a considerable part of his first tour of duty in the fleet becoming "seasoned" and acquiring the state of combat readiness and operational proficiency necessary to make him the finished product that is so essential in the success of modern flight operational concepts.

Under existing law, the naval aviation cadet acquires an obligation to serve on active duty for "not more than 4 years," which includes the flight-training time. As a result, naval aviators who were initially procured and trained as aviation cadets, in most cases, are not able to complete more than one normal tour of training and deployment with the fleet within their period of obligated service.

Under existing conditions, this creates a tremendous turnover of aviation personnel and instability in fleet operational squadrons and places a continuous strain on our procurement of new replacements and on our flight training facilities. It is an extremely costly process, but one we have had to face to meet the overall requirements of the Navy today.

This bill, H. R. 11626, by changing the active duty requirement to a period of at least 3 years after completion of training, will provide a degree of flexibility in the service obligation so as to permit the employment of the new aviators on at least 2 normal tours of deployment with the fleet. This additional requirement will increase the efficiency, combat readiness, and safety of the fleet flight operations since a greater percentage of the pilots will be second-tour pilots. Experience has shown that by virtue of this experience, the second-tour pilot is the more capable pilot and has a much lower accident rate than the relatively inexperienced first-tour pilot.

It will improve the stability of aviation personnel and will result in considerable savings in the cost of flight training by permitting a reduction in the rate of flight training each student pilot reduced in the training program would result in a saving of about $100,000.

It is further anticipated that extension of the obligated service may influence the retention on active duty rate of pilots favorably. The young pilots probably will have been selected for promotion to the ranks of lieutentant in the Navy or captain in the Marine Corps at the time they complete their obligated service, when they must decide whether to remain on active duty or return to civil life.

Under existing law these young pilots are lieutenants (junior grade) or first lieutenants and have not reached the selection point for promotion when the time arrives for this decision to be made. Increased pay and more attractive duty with increased responsibility and authority for which they will be qualified as a result of increased rank will be greater inducement for them to apply for augmentation to the regular component or to remain on extended active duty as a member of the Reserve component.

Although the normal training and deployment cycles average about 18 months, they are subject to change due to variations of a great number of factors; therefore, no specific statutory period of obligated service is stated in the proposed bill. At the present time a 311⁄2 year period of obligated service on completion of flight training is considered adequate to permit a pilot to complete 2 normal tours of deployment with fleet operational units.

However, future requirements cannot be accurately foreseen. This proposal, therefore, requires the aviation cadet to serve for a period of at least 3 years after completion of flight training.

The legislation proposed herein will bring the aviation cadet training program into consonance with other flight training programs in which the obligated service could be increased to appropriate lengths by administrative means. This bill also parallels the provision of law which governs the aviation cadet program in the Air Force as stated in article 8257, title 10, United States Code.

A further purpose of this proposal is to amend the grade of an aviation cadet from "a special enlisted grade in the Naval Reserve and Marine Corps Reserve" to "a special enlisted grade in the naval service." This will authorize the grade for a regular component as well as for a Reserve component and eliminate the administrative necessity for discharging men of the regular component and enlisting them in the Reserve component when those enlisted regulars in the fleet are transferred into the naval aviation cadet program.

The Navy would like to convert to these new contracts immediately. I should therefore request that the committee favorably endorse the bill and recommend its enactment at the earliest practicable date.

Mr. KILDAY. Captain, what it does essentially as to the tour is to make it net 3 years after training, isn't that it?

Captain WILLIAMS. Yes, sir.

Mr. KILDAY. Any questions by members of the committee?
Mr. RIVERS. Do they have to sign a statement to that effect?
Captain WILLIAMS. Yes, sir; when they initially enter the service.
Mr. RIVERS. And it makes it the same as the other?

Captain WILLIAMS. It will make it the same as the others; yes, sir. We can administratively do it, anything beyond 3 years.

Mr. RIVERS. I can't see that aviation thing on your coat; it is covered up.

Captain WILLIAMS. It is aviation.

Mr. RIVERS. Then you know what you are talking about.

Captain WILLIAMS. Thank you, sir.

