DISASTERS HEARINGS BEFORE THE COMMITTEE ON INVALID PENSIONS HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES SEVENTY-SIXTH CONGRESS THIRD SESSION ON H. R. 6532 A BILL TO PROVIDE PENSIONS AT WARTIME RATES FOR JANUARY 19, 1940 Printed for the use of the Committee on Invalid Pensions CONTENTS PENSIONS-AIRCRAFT AND SUBMARINE DISASTERS FRIDAY, JANUARY 19, 1940 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, THE COMMITTEE ON INVALID PENSIONS, Washington, D. C. The committee met at 10 a. m., Hon. John Lesinski (chairman) presiding. The CHAIRMAN. The committee will come to order. The purpose of this meeting is to hold a hearing on the bill, H. R. 6532, to provide pensions at wartime rates for disability or death incurred in line of duty as a direct result of submarine or aircraft disasters. (Said bill is as follows:) [H. R. 6532, 76th Cong., 1st sess.] A BILL To provide pensions at wartime rates for disability or death incurred in line of duty as a direct result of submarine or aircraft disasters Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That part II, Veterans Regulation Numbered 1 (a), as amended, is amended by adding at the end thereof the following: "Any veteran otherwise entitled to pension under the provisions of part II of the regulation shall be entitled to receive the rate of pension provided in part I of this regulation, if it is determined by the Administrator of Veterans' Affairs that the injury or disease resulting in disability was incurred or aggravated in line of duty on a submarine or in an aircraft as a direct result of the sinking of such submarine (from causes other than collision or other ordinary hazards of the sea experienced by surface craft) or the crash of such aircraft, as the case may be. "The surviving widow, child, or children, and/or dependent mother or father of any deceased veteran who died as a result of injury or disease incurred or aggravated in line of duty on a submarine or in an aircraft as a direct result of the sinking of such submarine (from causes other than collision or other ordinary hazards of the sea experienced by surface craft) or the crash of such aircraft, as the case may be, shall be entitled to receive pension at the monthly rates provided in paragraph (2) of section 3, Public Law Numbered 304, Seventy-fifth Congress (U. S. C., 1934 edition, title 38, sec. 472b)." The CHAIRMAN. I introduced this bill last May at the request of a representative of one of the Veterans' organizations. The introduction of this bill followed in a few days after the ill-fated Squalus went to the bottom off the New England coast. I wish to call the attention of the committee to the fact that prior to the passage of the Economy Act double pensions were paid to the dependents of those who lost their lives in submarine or airplane disasters. I have letters from the Secretary of War and the Secretary of the Navy in regard to the bill we have under consideration, and which I would like at this time to introduce into the record. (The letters referred to are as follows:) Hon. JOHN LESINSKI, WAR DEPARTMENT, Washington, October 10, 1939. Chairman, Committee on Invalid Pensions, House of Representatives. DEAR MR. LESINSKI: In reply to your letter of May 26, 1939, in reference to H. R. 6532 entitled, "A bill to provide pensions at wartime rates for dis |