MILITARY CONSTRUCTION AUTHORIZATION, FISCAL YEAR 1966 WEDNESDAY, MAY 12, 1965 U.S. SENATE, COMMITTEE ON ARMED SERVICES, AND Washington, D.C. The Committee on Armed Services and the Subcommittee on Military Construction of the Committee on Appropriations met jointly, pursuant to recess, at 10:30 a.m., in room 212, Old Senate Office Building. Present: Senators Stennis (presiding), Inouye, Cannon, Saltonstall, and Thurmond. Of the staff of the Committee on Armed Services: Gordon A. Nease, professional staff member, and Charles B. Kirbow, chief clerk. Of the staff of the Committee on Appropriations: Vorley M. Rexroad and Joseph Borda, professional staff members. Senator STENNIS. Gentlemen, the committee will come to order. We will continue our hearings this morning on title I which relates to the Army portion of the bill, beginning with book 2. It is possible we may be able to take up the classified items in executive session later in the day. I want to especially thank Senator Inouye and I want the record to show my appreciation for his attendance at these hearings and that he has taken the responsibility of presiding. Senator INOUYE. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Senator STENNIS. It is always nice to have you here and your valuable assistances. I am very sorry I missed the other part of the hearing. I might ask you to come over and give me a briefing on your repetitive item presentation. General SHULER. Yes, sir; I will be glad to. STATEMENT OF MAJ. GEN. W. R. SHULER, DIRECTOR OF INSTALLATIONS, OFFICE, DEPUTY CHIEF OF STAFF FOR LOGISTICSResumed Senator STENNIS. General, you may proceed. ARMY MATERIEL COMMAND ABERDEEN PROVING GROUND, MD. General SHULER. Mr. Chairman, the first station, Aberdeen Proving Ground, is a part of the Army Materiel Command section of our title I request on page 195. We are asking for two line items. The first, a headquarters building addition and the second, a road construction which is a connection to the Northern Throughway. The first item on page 196 is the headquarters building and is an alteration project. This proposed alteration, sir, was selected in lieu of construction of a new building based on complete engineering study that indicated we could save $342,000 by doing this instead of new construction. The building will house 1,061 personnel of the Army Test and Evaluation Command, the Army Materiel Command Board and the Aberdeen Post Headquarters. These activities, sir, are presently housed in an inadequate frame headquarters building built in 1918 and 13 other buildings widely scattered throughout the installation. We feel, sir, that we can have a much more efficient operationthese buildings are old and scattered out-if we can have this central building altered. Senator STENNIS. Do you have an estimate of how much money you are going to save by getting this consolidated facility? General SHULER. We do not, sir, but we could certainly provide something, I believe, for the record that would illustrate what we think we can save, sir. (The following information was subsequently furnished:) The actual monetary savings to be realized by provision of a consolidated headquarters building will result from elimination of time loss by personnel involved in travel between the 14 buildings now occupied by the joint command activities. At an average time of 0.2 hour per trip, an average of 1.5 persons per trip, and an average cost of $4.68 per hour, the annual savings would be approximately $15,000. Other monetary considerations are in the area of cost avoidance. Provision of a joint command headquarters by alteration of an existing building as proposed, in lieu of programing the equivalent space by new construction, would result in a cost avoidance of $339,000. In addition, consolidation of joint command functions into a single building will release 56,410 square feet of permanent administrative space in three separate buildings now occupied by command personnel, and urgently required by other activities. This will preclude the programing of new construction in a like amount, resulting in a cost avoidance of $1,015,380 (56,410 square feet at $18 per square foot for building construction alone, without consideration of costs for site preparation and other supporting items). Senator STENNIS. Well, you said you can save. How are you going to save by having less employees and more machines or what? General SHULER. Sir, by getting out of these widely scattered numerous buildings into a central headquarters, we feel we can do our work more efficiently, get more work done and it is-I believe it is an accepted fact that a centralized operation is much more efficient than all scattered offices. Senator STENNIS. I don't suppose the Army practices what sometimes is called a slowdown in getting out work. I had heard that said about various departments, but I never heard it charged to the Army and I hope I never do. General SHULER. Sir, it is not true in my shop, sir. This seems like a good idea to me. It is a lot of money, of course, but what kind of a building are you redoing? General SHULER. This is a permanent building that we are remodeling. There are six temporary buildings that we are presently in and seven permanent buildings which will be used for other necessary uses or demolished. Senator STENNIS. Well, you have a large building there, though, that you are remodeling; isn't that right? This is an alteration. General SHULER. This is alteration and remodeling to building 314, a permanent building. Senator STENNIS. Well, what kind of a headquarters building