Mr. GAVIN. How many do you lose now after they have completed their training-what percentage?

Captain WILLIAMS. We do not lose any of them after they have completed their training.

Mr. GAVIN. You say you are trying to make it now that they stay in the service for a period of 3 years. Evidently they are not receptive to staying in for longer than the period of a year?

Captain WILLIAMS. No, sir; our present law is not more than 4 years and they complete that obligated service. That is normally about 212 years after completion of flight training.

Mr. RIVERS. You just want to shut the door before the horses get out?

Captain WILLIAMS. Yes, sir. We need a little additional time and we hope to get a higher incentive for them to remain on active duty. Mr. KILDAY. Mr. Bates?

Mr. BATES. Captain, all you are really doing is extending this for 6 months under present standards?

Captain WILLIAMS. Basically.

Mr. BATES. As it stands today you will extend it for only 6 months, that is really what it amounts to, unless you extend the training period?

Captain WILLIAMS. Mr. Bates, what we have, the law reads now not more than 4 years.

Mr. BATES. I understand.

Captain WILLIAMS. We wish to change it to at least 3 years.
Mr. BATES. I understand.

Captain WILLIAMS. Our present obligation, which we require of the aviation cadet or of all other sources, is 312 years after completion of flight training. So this law would permit us to have the naval aviation cadet entering the service obligate himself for 32 years after completion of flight training.

Mr. BATES. I see. But if you have an 18-month training program, all this essentially does is give you a man for 6 months more. Captain WILLIAMS. That is correct.

Mr. BATES. Do you intend to extend that period of training! Captain WILLIAMS. We may extend it to 31/2 years or what is neces

sary.

Mr. BATES. The training period, from 18 months?

Captain WILLIAMS. No, sir.

Mr. BATES. The training period?

Captain WILLIAMS. The training period we will not extend.
Mr. BATES. You will not extend that?

Captain WILLIAMS. No, sir.

Mr. BATES. So if you are not going to extend that, all this bill would do is give you these people for 6 months more, that is all it amounts to?

Captain WILLIAMS. That is correct. At least 6 months more.

Mr. BLANDFORD. It must be 1 year more, because 18 months plus the 211⁄2 they are required to serve now, and you are going to require 32, so it is going to be an additional 1 year.

Mr. BATES. No.

Captain WILLIAMS. The law will permit us

Mr. BATES. You are going to have them for 42 years under the new bill, 3 years plus 18 months.

Captain WILLIAMS. At least that; yes, sir.

Mr. HUDDLESTON. At least 3 years.

Mr. BATES. No.

Mr. GAVIN. Let somebody clear up this situation.

Mr. BATES. Now 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 traianing, 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.

Captain WILLIAMS. That is correct, sir.

Mr. BATES. So that is the net difference of 6 months if you are going to have an 18-month training period.

Mr. RIVERS. That is 41% years.

Mr. BATES. 412 instead of the 4 you have today.

Captain WILLIAMS. That is correct.

Mr. BATES. That is all I am trying to establish. Is that correct? Captain WILLIAMS. That is correct.

Mr. BATES. I have one other question, which has to do with the last paragraph in your statement about the Navy would like to convert these new contracts immediately. What does that mean?

Captain WILLIAMS. For all aviation cadets entering the program

now.

Mr. BATES. Entering the program now?

Captain WILLIAMS. Yes, sir; not retroactive.

Mr. BATES. You won't convert any contracts presently in existence? Captain WILLIAMS. No, sir; we won't.

Mr. KILDAY. Is there anything further on this bill?

Mr. HUDDLESTON. Mr. Chairman.

Mr. KILDAY. Mr. Huddleston.

Mr. HUDDLESTON. Captain, tell me something; what was the reason for the language in the present law of at least 4 years? Why was that phrased in those terms?

Captain WILLIAMS. That was not at least 4 years; it was not more than 4 years.

Mr. HUDDLESTON. Why was it phrased in those particular terms? Captain WILLIAMS. I think possibly, Mr. Huddleston, that is because that was the normal enlistment in the other services, 4 years. The flight training program at that time was 12 months, basically. Mr. GAVIN. Are you through?

Mr. HUDDLESTON. Yes.

