNSON. Of course, while we had military status-that is just on an on-line-of-duty basis-and during that period, of course, there were a great many that had allowable death compensation claims from the VA. But today, for death on active duty there are no such claims with the VA, unless they can trace it back to some kind of an injury that was initially incurred prior to the time we lost military

status.

Mr. BLANDFORD. Thank you.

Mr. KILDAY. This would be a good point at which to announce that on Monday Mr. Hardy's committee of which Mr. Bates and I are also members will meet to get started on the survivors' benefits.

Mr. BATES. We will never get finished, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. KILDAY. Therefore, this committee will not meet on Monday, not tomorrow, but will meet Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday of next week.

Mr. WILSON. What sort of a retirement program does the Public Health Service have, and will it qualify under this scale?

Mr. BLANDFORD. They are paid-Public Health Service, Coast and Geodetic Survey, and Coast Guard, not being members of the armed services are paid along with the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps under the Career Compensation Act because there is a phrase in that law which applies to all of them and that is the phrase "uniformed services."

That is the way all of these organizations that perform any type of military service come under the Career Compensation Act.

The difficulty is that the Public Health Service is not a branch of the Armed Forces.

The Coast and Geodetic Survey is not a branch of the armed services, and the Coast Guard, if I recall correctly, while a part of the Armed Forces, is not a part of the armed services, but is part of the uniformed services.

Therefore, they come under the Career Compensation Act. [Laughter.]

Mr. KILDAY. Is there someone here from Coast and Geodetic Survey this morning?

Captain RITTENBURG. I am Capt. I. E. Rittenburg, sir. I have no prepared statement.

Mr. KILDAY. What is the name, please?

Captain RITTENBURG. Captain Rittenburg-I. E.

Mr. KILDAY. Will you go ahead in your own way?

Captain RITTENBURG. I appreciate the opportunity to speak for the Coast and Geodetic Survey. We have no prepared statement. In fact, we have nothing to add to the previous testimony. We have been in close contact with the, with Admiral Grenfell office, we have given him a very short statement to the effect that we have gone over the provisions of the bill, we have essentially the same problems insofar as our commissioned officers are concerned and we are in accord with the objectives and we hope that it will be enacted.

Mr. BLANDFORD. May I ask this for the record: How many people in the Coast and Geodetic Survey are paid under the Career Compensation Act?

Captain RITTENBURG. We have an authorized strength of 185.
Mr. BLANDFORD. What is the actual strength?

Captain RITTENBURG. 170, today.

Mr. BLANDFORD. And do you have the same problems as the Public Health Service, are you no longer serving in time of war?

Captain RITTENBURG. We have never been considered an armed service.

Mr. BLANDFORD. I see.

Captain RITTENBURG. The Congress passed a bill during the war making us an armed service, but it was vetoed by the President. Why, I don't know.

Mr. BLANDFORD. I have no further questions.

Mr. KILDAY. Any further questions of the captain?

(No response).

Mr. KILDAY. The committee, as I said, will not meet on Monday, the survivors' benefits committee is meeting then. But we will meet Tuesday and will be ready to begin the section analysis with the representatives of the Department on Tuesday at 10 o'clock in this room. We will adjourn now until Tuesday at 10 o'clock.

(Whereupon, at 11:23 a. m. the subcommittee adjourned.)

CAREER INCENTIVE ACT OF 1955

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 1955

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,
COMMITTEE ON ARMED SERVICES,
SUBCOMMITTEE No. 2,
Washington, D. C.

The subcommittee met at 10 o'clock a. m., the Honorable Paul J. Kilday, chairman of the subcommittee, presiding.

Mr. KILDAY. The committee will be in order.

We will take up again this morning H. R. 2607. We begin the section analysis of the bill with Captain Martineau.

Go right ahead, Captain.

Captain MARTINEAU. Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, it is a very real privilege for me to be here again before this committee.

Mr. KILDAY. Fine.

Captain MARTINEAU. I am here today representing the joint service group, a task force we have called it, whose task has been to prepare the necessary preliminary studies and analyses for assisting your committee in its consideration of this bill, H. R. 2607.

The Secretary of Defense named Rear Adm. E. W. Grenfell to be chairman of this special task group. The senior representative for the Army has been Col. E. L. Brinckman.

For the Air Force, Col. F. P. Corbin, and for the Marine Corps, Maj. J. R. Stockman.

Additional service representatives have also been working with this task force and will be available throughout the hearings.

In an effort to facilitate the hearings and to save time in presenting the bill, the services have agreed to have one representative speak for them all, wherever practicable.

But, where intricate points arise involving any particular service, its own expert representatives are here to help me out and to furnish additional information that the committee may desire.

Proceeding now with the bill: Section 1 of the bill contains the proposed title, which is the Career Incentive Act of 1955.

Now, the urgent need for this bill has already been brought before your committee. But it may be helpful at this time to review very briefly some elements of the critical personnel situation faced today by all of the services.

First, we are losing our trained and experienced young officers and key enlisted personnel at a prohibitive rate. Because of these excessive losses, the experience and skill levels are falling below the required standards.

We are able to replace these losses numerically, but we must do so with young experienced officers and new recruits.

This is bound to have adverse effects on our combat and operational readiness.

And it greatly increases the burden and expense of our training facilities.

Furthermore, It is producing a tremendous volume of personnel turnover, resulting in an excessive number of transfers and related change of duty assignments.

Now, to illustrate some of these conditions, Mr. Chairman, and to show the real need for providing some form of added career incentive, I believe the committee may be interested in having a few typical but very significant facts.

The first of these I would like to point out is that during the 2 fiscal years, 1954 and 1955, the total number of officers and enlisted men in all of the armed services who by June 30 of 1955, the coming June 30, will have completed their obligated service and have chosen to return to civilian life, that number will be in excess of 1,560,000. I would like to point out, Mr. Chairman, that that does not represent our total losses. That merely represents the number of officers and men who have completed the required period of service and have reached the point where they must make the decision to return to civilian life or to continue on active service on a voluntary basis.

Now, during this same period those 2 fiscal years, 1954 and 1955, the sum of the total gains and losses, what we usually refer to as personnel turnover, or the number of officers and men coming and going, to and from active duty, will be in excess of 4,350,000.

I would like to point out that that includes our entire losses, from all causes. That is attrition, deaths, disability; it also includes all expirations of enlistment and periods of obligated service.

But it nevertheless, as you can see, does represent a rather staggering number.

Now, the man who leaves active duty on expiration of his service has usually acquired considerable experience and usefulness, and he cannot be replaced on the job by a new man who is just then coming to active duty.

Therefore, oftentimes a third man must be moved and made available to replace him. And this gives some idea of the magnitude of our transfer and rotation problems.

Mr. BLANDFORD. May I interrupt to inquire of Captain Martineau about these figures, because they are very astounding figures?

In 2 fiscal years 1,560,000 individuals will leave the service voluntarily, having completed their obligated service or having chosen not to reenlist, either way.

Now, the total gains and losses for those 2 fiscal years is 4.350,000, which is a movement of bodies into or out of the service, for all causes, that is for any reason that they come on active duty or leave active duty. Now, subtracting 1,560,000 which are your more or less voluntary losses, leaves a total of 2,790,000. That is almost twice as much intake as outgo. How do you make up the discrepancy between the 2,790,000, which is left after you subtract the 1,560,000, who are leaving the service?

Captain MARTINEAU. Well, Mr. Blandford, I really don't think the two are strictly compatible, and cannot be compared arbitrarily.

I mentioned that 1,560,000, which as you correctly pointed out are those people whose period of obligated service has expired and they have elected to return to civilian life.