Barstow, Calif., is a permanent installation, is it not, General Hill? General HILL. Yes, sir. Mr. DAVIS. These would all be permanent-type barracks, then, that you are requesting in the amount of a little over $1 million? General HILL. Yes, sir. Mr. DAVIS. What type of construction would they be? General HILL. It is being planned two ways, sir. One is on the typical Department of Defense plans which is the three-story barracks and the other is on a new plan developed by Yards and Docks which has been used very successfully in California and at Camp Pendleton. It is called the "tilt-up type construction." That is, the floor is first laid and then the wall and then the roof are poured and brought and put in place. That is the way this new 13,000-man camp at Camp Pendleton has been constructed and it is very satisfactory. Mr. DAVIS. What is your present overall situation with respect to existing barracks at Barstow? General HILL. The total requirements are to provide barracks and messing facilities for approximately 2,000 enlisted men. The normal enlisted planning strength is 2,863 and the existing on-board count is 2,333, which includes personnel of the 5th base depot. We have available at those 3 stations-Nebo, Dagget, and Yermo1,028 spaces. We have 1,898 troops living on the 3 stations. We have an existing deficiency of 870 and our total deficiency is 1,205. Mr. DAVIS. How are those troops housed at the present time? General HILL. At the present time we have about 200 of them in an old hangar at a place called Dagget; we have 150 who are living in an old roundhouse at Barstow and the others are living in some quonset huts at Yermo. All three are absolutely unsatisfactory due to the great heat in the summer and the cold in the winter. Mr. DAVIS. You are asking for funds which are substantially lower than the previous estimates and the amount that was authorized. This reflects this type of construction that you referred to earlier, does it not? General HILL. Yes, sir. Mr. DAVIS. How long has the Marine Corps been using that type of construction? Was it experimentally used there in California and now you have decided it is satisfactory for all California construction? General HILL. Yes, sir. It was developed by the Bureau of Yards and Docks to get something that was economical and satisfactory, earthquakeproof, and so forth, and this is what they developed. Mr. DAVIS. Your previous estimate was about $1,350 per man and this is going to run you what, about $1,200 or $1,100, or something like that? General HILL. No, sir; including the collateral, it will be around $1,700, but the chairman's statement is correct. It is reduced to $1,300 now, sir. That will be the cost price, $1,350 and the collateral would be $155. Mr. DAVIS. The amount that is before us is $902,000; is that correct? General HILL. That is correct, sir. Admiral PERRY. Mr. Chairman, the original authorization was on the basis of $1,700 per man. That has been reduced from $1,700 per man to $1,350 per man, a difference of $350. Multiplying by 454 men you get a difference in the authorization and in the present request for funds. Mr. DAVIS. The items to which you have referred as desert cooling, totaling $96,000, you consider were authorized under the term "collateral" in the authorizing legislation; is that correct? General HILL. That was brought out in the testimony before the Armed Services Committee, sir; that this type of cooling was required at Barstow. Mr. DAVIS. This type of construction that has been developed by the Bureau of Yards and Docks is something that you are presently contemplating using only in the west-coast area; is that correct? General HILL. My assistant, Colonel Robertson, states that this is the only area where the contractors have the equipment to do that kind of work. Colonel ROBERTSON. The only place where the price is now competitive. We would like to see it everywhere. Mr. DAVIS. How many of this type of barracks do you now have in use? General HILL. At this station, or Camp Pendleton? Mr. DAVIS. Camp Pendleton. General HILL. We have a capacity for 13,000 men. Mr. DAVIS. Of this type of construction? General HILL. A similar type of construction; yes, sir. It not only goes to the barracks space but goes to the messhalls and offices and classrooms and heads. There are 7,248 barracks spaces at Twentynine Palms. Mr. HAND. What generally do you plan to do at Barstow in the future which will require funding in an additional amount of $18,209,000? General HILL. We secured the Barstow portion at Nebo from the Bureau of Supplies and Accounts. The portion of it at Daggett, about 4 or 5 miles away, we secured from the Army and the Civil Aeronautics Authority, where there was a modification center for the Army Air Force during World War II. The Yermo section of this depot we secured from the Army Quartermaster Corps. Now, all of it was the most primitive type of temporary construction. Our complete program takes all that into consideration. In other words, we have at one area 1.2 million square feet of storage space that is rapidly deteriorating. We do not say we will need all of that storage space, but we will need some of it to be constructed at some time in the future, because the life expectancy of those buildings is now well past. Mr. HAND. Why are you planning an expansion of civilian personnel from its present figure of 2,086 to a planned figure of 2,521? General HILL. We are transferring a function from San Francisco, part of the function of west coast supply. It will not mean an increase in our overall personnel, but as the function is transferred from San Francisco we are closing out their civil service and securing new civil service, or the same ones, to be transferred to the Barstow Annex. Mr. HAND. Does that make for a more efficient operation? General