Mr. UMSTEAD. Captain, do you consider it necessary to give the refresher training to a man who has served the required period as an aviation cadet, each year thereafter, when he passes back into the Reserve?

Captain GYGAX. Yes, sir; absolutely. If they do not take these refresher courses they will get rusty in military flight operations.

Mr. UMSTEAD. Of course; but is there something about the business of flying which makes it more necessary for a person to engage frequently in it, in order to do it efficiently, than there is in other lines of activity?

Captain GYGAX. May I ask Commander Pownall to make a statement on that point? I think he can do it better than I can.

Commander PoWNALL. Yes, sir. Our experience has demonstrated the fact that in order to maintain the efficiency of landing, take-off, and the other difficult parts of flying, including particularly the various phases of military flying, repeated experience in the particular type of plane is necessary.

With reference to Captain Schofield's use of the term "refresher flight training," the type of training to which he refers is generally classified as the normal training given Naval Reserve officers on flying status. The term "refresher course" or "refresher training" is more correctly applied to an intensive flight course of approximately 3 months given to an aviator who has had no routine flying for a considerable period of time, usually 6 months or more.

Captain GYGAX. These officers are expected to be ready on mobilization to take their places in the fleet, and there will be no time for refreshing them. They must be thoroughly trained.

Captain SCHOFIELD. We give that refresher training to our Reserve aviators, as well as to the Marine Corps aviators, but it does not show up in these increases, because it is proposed to carry it on at the same rate next year as this year. There happens to be no change.

REQUIREMENTS FOR APPOINTMENT AS AVIATION CADET IN NAVAL RESERVE

Mr. PLUMLEY. Mr. Chairman, I should like to ask Captain Gygax, if he will be so kind, and if there is no objection, to insert in substance the statement he made in reply to the question of Mr. Thom with respect to the prerequisites to be met and the qualifications to be had by one who would seek to apply to become an aviation cadet.

Captain GYGAX. Aye, aye, sir.

Mr. PLUMLEY. That will be a great accommodation to all of us, I am sure, because we could just refer to that and send copies to the multitude of young fellows who inquire of us every day, and who think they can fly off the ground.

(The following information is furnished on this subject:)

Requirements for appointment as aviation cadet in the Naval Reserve: Candidate must

(4) Be a male citizen of the United States.

(b) Be between 20 and 28 years old at time of appointment.

(c) Sign agreement to serve for 4 years.

(d) Be unmarried, and remain so during first 2 years of service.

(e) Be educationally, morally, physically, and psychologically qualified in accordance with prescribed standards.

36929-3812

EDUCATION REQUIREMENTS

Candidates are selected from the following in the order of preference as

listed:

(a) Graduates of Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps units.

(b) Aeronautical engineering graduates of recognized colleges of universities.

(c) Other graduates of recognized colleges or universities.

(d) Candidates who have completed not less than half the requirements for a degree from such college or university, including certain required mathematics.

(e) Mature applicants who do not qualify under (a), (b), (c), or (d), but whose experience, training, and aptitude render them outstanding and particularly desirable. (Very few have been selected under this clause.)

As a matter of policy, the Navy Department has consistently declined to grant waivers of the educational or other requirements for selection. Since the number of fully qualified applicants greatly exceeds the quotas to be trained, the selection of any who do not meet the requirements would displace others who are in all respects qualified, a procedure which the Department is unable to justify.

PROCEDURE IN SUBMITTING APPLICATIONS

Application blanks are obtained from the commandant of the naval district in which applicant resides. Upon completion of the application form, it must be submitted together with required documentary data (as listed on application form) to commandant of the naval district.

Applications are reviewed by a Naval Reserve flight selection board appointed by the commandant in each of the naval districts throughout the United States. Candidates whose papers indicate reasonable probability of qualification under the instructions will be authorized to appear before the board for personal interview and physical examination. Final selection for the training is made by the Bureau of Navigation from among those nominated by the commandants.

Successful applicants are enlisted as seamen, second class, in the Naval Reserve, and ordered to 30 days' elimination flight training to determine their aptitude for flying and officerlike qualifications. Those completing this stage successfully are then appointed as aviation cadets and ordered to Pensacola for the complete Navy flight-training course. This course is identical with that taken by officers of the Regular Navy. Those who successfully complete at Pensacola are ordered to active duty with aircraft squadrons of the fleet. and upon completion of a total of 4 years of service (including period of training at Pensacola), they are released from active duty and become eligible for commissions as ensigns in the Naval Reserve with dates of precedence as of dates of original appointments as aviation cadets.

