In 1935, this subcommittee considered and the Congress subsequently enacted Public Law 368, an act designed to put members of the Reserve components in the same position as Regular members of the uniformed services, with respect to the right to select a home upon discharge, retirement, or placement on the temporary disability retired list for the purpose of collecting travel and transportation allowance for themselves and their dependents.

Prior to enactment of that law, Regular members of the uniformed services had the right to so select a home, but members of the Reserve components were entitled to travel and transportation benefits only to their home of record upon entry into active service.

Public Law 368, which was approved on August 11, 1935, was retroactive to April 1, 1951. However, it contained a provision in section 3 that no additional amount could be paid members of the uniformed services as a result of its enactment unless travel to such selected home was performed on or prior to April 28, 1953, or within 1 year after such retirement, placement on the disability retired list, or discharge, whichever was later. Because of this limitation upon actually performing the travel, a small number of individuals could not avail themselves of the benefits of Public Law 368 because physical incapacity prevented their actually performing the travel within the limiting 1-year period.

Thus, the purpose of the proposed legislation is to correct this inequity for these few individuals by amending section 3 of Public Law 368 to provide entitlement to selection of a home for these people, provided the travel to that home was performed within 1 year after the period of hospitalization or medical treatment.

Mr. GUBSER. I yield to Mr. Blandford.

Mr. BLANDFORD. I think the best way to explain this bill is to read the Ramseyer on this bill.

Mr. KILDAY. This is one of those travel allowance things that is always very difficult and technical.

Mr. BLANDFORD. In 1955, in an effort to take care of the people who were placed on the temporary disability retired list and also to take care of Reserves who retired for disability, we passed on August 11, 1955, the following act, with this section in it:

This Act shall be effective from April 1, 1951, no additional amount may be paid to the members of the uniformed services as a result of enactment of this amendatory Act unless travel to such elected home be on or prior to April 28, 1953, or within one year after such retirement, placement upon the temporary disability retired list or discharge whichever is later.

It has now been disclosed that there are some certain number of individuals who could not perform that travel within that period of time because actually they were hospitalized and not discharged within 1 year. So that what they recommend is that the law would read:

No additional amount may be paid as a result of the enactment of this section to a member of a uniformed service who is retired, discharged or placed on the temporary disability retired list before August 11, 1955, unless travel to a home selected by that member was performed, (1) before April 29, 1953, (2) within one year after that retirement discharge or placement on the temporary disability retired list, or (3) within one year after a period of hospitalization or medical treatment which prevents qualification under clauses 1 or 2.

The hospitalization provision is the one that is important. This question was actually discussed in 1955 when we had these hearings in 1955 and the witness at that time didn't think that a problem would come up. The subcommittee did think the problem would come up. Mr. KILDAY. At that point I think we should hear from the Department. Colonel Quinlan, Mr. Baier, and Mr. Spence, will you come around, please? You can all take seats there at the table together. Do you have a statement?

Colonel QUINLAN. Yes, I have a statement which I will read or offer for insertion in the record, as you desire.

Mr. KILDAY. It will be included in the record at this point. (The statement is as follows:)

Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, I am Lt. Colonel E. W. Quinlan, Office, Chief of Finance, United States Army.

If enacted, this legislation would amend the act of August 11, 1955 (Public Law 368, 84th Cong.), to provide authority between April 1, 1951, and August 11, 1955, for travel and transportation allowances to a home of selection for members who were confined in a Government hospital on date of separation from active service, provided such members performed the travel before April 29, 1953. or within 1 year after release from the hospital. The facts which created the need for this legislation are these:

The joint travel regulations, effective April 1, 1951, provided authority for travel and transportation allowances for all retired members (Reserves and Regulars) to a home of selection, provided travel was performed within 1 year after termination of active duty. The provision therein relating to members of the Reserve components were held to be invalid by the Comptroller General in a decision dated September 21, 1953, because section 303 of the Career Compensation Act did not contain authority which would authorize such allowances to a home of selection for Reserve members.

Effective September 1, 1953, the joint travel regulations were changed to provide that if members were hospitalized on date of retirement, the time limitation to travel to a home of selection was extended to 1 year after release from the hospital. However, because of the Comptroller General's decision, this provision was applicable only to members of the Regular components.

Section 303 of the Career Compensation Act was amended by the act of August 11, 1955 (Public Law 368), to correct the inequity between Regulars and reservists by supplying permanent authority for travel and transportation for reservists to a home of selection. Specifically, that act provided for payment of travel and transportation allowances to all members of the uniformed services to a home of selection when (1) a member is retired for physical disability or placed upon the temporary disability retired list, or (2) is retired with pay for any other reason. or discharged with severance pay immediately following at least 8 years of continuous active duty.

