This hangar that we are redesigning here in Meridian will probably drop 20 percent from the original cost. Mr. BECKER. Mr. Chairman, I would like to inject a thought that when these figures come in here such that when the square footage price is put in that a comparative figure for private construction of a similar type be injected at the same time, to give us a comparative figure for a similar type of work. Then we have something upon which we can base our thinking. Admiral PELTIER. It would be a little hard to get something definite. Mr. BECKER. No, just a comparison. I will not pin this down to 5 cents or 3 cents or something like that, but some of these things run in thousands. Mr. WINSTEAD. We may make things similar in the Government but we tie them up with so much redtape that it costs more for the Government to do everything. Mr. BECKER. Then cut out some of the redtape. Mr. RIVERS. You have to have these minimum wages. You have to have the area wages. For instance, you have to pay the same price the union gets in Meridian as it gets in the local overall area. Mr. BECKER. That is all figured. Mr. RIVERS. Not in private housing in communities. Mr. BECKER. Oh, yes. Mr. RIVERS. It would be difficult for this reason. The only place you could do it would be in housing. Mr. KILDAY. Let's get back to Meridian, Miss., now. Mr. WINSTEAD. When does it call for this project to be in complete operation? Admiral AILES. September 1961. Mr. WINSTEAD. We have about a year's delay? Admiral AILES. Yes, sir. Mr. RIVERS. Take Beaufort. The Beaufort building of the Capehart housing project costs about $17 million or something like that. The Beaufort area wage, Department of Labor criteria, was based on the Charleston rate. The progressive people in my part of the country-and the woods are full of them-built a bridge connecting Beaufort with Savannah, Ga., across a terrific terrain there of-the admiral knows about it-of water-and makes Beaufort, S. C., about 40 miles from Savannah. It used to be 75. Now Beaufort is really in effect in the Savannah area. The Savannah wage rate is higher than Charleston so we are having trouble now keeping that contract that you have down there under the Charleston thing so you can't tell. It is difficult to conjecture. Mr. KILDAY. Without objection, Meridian, Miss., is approved. Admiral AILES. The second and last project in this first aviation facility group is at the Naval Auxiliary Air Station, Whiting Field, Fla., in the amount of $4,679,000. There is just one line item in this. This station is adjacent to the small town of Milton Fort and about 33 miles northeast of Pensacola. The project proposes the development of an outlying field about 17 miles northeasterly from Whiting Field at a cost of $4,679,000. Mr. KILDAY. Any questions, Mr. Kelleher? Mr. KELLEHER. No, sir. I might point out there will be 2 runways, each 150 by 6,300 feet, as the main element of this station. I have no questions, Mr. Chairman. Admiral AILES. There is land acquisition in this item. Mr. KILDAY. Without objection, the item is approved. Admiral AILES. The second group in aviation facilities is "Fleet support air stations." It consists of 49 line items at 10 stations at a total estimated cost of $38,781,000. These stations are chiefly required to support the Navy's striking power. The first project is at the Naval Air Station, Alameda, Calif., which the committee wishes to consider later, I understand. The second project in this group, gentlemen, is at the Naval Air Station, Cecil Field, Fla., for a jet engine maintenance shop for $1,252,000. This is a master jet field whose mission is to maintain and operate facilities and provide services and material to support aviation activities of units of the operating forces of the Navy and other assigned activities and units. The Navy's experience dictates the performance of 30- and 60-hour maintenance checks and overhaul of the engines used in our jet aircraft. The maintenance involves a complete check of the engine and the electrical and hydraulic systems of the aircraft, and necessary minor repairs. This requires a production line technique to meet the planned workload at this station of 15 engines per day or 288 per month. A separate facility will be provided, designed specifically for the promotion of maximum efficiency in handling, overhauling, maintaining, storing, and issuing jet engines. This will enable us to eliminate the transportation of engines for the 30- and 60-hour check to Naval Air Station, Jacksonville, the industrial station of this master jet complex, thereby permitting a reduction in the number of new replacement engines which would otherwise have to be in the supply system. The building will be steel frame, 480 feet long by 90 feet wide, with a 160 foot by 30 foot lean-to, having masonry and metal sidings. The building will be equipped with a bridge crane and will be air conditioned for dust control. Mr. KILDAY. The item is approved. Admiral AILES. The fourth project in the group of fleet-support air stations is at the Naval Auxiliary Air Station, Fallon, Nev., for construction of a liquid oxygen transfer building at a cost of $80,000. This project is the second of this type of facility in the program. It is similar to the project for Naval Air Station, Alameda, which I have already described, and is required to serve the same purpose at this station. The Fallon Air Station maintains and operates facilities and provides services and materials to support operations of aviation activities and units of the operating forces of the Navy and other assigned activities and units. One of its major tasks is to support fleet aircraft rocket, gunnery, bombing, and field carrier landing practice training operations. Mr. KILDAY. Without objection, the item is approved. Admiral AILES. The next project, Mr. Chairman, is at the Naval Auxiliary Landing Field, Fentress, Va., an auxiliary to the Naval Air Station, Oceana, Va. It is used primarily for field carrier landing practice. The project at this field is another in the "package" program for an optical landing system, which I previously described. 