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Mr. BROOKS. So, you figure the cost of that by multiplying that by three.

All right, thank you very much, Colonel.

Any further questions?

If not, we appreciate your appearance, Colonel, and Mr. Congressman, we appreciate your assistance.

Colonel WARDLE. I have appreciated appearing before the committee and I want to thank you.

Mr. BROOKS. We are happy to have you. We may call on you later if something comes up and we have to have more specific information.

Colonel WARDLE. I will be happy to come back and furnish you any information that you need.

Mr. DEVEREUX. I move to report the bill.

Mr. BROOKS. You have heard the motion, duly seconded, to report H. R. 9721 favorably to the full committee. All in favor, say "Aye."

(Chorus of aye's.)

Mr. BROOKS. The ayes have it.

(Whereupon, the committee proceeded to further business.)

H. R. 13226

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,

COMMITTEE ON ARMED SERVICES,

SUBCOMMITTEE No. 1,

Washington, D. C., Friday, July 11, 1958.

The subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 10 a. m., in room 313-A, Old House Office Building, Hon. Overton Brooks (chairman of the subcommittee) presiding.

Mr. BROOKS. The subcommittee will please come to order.

This morning we have several bills here-H. R. 6295, a bill to provide for the transfer between components of exempt or deferred persons without loss of such exemption or deferment.

I would say this: We had better start with another one first because we have a witness. If it is all right and there is no objectionwhich bill is that?

Mr. DUCANDER. That is 13226

Mr. BROOKS. 13226, a bill to amend title 10 of the United States Code to provide more flexibility in making additional appointments to bring the number of cadets at the United States Military Academy and United States Air Force Academy up to full strength. That bill is introduced by Chairman Vinson and referred to this subcommittee.

The bill is as follows:

[H. R. 13226, 85th Cong., 2d sess.]

A BILL To amend title 10, United States Code, to provide more flexibility in making additional appointments to bring the number of cadets at the United States Miliary Academy and the United States Air Force Academy up to full strength

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the first sentence of section 4343 of title 10, United States Code, is amended to read as follows:

"Whenever it is estimated that the average number of cadets at the Academy during a school year will be below the authorized number, the Secretary of the Army may nominate qualified alternates and other qualified candidates who competed for nomination and are recommended and found qualified by the Academic Board, but not more than are estimated to be necessary to make the average annual strength of the Corps of Cadets equal the authorized strength of that corps."

SEC. 2. The first sentence of section 9343 of title 10, United States Code, is amended to read as follows:

"Whenever it is estimated that the average number of cadets at the Academy during a school year will be below the authorized number, the Secretary of the Air Force may nominate qualified alternates and other qualified candidates who competed for nomination and are recommended and found qualified by the faculty, but not more than are estimated to be necessary to make the average annual strength of Air Force cadets equal the authorized strength of those cadets."

This morning I think we have a witness here who has come down from the Academy and stayed over since yesterday.

Mr. DUCANDER. General Counts.

Mr. BROOKS. In fact, General Counts has been here once before, I believe, to testify, if I am not mistaken, on this bill. We didn't get to it.

So, General, we are happy to have you down here to bring us in your testimony some of the viewpoints that you have at the Academy and your work up there with those young men that finish, and be commissioned and serve their Nation in the Army in the future.

Do you have a prepared statement?

General COUNTS. I have, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. BROOKS. If you will proceed then, sir, with your prepared statement, we would appreciate it.

General COUNTS. Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, I am Brig. Gen. G. A. Counts, Dean of the Academic Board, United States Military Academy. The Department of the Army has been designated as the representative of the Department of Defense for this legislation. I represent the Department of the Army for that

purpose.

I have a brief prepared statement which I would like to present to the committee.

The purpose of H. R. 13226 is to amend existing statutes in order to provide more flexibility in making additional appointments at the United States Military and Air Force Academies, and thereby maintain the Academies at more nearly authorized strength.