Section 3 of the amendatory act made the provisions retroactive to April 1, 1951, and provide that no additional amounts could be paid members as a result of the act unless travel to the selected home was performed before April 29, 1953 (1 year after the termination of the national emergencies) or within 1 year after retirement, discharge, or placement on the temporary disability retired list, whichever was later.

This bill would provide authority for members, otherwise eligible to select a home under the retroactive provisions of the act of August 11, 1955 (Public Law 368), who could not qualify because of being confined in a hospital or undergoing treatment and were prevented from traveling to a home of selec tion within the time limitation imposed by section 3 of that act. This includes-(1) Members (Regular and Reserve) whose names were placed on the temporary disability retired list,

(2) Members (Regular and Reserve) discharged with severance pay with 8 or more years of continuous active duty immediately prior to discharge, (3) Members of the Reserve components, retired with pay immediately following 8 years of continuous active duty, and

(4) Members of the Regular components retired with pay with 8 or more years of continuous active duty between the dates of April 1, 1951, and September 1, 1953.

To obtain uniformity and equitable treatment for Reserve and Regular members, this bill should be enacted. Current regulations authorize such travel allowances.

If enacted, this legislation will not increase the budgetary requirements of the Department of Defense. Amounts due members who can qualify will be absorbed in the current appropriations.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and members of the committee. If you have any questions, I shall be happy to answer them.

Mr. KILDAY. Are there any questions?

Mr. RIVERS. Tell us what Mr. Gubser's bill does.

Colonel QUINLAN. Mr. Blandford explained it quite well.

Mr. RIVERS. Do you agree with it?

Colonel QUINLAN. Yes, sir, his explanation was 100 percent correct. Mr. RIVERS. You agree with it 100 percent, too?

Colonel QUINLAN. Yes, sir.

Mr. BATES. This is just for officers?

Colonel QUINLAN. All members.

Mr. BLANDFORD. This actually goes into the question of a person being able to select a place to which his household effects-to which he and his effects will be transported when he retires for disability. The question arises: The Regular officers can always select the home to which he wants to send his gear. The Reserve officer could not. Also, it was disclosed that for some reason or other the Comptroller General ruled that an officer placed on the temporary disability retired list, including Regulars, could not select a home but had to be controlled by his home of record. Well, when a Reserve comes on active duty and stays on for a period of time, it is assumed that he is a career reservist just as a Regular, and many of these people, for health reasons, had to move to California or Arizona, or something of that nature andMr. BATES. Or Massachusetts.

Mr. BLANDFORD. Yet their home of record might have been Red Bank, N. J., or some place of that nature. And the cost of travel-of course, they could only be compensated from the place of discharge to their home of record.

Mr. RIVERS. That is confined to the continental limits?

Mr. BLANDFORD. Confined to the continental limits except you can have your gear shipped to an embarkation point and they won't pay to take it off if you are going to go to Hawaii or Europe.

Mr. RIVERS. Hawaii is the continental limits.

Mr. BLANDFORD. No, I don't believe so.

Mr. RIVERS. What about Alaska?

Colonel QUINLAN. Alaska and Hawaii you are allowed to have your household goods shipped there.

Mr. BLANDFORD. Only to the point of embarkation?

Colonel QUINLAN. No, sir. If that is your home of record.

Mr. BATES. This applies to everybody? An enlisted man automatically has the right to have his household goods shipped to his place entering the service. But to any other point, does he have that right, a new election?

Colonel QUINLAN. Under this he would if he were hospitalized. Mr. BATES. What would he do under the bill we are trying to amend?

Mr. BLANDFORD. He would have the same right as

Colonel QUINLAN. All members are in the same position, be they enlisted or officer.

Mr. WILSON. I would like to have either Mr. Gubser or Mr. Blandford explain the significance of the dates in this.

Mr. BLANDFORD. If you want me to explain the dates, the 1953 date was based, I think, upon a Comptroller General's decision, if I recall correctly. The 1955 date is the law we passed in 1955 to take care of this situation. The 1953 date was the date that either the Comptroller General issued his ruling, or the regulations were changed, which denied a person that right. We had some retroactive claims that

came up as a result of the Comptroller General's decision, because after you had paid for some people who had selected a home which was different from their home of record and moved, then the Comptroller General ruled that there was no authority to do that. So to make those payments legal, we had to go back and use that 1953 date. This is my memory from 1955; is that correct?

Colonel QUINLAN. That is substantially correct. The April 29, 1953, is 1 year after the executive proclamation declaring the termination of the national emergencies.

Mr. RIVERS. Does this have anything to do with the law now on maximum weights?

Colonel QUINLAN. No, sir.

Mr. RIVERS. This is still unchanged?