APPOINTMENTS AS AVIATION CADETS IN THE MARINE CORPS RESERVE

All requirements are the same as for the Naval Reserve except that applicant must not have passed his 25th birthday, and must be a graduate of a recognized college or university. During the period of elimination flight training, candidates are enlisted as privates, first class, United States Marine Corps Reserve. The training at Pensacola is identical with that of aviation cadets of the Naval Reserve. Upon successful completion of training, they are ordered to active duty with the aircraft squadrons of the Fleet Marine Force. Upon completion of 4 years of active service, they are released from active duty and are eligible for commissions as second lieutenants in the Marine Corps Reserve with dates of precedence as of dates of original appointments as aviation cadets.

WEEK-END CRUISES

Mr. UMSTEAD. Captain, is there any item contained in the estimates for 1939 out of which subsistence for week-end cruises would be paid?

Captain SCHOFIELD. No, sir. We originally included in the estinate moneys for the payment of subsistence while performing weeknd cruises. That has been eliminated.

Mr. UMSTEAD. By the Budget?
Admiral ANDREWS. By the Budget.

CHANGES IN LANGUAGE

Mr. UMSTEAD. I notice there are certain changes in language. Will someone explain why those changes in language are requested? Captain SCHOFIELD. Changes in language are desired, as indicated, for the purpose of furnishing transportation and subsistence to enlisted men of the Volunteer Naval Reserve while performing training duty without pay, and for permitting the immediate use of all members of the Naval Reserve, in the event of war, in the manner contemplated by law and in the mobilization plans. Of the 12,000 Naval Reserve officers now on the rolls, 2,500 are above the grade of lieutenant and their services could not be used under the restrictions at present contained in the proviso, which limits such number at the pay of their grades to 20. Any in excess of this 20 could be employed for 4 months only and at the pay of a lieutenant.

Mr. UMSTEAD. Is Major Johnson, of the Marine Corps, present? Major JOHNSON. Yes, sir.

Mr. UMSTEAD. Major, would you like to make any statement at this point relative to the Marine Corps Reserve?

Major JOHNSON. No, sir. I think Captain Schofield has covered that. I thank you.

Mr. PLUMLEY. I should like to ask somebody who will answer the question for a comparative statement such as I asked you for, Captain Gygax, as to the prerequisites and qualifications in order to enable a man to become a Marine Corps aviation cadet.

Captain GYGAX. The qualifications are practically identical. The training is identical. The statement previously inserted covers these cadets also.

NO DUPLICATION BY NAVAL RESERVE OF WORK OF THE R. O. T. C. OR OF MARINE SCHOOLS

Mr. DITTER. Captain Gygax, to what extent are the activities about which you have been giving us information a duplication of the work of the R. O. T. C. or the school ships that we have afloat? Captain GYGAX. There is no duplication. The R. O. T. C. trains the individual for his commission. When he is commissioned, he passes into the Reserve, and we take him up at that point. It is the same individual, but treated under two heads: First, the R. O. T. C. as a student; then as a Reserve officer when he graduates and is commissioned.

Mr. DITTER. You mean that your activities supplement the work of the R. O. T. C.?

Captain GYGAX. The R. O. T. C. prepares or qualifies the individual for his commission in the Reserve. At that point we take him up and give him his further training.

Mr. DITTER. Part of your activity has to do with the merchant marine, has it not?

Captain GYGAX. We have in the Naval Reserve one classification known as the Merchant Marine Naval Reserve; yes, sir.

Mr. DITTER. To what extent is that work a duplication of the work of the school ships?

Captain GYGAX. There is no duplication there, because the school ship trains the individual for his duties as a merchant marine officer. The job of the Naval Reserve with respect to the merchant marine officer is to give him the additional special training that he needs to make him fit into the Navy when he is called into service in an auxiliary ship.

Mr. DITTER. You mean to say, then, that your course is a postgraduate course to the school ship training that he receives?

Captain GYGAX. No, sir; I do not think there is any direct relation between the two. The school ship, of course, actually trains the man for his duties as a merchant marine officer, and inasmuch as that school ship is conducted along military or, if you like, naval lines, that individual is naturally better suited and fitted to become a Naval Reserve officer than is someone who has not had that character of training.