At the present time the corps of cadets may be brought to full strength on the date of entrance of a new class, but almost immediately thereafter when normal attrition begins, the corps is below strength. The proposed legislation in effect would authorize a limited starting overstrength so that the average strength during the school year would not exceed that now authorized by law. It is estimated that annually 40 additional appointments could be made to offset losses through attrition.

In the case of West Point the Secretary of the Army is authorized to make these additional appointments. The individuals are selected and recommended by the Academic Board as being the best of the alternates and competitors who have qualified but, for lack of a vacancy, cannot be admitted under their normal nominations. More

young men would be admitted under this proposal, but congressional nominations are in no way affected by these additional appointments. We expect the passage of the legislation would bring the following benefits:

(a) There would be a limited increase in the admissions with a consequent increase in our officer output.

(b) The facilities of the Academy would be used more efficiently throughout the year, and this at a negligible cost.

(c) The quality of the corps of cadets would be further improved. The competition for outstanding graduates of the secondary school is now very keen. The Military Academy would profit by this ability to select these outstanding candidates who otherwise would not enter. Further, we feel that this would permit an earlier notification to some extent, and this would be helpful to hold the better candidates.

I was chairman of our additional appointments committee for many years. The present legislation is especially helpful to the Military Academy because the additional appointees, as a group, have made enviable records. The enactment of legislation to amend the present law would further benefit the Army in that it would result in a more efficient and effective utilization of the facilities at West Point.

I have appreciated this opportunity of appearing before the committee and shall be happy to answer any questions you may have on this bill.

I have with me a representative from the Department of the Air Force who is prepared to answer questions on additional appointments at his Academy.

Mr. BROOKS. General, we would like to ask you a few questions. What is the full strength of the Academy?

General COUNTS. The full strength of the Academy, not counting the foreign cadets, is 2,496, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. BROOKS. What is the authorized strength of the Naval Academy? General COUNTS. I believe it is up around 3,800. They usually run about 50 percent larger.

Mr. DUCANDER. 4,382, Mr. Chairman.

General COUNTS. I might say we have used that 2,496 for many years, Mr. Chairman. Now that Alaska is in, we are going to go up to 2,504, I presume.

Mr. BROOKS. What do you mean-2,504?

General COUNTS. They have had four from a delegate. Now they will have 2 Senators and a Congressman, I believe, which will be 8 more additional. We had hoped that maybe you would throw in four all these years some place to make it 2,500. Of course the 2,496 was always a sort of a difficult number to remember.

Mr. BROOKS. Is the correct strength of the Academy 2,400, the West Point Academy? Is that the proper strength?

General COUNTS. 2,496, yes, sir.

Mr. BROOKS. Is that the proper strength of your judgment for the military to meet the needs of the military?

General COUNTS. Mr. Chairman, I believe that is some Department of Defense policy, of officer procurement, that does not probably come within my province.

Mr. BROOKS. You are charged, sir, as the officer of education. General COUNTS. In charge of the academic instruction of the cadets; yes, sir.

Mr. BROOKS. The reason I asked, I put in a bill sometime back to authorize the increase in size of the Military Academy and the Air Force Academy, too, to equal that of the Navy Academy.

I wondered why the Navy needs 1,000 more officers, graduates, than does the military and the Air Force?

General COUNTS. May I turn this question over to

Colonel HAMBLEN. Sir, I am Lt. Col. A. L. Hamblen, Jr. from the Department of the Army and the officer concerned with the Military Academy. We, of course, are very familiar with your H. R. 8558 which we feel is a very sound bill and has many very fine points about it. The reason you do not have that bill at this particular time is that the Department of Defense, all three service Academies becoming involved, are incorporating the features of that particular bill in a larger, all-encompassing bill to arrive at a greater permissive overall strength to meet the ultimate needs of the three services.

We have not completed all that study, but we expect probably in the next session of Congress, or as soon as we complete our final judgment on that bill, to submit that bill to Congress.