20066-58-No. 86- -21 This project will provide for installation of the mirror system at each end of the east-west runway, together with the necessary electrical and communication lines. Its estimated cost is $142,000. We had quite a few of these in the bill last year, as you will recall. Mr. KILDAY. Without objection, the item will be approved. Admiral AILES. The sixth project for this group of stations is at the naval seaplane facility, Harvey Point, N. C. It consists of 12 line items at a total estimated cost of $11,215,000. Its mission will be to maintain and operate facilities and provide services and material to support operations of aviation activities and units of the operating forces of the Navy and other assigned activities and units, with the major task to support operations of fleet support seaplanes, fleet aircraft service squadron and fleet air wing. It is designed specifically to support operation of the large, fast, jet-propelled P6M seaplane, the Seamaster. This is the third increment for development of this station. Authorization granted for the first two increments totals $11,728,000. These three increments will provide a large portion of the facilities needed to make the station operational. The first line item is to provide approximately 47,000 square yards of aircraft parking apron at an estimated cost of $735,000. The second line item is for navigation aids at a cost of $554,000. These aids are required to enable aircraft flying under instrument conditions to locate the station, hold in the area while awaiting approach clearance for final letdown and landing under all weather conditions and for use in training during clear weather. These aids include a semifixed tactical air navigation facility; an air surveillance radar facility; an ultrahigh frequency (UHF) homer; UHF direction finder; and a very high frequency (VHF) direction finder; plus necessary utilities and roads to make these facilities operable. The third line item, gentlemen, is the second increment of seadrome lighting at an estimated cost of $1,137,000. The first increment was authorized 2 years ago for installation of sealane lights, without the approach lights, for one sealane. We are now requesting authorization for lights for the second sealane, the approach lighting and the taxiway lighting. The two sealanes will provide for landing and takeoff for a combined wind coverage of 95 percent. The lighting is required, of course, to permit 24-hour per day operations. The sealanes will be 1,000 feet wide by 15,000 feet long; will have high intensity sealane lights on both sides, threshold lighting; and identification lights at each corner of the sealane. Taxiway and approach lighting will be at one end of the sealane with the lights on only one side of the taxilane. Cables and controls will be provided for control of the lights from the control tower. The fourth line item is the mooring buoys at a cost of $54,000. Normally about 25 percent of the planes in a seaplane squadron may be serviced afloat so that it is necessary to provide facilities for mooring these aircraft in the stream. This requires 10 mooring buoys, one quarter of the seaplanes in the base loading. The buoys will be furnished by the Navy and are not part of this line item. The line item does include procurement of necessary anchors and chains and the buoy installation in the mooring area offshore from the beaching ramps. The fifth line item is for a training building at the estimated cost of $337,000. A progressive training program is necessary to enable the military personnel to keep abreast of design development in operational aircraft. The program will provide operational and maintenance training which effectively increases the proficiency of the enlisted technicians on each new type of major modification to operational aircraft. It will also provide for training of aviators by use of mockups of actual aircraft and by simulating conditions and situations which occur in actual flight. The training building with about 12,500 square feet of floor area will contain space for a maintenance training group, procedure training room, jet trainer room, a munitions, ordnance and rearmament classroom, information and educational classroom, visual education room, projection room and spaces for several other related functions. The next line item, gentlemen, is for provision of a maintenance hangar and a squadron hangar for 2 patrol squadrons at a total estimated cost of $4,830,000. They will be built specifically for maintenance of these large seaplanes; and will be of modular construction with doors 45 feet high. The doors will be designed so