is it? General SHULER. This has been used for the ordnance museum and other activities. It is a steel frame warehouse-type building, but it lends itself to this modification, sir. Senator STENNIS. What are you going to do with the museum? General SHULER. Mr. Hayes, can you answer this specific question? Mr. HAYES. Yes; I am Mr. Hayes, Test and Evaluation Command. The community of Aberdeen and the Ordnance Center and School is sponsoring through private subscription the building of a museum near Route 40, this to be paid for out of private funds. Senator STENNIS. It will be a community project. Mr. HAYES. It is, sir. Senator STENNIS. Very good. All right, next item, roadway. General SHULER. Page 197. This will provide a second major access road to this very important station. An adequate southern access road currently exists. However, the heavy vehicular traffic entering and leaving the northern part of the installation must use a two-lane road, go through the town of Aberdeen and go across a hazardous railroad grade crossing at Route 40, and the mainline of the Pennsylvania Railroad is involved. This project would do away with this hazardous crossing and bypass the town of Aberdeen and it is all on post and connects into the local community roads. Senator STENNIS. All right. Next item unless there are questions. AERONAUTICAL MAINTENANCE CENTER, CORPUS CHRISTI, TEX. General SHULER. The next station is the Aeronautical Depot Maintenance Center, Corpus Christi, Tex. This is our only fifth echelon, that is, heavy maintenance installation, for our Army aircraft. We have three items requested here. The helicopter transmission test facility, soundproof the engine test cell area, and four turbine engine test cells. The first item is on page 199. This, sir, is a facility to provide a capability of load testing the five transmission units and their related power train components of the Chinook, the C-47A helicopter, subsequent to their overhaul in the maintenance shop. This will provide us with the only Army in-house capability for overhaul of the CH-47A helicopter. Senator STENNIS. There seems to be a new need there for construction. That is a new mission, isn't it. General SHULER. Yes, sir. We do not have an in-house capability in this regard at the present time and we feel it absolutely necessary to establish a reasonable in-house capability so that we can do this with our own people, sir, to the required degree. Senator STENNIS. Well, how many of these do you have in this bill? General SHULER. This is the only one we have in this bill, sir. This is the only fifth echelon maintenance facility the Army has. Senator STENNIS. What does fifth echelon mean? General SHULER. That is the complete rebuild capability. The highest level of maintenance, sir. Senator STENNIS. Is this the only one you are going to have? General SHULER. This will take care of this particular requirement, sir, which is strictly for the Chinook helicopter. Senator STENNIS. This will put you in business? You don't expect to have any more construction here? General SHULER. No, sir. This is programed against reaching the load in fiscal 1970 that we will be involved with, and this is the total request that we are making, sir, at this time. Senator STENNIS. Very well. Unless there are questions, pass on to the next one. General SHULER. On page 200, soundproof engine test cell area. This will provide noise level control in the reciprocating and turboprop engine test cell area. The decibel readings go above 100. This is a case where the noise level is detrimental to the personnel. On page 201, the four turbine engine test cells, this is needed to accommodate the fiscal year 1967 through fiscal year 1970 scheduled in-house workload for the T-53, T-55, T-63, and T-64 turboshaft and turboprop engines. The first item we saw was on transmissions for that particular helicopter and this is for these type engines and has to do with the overall testing of these engines at this particular location. Senator STENNIS. Well, this is necessary for your helicopter fleet. General SHULER. This is exactly right, sir. Senator STENNIS. Will this complete your need for these test cells? General SHULER. This completes this particular need, does it not. Mr. BUKOUSKI. My name is Bukouski. I am from the Supply and Maintenance Command. The plan is for the two additional test cells as we develop a greater load, have more helicopters and we go deeper into turbine engines in place of reciprocating engines, we will need two more test cells later but we don't have the need now. Senator STENNIS. At this place. Mr. BUKOUSKI. Yes, sir. At this place. This is the one place we do all of this. Senator STENNIS. You don't have these anywhere else in the country. Mr. BUKOUSKI. No, sir. We have portable test cells in three other locations but they don't do this type of work. Senator STENNIS. All right. Unless there are questions, next item. ANNISTON ARMY DEPOT, ALA. General SHULER. The next station is Anniston Army Depot on page 202. We are asking for the conversion of the combat vehicle shop. This item would provide a combat vehicle subassembly overhaul shop that would meet the environmental standards for this type of work and permit recovery of space originally designed for overhaul and reconditioning of major assemblies. We need dust control, better lighting, vibration-free conditions to do this work. This gets us out of the building we are now sharing with the overhaul and reconditioning of combat vehicles and puts us into this building which we intend to convert by this project. |