HILL. Yes, sir; because we do not have space at San Francisco. Mr. HAND. Where is Barstow located with reference to San Francisco? General HILL. Barstow is an overnight trip from San Francisco. It is in the Mojave Desert, not very far from the eastern boundary of California. I believe it is 150 miles east of Los Angeles by rail. Mr. HAND. What strategic reason indicated Barstow should be established in the first place, or that this depot should be established at Barstow? General HILL. That was far enough from the coastline. We did not think we would have any interception from the Japanese at that time. Previous to then we had several hundred thousand feet of storage at Clearfield, Utah, which the Navy needed, so we had to move out of that and get something quickly. The Bureau of Supplies and Accounts let us have, not an equivalent, but a certain amount of storage at the Nebo portion of the Barstow Annex. During the war the Congress authorized and appropriated for the equivalent difference of what we had at Clearfield and what we required at Barstow. Mr. HAND. The principal function of this base, I notice in the justifications, is the procurement and providing of bulk storage and the issuance of supplies and equipment; is that correct? General HILL. That is correct; in addition to depot maintenance. Mr. HAND. Is most all of it that is issued designed for use in overseas missions? General HILL. Yes, sir. When our Fleet Marine Force did go overseas on a similar or independent mission compared to what they are doing now the backup material would be stored, and the shipments or replenishments would be made up; so much of this, so much of that and the other. Then they would be shipped to tidewater and go out in monthly increments. Mr. HAND. How are your rail and road facilities at Barstow? Mr. HAND. I notice as to acreage involved that in addition to Government-owned land of almost 4,000 acres you lease lands of 1,082 acres. Is all that acreage needed for your function there? General HILL. Yes, sir. That is the Daggett portion. We have been trying to get an authorization to buy that for several years, but so far we have not succeeded. Mr. HAND. In your judgment looking at it as of now, could any other location have been found which would have been equally suitable for your purposes, and in a climate somewhat less vile? General HILL. Not for the same amount of money. Of course, we have Twentynine Palms, which we support, about 100 miles to the southeast of there. Then we support with marine-type equipment our west coast Air, which is at El Toro. During the war we had several other fields there. We support Camp Pendleton. We support the San Diego Base. I do not believe we could have found anything. We looked at everything that was declared surplus after the war by the Army, and the Army Air Corps, and the Navy, and this seemed to be the best site. The material stored outside does not deteriorate very much. Mr. HAND. All this material is eventually moved to the coast; is it not? General HILL. Yes, sir; or used in training at those stations I enumerated. Mr. HAND. The average length of time between here and the coast is how much by your normal means of transportation? General HILL. Well, we can put it on a tractor trailer. It is about 8 to 10 hours. The shipment north to San Francisco is overnight. We can get it to any of our stations there in 1 day's running time, normal, by truck-tractor transportation. Mr. HAND. What has been the general increase in the size of the Marine Corps since June 1950? General HILL. At June 1950, sir, we were 74,000. Our peak load a short time ago was 265,000. It is now around 249,000. The strength on June 30 next will be 230,000. Mr. HAND. Do you anticipate almost a permanent continuance at that strength, or do you anticipate some decrease? General HILL. That was according to Public Law 416, which specified the Marine Corps would remain at 3 divisions and 3 air wings and supporting forces. Mr. HAND. In the event of a permanent and satisfactory solution of the truce negotiations in Korea and no further incidents coming along would you anticipate the continuance of the Marine Corps at its present size? General HILL. I guess if we could assume all those things, sir, the Marine Corps would naturally be reduced, with all the other forces. Mr. HAND. All your planning is based on the continuance of the corps at the present size? General HILL. Yes, sir. Mr. HAND. If it were not so supported, of course, you would not need to contemplate $18 million at Barstow and so on through the list, I suppose? General HILL. Yes, sir. Understand, sir, this is part of our mobilization requirements. Mr. HAND. Thank you, General. MARINE BARRACKS, CAMP PENDLETON, CALIF. Station: Marine barracks. Location: Camp Pendleton, Calif. Mission: Provide housing and training areas for Fleet Marine Force units Plant value (land and construction, Jan. 1, 1949) ---- Estimated additional cost to complete facility. Balance required_-- Funding request, fiscal year 1954-- Future years' funding 3, 643 57, 035 2,282 $52,798, 718 47, 187, 975 30, 181, 700 17, 006, 275 287, 000 16, 719, 275 Mr. DAVIS. We will turn then to the next item, which is for post exchanges and theaters and utilities and services as Camp Pendleton, Calif. Will you explain the basis of this request, General Hill? General HILL. The basis of this, sir, is that when we built the camp for these 13,000 men there seemed to have been some confusion that installations of this sort would not be granted, so they were eliminated. We went back to next year, because these stations were 8, 10, or 12 miles from any similar other morale-building activity. In other words, the Department of Defense goes over each activity similar to this very thoroughly, and there are 4 theaters, 4 post exchanges, con |