Mr. BROOKS. Át least my bill is causing you to think about it any

way.

Čolonel HAMBLEN. More than that, it is the nucleus, it is the very heart of the bill we have. All of those features that you have brought up, with I think almost no exceptions, are based on it. And we have merely gone a little further to encompass certain bills that are not present.

We are trying not to come over here every year with a lot of Military Academy and service Academy bills, so we have added into that 8558 an additional bill on foreign cadets, an additional bill on whether Congressmen would be required to appoint his cadets only from one district as opposed to the whole State.

We have tried to get them all together so that we have a package. But in view of the fact such legislation will require considerable discussion before the Congress-and I might add we give each Congressman an additional appointment every other year under these present plans-we have this bill that will provide and interim measure for the next few years and will give us an opportunity to use our facilities and get more officers out.

We haven't by any manner of means put that bill aside. It was very close as to whether it was even going to be submitted this year.

Mr. BROOKS. We appreciate that report. Coming back to this particular bill, this will authorize the filling of vacancies which occur at the last moment so that you will have a completely full Academy, isn't it, General?

General COUNTS. It does a little more than that, Mr. Chairman. It not only fills it, but it is authorizing us to take a limited overstrength to start with.

Mr. BROOKS. How many overstrength?

General COUNTS. We believe that the overstrength would be, under this, probably not more than 80 or 90 in order to end up with an understrength of 80 or 90.

Mr. BROOKS. How would you estimate your overstrength?

General COUNTS. We estimate the overstrength by taking the attrition in the past 10 years and have taken an average figure for that.

Mr. BROOKS. The average would be 80 or 90.

General COUNTS. Approximately that overstrength, yes.

Mr. BROOKS. Then at the end of the year you would end up even then 80 or 90 below.

General COUNTS. That's right, yes.

Mr. BROOKS. You would put in 80 or 90 more than your full strength in your Academy. Then how would you fill attritions as they occur, or would you fill them?

General COUNTS. You don't fill them during the year.
Mr. BROOKS. You would not fill those attritions?
General COUNTS. Not during the year.

Mr. BROOKS. Does the Navy have the same program?
General COUNTS. They have the same program, yes, sir.
Mr. BROOKS. All right.

General COUNTS. Yes, sir.

Mr. BROOKS. So therefore they were not included in this bill? General COUNTS. They don't have this overstrength. I understood

Colonel HAMBLEN. Sir, the Naval Academy has an authorized strength of 4,365, I believe, sir. They average only about 3,700 midshipmen at their Academy. Their authorization is so much greater than ours there is no requirement on their part to have any additional vacancies. They are presently using their facilities to maximum capacity.

As a matter of fact, they cannot use all the authorization offered them because they do not have the facilities. The Congress has given them authority to build extra barracks so they could get more people into their Academy.

So they do not have the problem. They have more authorization than they can handle now.

Mr. BROOKS. As you increase the size of the Naval Academy, you increase the appointive power of the Secretary of the Navy, do you? Colonel HAMBLEM. Sir, the authorization is already in existence, and the Congressmen, all Congressmen, of course, who appoint people in the Naval Academy continue to appoint all they desire.

Mr. BROOKS. I am just trying to get information with reference to this bill. As you increase the size of the capacity of the Naval Academy, that increases the right of the executive branch of Government to fill more appointments.

Colonel HAMBLEN. That is correct in one respect. Where they normally are not filling their vacancies is in their regulars and reserves and Presidential areas where they are authorized 160 individuals per year in each of those categories, whereas the Military Academy is only authorized for a 4-year period 90 cadets each in both the regulars and reserves. Since they are not getting enough from that area, they are able to take care of all the Congressmen and still not have to worry about going

Mr. BROOKS. I understand that. But I am trying to find out how they were taking care of themselves, not the Congress.

Colonel HAMBLEN. They still are able to take care of the Congressmen and take care of a certain number of appointees from the Secretary.

Mr. BROOKS. How are they taking care of themselves?

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