that the large P-6M aircraft can be brought nose-first into the hangar and the doors closed around the fuselage with the tail end outside. The backup shop area will permit 30 feet deep by 30 feet wide penetration of the aircraft nose section. Shops and second-floor offices will be airconditioned. The 2 hangars will provide 196,200 square feet of floor area. The seventh line item will provide a dispensary at the estimated cost of $707,000. This station is approximately 20 to 26 miles from the nearest civilian hospitals at Elizabeth City and Edenton, N. C., and about 90 miles from the nearest naval hospital at Portsmouth, Va. Because of its relative isolation, it is essential that the station be provided with adequate medical and dental facilities for inpatient care of station military personnel, outpatient care for these military personnel and their dependents, and emergency care of civilian employees. The dispensary will consist of 2 single-story, masonry buildings, the main dispensary to have about 18,900 square feet of floor space, and a small ambulance garage and medical storage building with about 1,400 square feet of floor area. It will have 10-bed inpatient capacity and facilities required for sick call, examination, emergency treatment, surgery, dental examining and operating area, administrative offices, record room, and pharmacy. The eighth line item for this station is the administration building at an estimated cost of $303,000. This will be a 2-story structure about 40 feet wide and 127 feet long, providing 10,160 square feet of floor space for the 65 administrative personnel who will be working in the building. This is an important facility for the station since it is here that the overall operation of the station is planned and administered. The next three line items are also highly essential, Mr. Chairman, since they are to provide living accommodations for the military personnel. The first of these is to provide the first increment of barracks at an estimated cost of $1,645,000. We plan to assign 2,028 enlisted men to the station, of whom, we estimate, about 290 will be married and use 290 units of the 384 units of Capehart family housing planned for the station. This will leave a requirement for 1,738 barracks spaces, of which 664 spaces will be provided by this item and 1,074 spaces will be programed in the future. This item is for construction of four 166-man standard 2-story, 37 feet wide by 276 feet long, air-conditioned, barracks buildings, together with the necessary utilities and paving to make them usable. The next item is for construction of a standard 1,000-man enlisted men's messhall at a cost of $471,000. It will be a T-shaped, masonry structure consisting of a galley with a capacity for preparing meals for 1,000 men and an air-conditioned cafeteria with seating capacity for 400. The third of these personnel facilities line items is for a bachelor officers' quarters with mess at the estimated cost of $379,000. The planned officer base loading is 213. We estimate that approximately 94 of the officers, or 45 percent of the complement, will be married and occupy Capehart family housing at the station. Accordingly, there will be a requirement for 119 BOQ spaces. We propose with this line item to construct a motel-type bachelor officers' quarters with mess to accommodate 30 officers. This will be a 2-story air-conditioned building. The remaining requirement for 89 BOQ spaces would be satisfied in a future program. The twelfth and final item for this station, Mr. Chairman, is the grounds drainage for $63,000. Since the topography of the station is very flat, there is little hydraulic gradient for natural surface runoff; and the character of the soil affords only small percolation of rainfall, a drainage system must be installed to remove surface water. This system will consist of construction of about 4,350 lineal feet of various sized pipe and about 24 inlets. Mr. KELLEHER. Mr. Chairman, in Mr. Vinson's review of this particular item he believes items in the amount of $4,174,000 could be stricken without injurying the Navy's program for Harvey Point. The items are 1 hanger at $2,300,000, seadrome lighting, a training building, and 1 of the barracks. That is a total reduction $4,174,000. Mr. RIVERS. Can I inquire what is the reason for that? Mr. KELLEHER. He reviewed the program of the Navy for Harvey Point and found these to be relatively low ranking, and in his study determined in his own mind that they could be stricken. Mr. RIVERS. Is that because the plant is having trouble getting out the X-2? Mr. KILDAY. Is it based on the priorities submitted by the Department? Mr. KELLEHER. They didn't submit the priorities, as such, but in their funding program these items are not near the top. Mr. KILDAY. It is only a postponement, rather than a rejection? Mr. KELLEHER. That is right. Admiral AILES. These are on our funding list for this year. Mr. RIVERS. Mr. Chairman, in view of the fact that this is the only Seamaster station that they have in the United States, and in view of the fact that the Navy has great hopes for this SeamasterI know something about this plane of course, every plane Martin builds they have trouble with, I don't care what it is, they have trouble. But I understand you are getting out of the woods on this pretty well. If they ever get this Seamaster going, it is going to |