Colonel QUINLAN. Yes, 11,000 pounds.

Mr. BLANDFORD. I would like to say that if we had more time for discussion of this matter, that there is a question I would like to get into the record and bring to the subcommittee's attention, and that is this question of people who move to a place that they select for their home and then when they arrive at that place, perhaps for health reasons or other reasons, they decide to move to another place before their household effects are shipped, and even though that is a lesser distance for the Government to transport those household effects, they will not permit them to modify the selection once made.

Mr. GAVIN. Though they haven't moved.

Mr. BLANDFORD. Even though the goods haven't started to move. Mr. RIVERS. Are those isolated instances?

Mr. BLANDFORD. It has happened enough times so that it has been called to our attention. It just seems a little bit silly.

Mr. KILDAY. Would this bill cure that?

Mr. BLANDFORD. No.

Mr. GAVIN. Why hasn't the Armed Services Committee taken it up with the Department and if it is a policy, have that policy changed? Mr. KILDAY. We have been too busy organizing the Department of Defense.

Mr. BLANDFORD. I hope somebody will introduce it as a legislative item next year.

Mr. KILDAY. Thank you, Colonel.

The next bill will be H. R. 11626, a bill to amend section 6911 of title 10, United States Code, to provide for the grade, procurement, and transfer of aviation cadets.

[H. R. 11626, 85th Cong., 2d sess.]

A BILL To amend section 6911 of title 10, United States Code, to provide for the grade. procurement, and transfer of aviation cadets

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That section 6911 of title 10, United States Code, is amended to read as follows:

"§ 6911. Aviation cadets: grade, procurement; transfer

"(a) The grade of aviation cadet is a special enlisted grade in the naval service. Under such regulations as the Secretary of the Navy prescribes, male citizens in civil life may be enlisted as, and male enlisted members of the naval service with their consent may be designated as, aviation cadets.

"(b) Except in time of war or emergency declared by Congress, 20 percent of the aviation cadets procured in each fiscal year shall be procured from qualified enlisted members of the Regular Navy and the Regular Marine Corps.

"(c) No person may be enlisted or designated as an aviation cadet unless"(1) he agrees in writing that, upon his successful completion of the course of training as an aviation cadet, he will accept a commission as an ensign in the Naval Reserve or a second lieutenant in the Marine Corps Reserve, and will serve on active duty as such for at least three years, unless sooner released; and

"(2) if under 21 years of age, he has the consent of his parent or guardian to his agreement.

"(d) Under such regulations as the Secretary prescribes, an aviation cadet may be transferred to another enlisted grade or rating in the naval service, released from active duty, or discharged."

Mr. KILDAY. I find that I am the author of the bill.

Mr. RIVERS. I move an unfavorable report.

Mr. GAVIN. Second the motion.

Mr. KILDAY. Capt. L. W. Williams of the Bureau of Naval Personnel, Deputy Assistant Chief for Plans. Will you come around, please, Captain?

The purpose of the proposed legislation is to eliminate the present requirement that a naval aviation cadet sign an agreement to serve on active duty for a continuous period, including time required for training, of not more than 4 years and to replace it with a requirement that the cadet sign an agreement to serve on active duty as a commissioned officer for at least 3 years after completion of the course of training as an aviation cadet.

Captain, do you have a statement on the bill?

Captain WILLIAMS. Yes, sir; I have a prepared statement here.
Mr. KILDAY. Will you go ahead with your statement?

Captain WILLIAMS. With your permission, I will read it here, sir. Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, I am happy to have the privilege of appearing before you in support of H. R. 11626. This legislation is considered necessary in order to improve the combat efficiency of our fleet aviation units and effect considerable savings in our flight-training program, by requiring increased tours of obligated service for persons completing flight training under the aviation cadet program. This would be accomplished by deleting the existing provision of law (art. 6911c, title 10, U. S. C.) which states that an aviation cadet must agree in writing with the consent of his parent or guardian, if he is a minor, to serve on active duty for a continuous period of not more than 4 years, unless sooner released, and replacing it with the provision that he agree in writing that, upon his successful completion of the course of flight training as an aviation cadet, he will serve on active duty as a commissioned officer for a period of at least 3 years.

The present course of flight training for aviation cadets requires approximately 18 months to complete. Upon successful completion of flight training, cadets are appointed as ensigns, United States Naval Reserve, or second lieutenants, United States Marine Corps Reserve, and concurrently designated as naval aviators, then ordered to active duty with the fleet operating aviation units.

The cost of training an aviation cadet is now about $100,000.
Mr. GAVIN. How much?

Captain WILLIAMS. $100,000.

Modern aircraft are so complex and expensive that an extremely high level of proficiency is required of a pilot before he can participate in fleet operational flight activities. The new pilot must spend