Mr. GAVIN. Mr. Chairman.
Mr. KILDAY. Mr. Gavin.

Mr. GAVIN. Would you proceed from the time the boy enlists and tell us what he does and what you want him to do?

Captain WILLIAMS. Yes, sir, Mr. Gavin. We would want to

Mr. GAVIN. Now from the time the boy enlists. He is going in now, tell us.

Captain WILLIAMS. The boy enlists and enters the flight training program as a naval aviation cadet. The present training programMr. GAVIN. For what period of time?

Captain WILLIAMS. The present training program requires 18 months, sir.

Mr. GAVIN. Right.

Captain WILLIAMS. We need at least 3 years after that-after he completes flight training in order for us to get equitable returns on our investment of time and energy in training the man and the cost of the training program.

Mr. GAVIN. That is another year and a half.

Captain WILLIAMS. No, sir.

Mr. GAVIN. You say you would need at least 3 years?

Captain WILLIAMS. Three years.

Mr. GAVIN. So that would be another year and a half?

Captain WILLIAMS. Three years after completion of flight training, sir.

Mr. GAVIN. Well

Captain WILLIAMS. After completion of flight training.

Mr. GAVIN. After he completes, you need 3 years more, all right. Captain WILLIAMS. At least 3 years, yes,

Mr. GAVIN. Then he is in 412 years?

sir.

Captain WILLIAMS. That is the minimum time that we would enlist him for, yes, sir.

Mr. GAVIN. What do you want him to do now, extend that, or what does this bill do?

Captain WILLIAMS. This bill extends it from a total enlistment. Mr. Gavin, of not more than 4 years, from the time he enters, to not less than 3 years after completion of flight training.

Mr. GAVIN. Do you think that is adequate time after we invest $100,000 in his training?

Captain WILLIAMS. We would like to get much more time, sir. Mr. GAVIN. Then why didn't you ask for it? There is an inclination, I think, on the part of Members of Congress and a great many of them are interested in the tremendous investment we make in education of these youth in these various programs, that they remain in the service and we have tried with the military pay increase legislation to make it attractive enough.

That is the point I was trying to make, why is it so difficult for you to retain these men and necessary for us to enact legislation to continue them in the service for a greater length of time?

Captain WILLIAMS. We are in hopes, Mr. Gavin

Mr. GAVIN. What percentage of them stay with you and go into the regular department?

Captain WILLIAMS. At the present time I think that percentage is about 25 percent, sir, that remain-are selected and remain in the Regular Navy. About 16 to 18 percent remain on active duty as Reserves. Mr. BLANDFORD. That is an increase from what it has been in the past?

Captain WILLIAMS. Yes, sir.

Mr. BLANDFORD. A considerable increase.

Captain WILLIAMS. We would hope that this bill will help retain these individuals for longer periods of time.

Mr. BLANDFORD. May I make one observation, Mr. Gavin? This bill says not less than 3 years after completing training. If the Navy should find that they have to keep these people for 4 years on active duty to complete the 2 active duty tours that are necessary for the efficiency of the Navy, the bill would permit them to do it.

Mr. GUBSER. It would?

Mr. BLANDFORD. Yes.

Captain WILLIAMS. This law would permit us to do that.

Mr. BLANDFORD. This bill would permit them to extend it to 4 or 5 years if necessary.

Mr. HUDDLESTON. Or 20.

Mr. BLANDFORD. Yes.

Captain WILLIAMS. Our present time, Mr. Chairman, is 31⁄2 years for all of our other programs. This bill would permit us.

Mr. KILDAY. If you should find it necessary to increase the training period from 18 months to 2 years or any other period of time, it would not come out of his active duty obligation, because it is a net obligation after commission, rather than a total obligation from the time of entry.

Captain WILLIAMS. That is correct.

Mr. GUBSER. Am I to understand, Mr. Chairman, that 3 years in a great many cases will not give time enough for 2 complete tours? Is it 311⁄2 usually?

Captain WILLIAMS. At the present time, sir, it is 31⁄2 years. This bill would last for not less than 3 years.

Mr. BATES. What do you actually expect to do, Captain?