OFFICER INSTRUCTORS

Mr. DITTER. How many officers are there in the establishment who are directly connected with the activity with which you are associated as instructors or teachers? I mean active men, not reservists. How many of the regular establishment are assigned to the work of this Reserve unit with which you are identified?

Captain GYGAX. I will ask you to allow me to place that in the record. I do not have it at hand.

Mr. DITTER. Can you also add to that the amount of the pay of those men whose activities are confined to instruction and leadership in connection with this Naval Reserve work that you handle ? Captain GYGAX. Yes, sir.

(The statement requested is as follows:)

There are 49 officers of the Regular Navy whose paramount duty is the training, administration, or inspection of Naval Reserves. They are distributed as follows: 9 in the Navy Department and 40 in the various naval districts and afloat.

Included in the above are 8 officers in command of ships attached to naval districts, used principally for training reservists; and 10 officers in command of Naval Reserve aviation bases. Officers on duty at the Naval Reserve educational centers in New York, New Orleans, and San Francisco are included.

The pay and allowances drawn by these officers totals $273,477 per year. There are 10 naval aviators of the Regular Navy in command of reserve aviation bases, of which 1 is a commander, 4 are lieutenant commanders, and 5 are lieutenants. The total pay (and allowances) of these officers is $72,798

a year.

In addition to the above-mentioned officers there are other officers of the Regular Navy, as, for example, commandants, chiefs of staff and communication officers of naval districts, and many officers on duty in the Navy Department, etc., whose regular duties to a greater or less degree require them to devote some of their time to Naval Reserve affairs; and other officers, as, for example, recruiting officers, officers in charge of hydrographic offices, etc.. who have a paramount duty assignment not connected with the Naval Reserve. but who are assigned additional duties as circumstances require and permit. as instructors of Fleet Naval Reserve divisions. It is impracticable to estimate the part-time duty devoted to the Naval Reserve by these officers or the proportionate share of their pay which might be considered chargeable to the Naval Reserve.

IMPROVEMENTS OF NAVAL RESERVE AVIATION BASES

Mr. DITTER. Were there any new Naval Reserve bases established during the last year?

Captain GYGAX. No, sir. We have Naval Reserve aviation bases, 13 of them.

Mr. DITTER. Yes. Were there any new ones established?

Captain GYGAX. One was decommissioned, and none were established. There were 14 prior to this.

Mr. DITTER. Were there any that were changed as to location? Captain GYGAX. No, sir; not as to general location. One was moved from one section to another section of the same landing field at Los Angeles (Long Beach), and the one at Chicago was moved from one landing field (Great Lakes) to another (Glenview), in the same vicinity.

Mr. DITTER. Does this appropriation contemplate the use of any money for any improvements in any of the bases?

Captain SCHOFIELD. I will ask Lieutenant Commander McQuiston, of the Bureau of Aeronautics, to answer that question.

Lieutenant Commander McQUISTON. This appropriation does not include any money other than what is needed to maintain the buildings and grounds at the bases that are in operation now, and any minor improvements or new equipment that is required, in addition to flight

costs.

Mr. DITTER. What I should like to know, Commander, is: Have there been any bases where, either because of a change of location or a transfer of an activity from one place to another, funds have been spent to improve the bases that were used in the past?

Lieutenant Commander MCQUISTON. We use funds for improvement of bases.

Mr. DITTER. Is there any amount in this appropriation that contemplates such improvements, enlargements, and so on?

Lieutenant Commander McQUISTON. No, sir. We do not have anything included in this appropriation under discussion now that contemplates any enlargement of bases.

Mr. DITTER. Has your experience been that these enlargements or improvements have included an increased cost of maintenance in the subsequent year?

Lieutenant Commander McQUISTON. No, sir. There have been items of increase, but these are offset by items of decreases.

Mr. DITTER. Have you had recourse to any emergency funds or relief funds for the improvement of any of these bases?

Lieutenant Commander McQUISTON. Several of the bases have been improved through W. P. A. funds.

Mr. DITTER. Can you tell me how much has been spent of emergency, relief, or W. P. A. funds in the improvement of any of these reserve units or reserve bases?

Lieutenant Commander McQUISTON. No, sir; I do not have that. Mr. DITTER. Would such information be available?

Liteutenant Commander MCQUISTON. I think it could be obtained. Mr. DITTER. Mr. Chairman, I should like to make the request that we secure information which will show us the amount of emergency or W. P. A. or relief funds that have been used to enlarge and improve the Reserve aviation bases throughout the country.