RESERVE OFFICERS HEARING BEFORE THE COMMITTEE ON MILITARY AFFAIRS SEVENTY-EIGHTH CONGRESS FIRST SESSION ON S. 1106 A BILL TO PROHIBIT THE ALLOWANCE OF CREDIT THE PROVISIONS OF SECTION 2 OF THE MONTHS THEREAFTER ε6767 MAY 21, 1943 Printed for the use of the Committee on Military Affairs UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE WASHINGTON: 1943 1 COMMITTEE ON MILITARY AFFAIRS ROBERT R. REYNOLDS, North Carolina, Chairman ELBERT D. THOMAS, Utah WARREN R. AUSTIN, Vermont HENRY CABOT LODGE, JR., Massachusetts WESLEY E. MCDONALD, Clerk UNITED STATES OF AMERICA JUN I 1'43 LUMP-SUM PAYMENTS TO AIR CORPS RESERVE OFFICERS FRIDAY, MAY 21, 1943 UNITED STATES SENATE, COMMITTEE ON MILITARY AFFAIRS, Washington, D. C. The committee met, pursuant to call, at 10:30 a. m., in the committee room of the Committee on Military Affairs, United States Capitol, Senator Robert R. Reynolds (chairman) presiding. Present: Senators Reynolds (chairman), E. C. Johnson, Hill, Truman, Austin, Gurney, Lodge, and Wilson; also Congressman Kilday. The CHAIRMAN. The meeting is called to order. We have before us today S. 1106, a bill to prohibit the allowance of credit in the computation of lump-sum payments to Air Corps Reserve officers under the provisions of section 2 of the act of June 16, 1936, as amended, for active service hereafter performed during the present wars and for 6 months thereafter. We have a letter here from the Secretary of War, dated May 11, 1943, which I will ask to have inserted in the record. (S. 1106 and the letter referred to are as follows:) Hon. ROBERT R. REYNOLDS, Chairman, Committee on Military Affairs, WAR DEPARTMENT, Washington, May 11, 1943. United States Senate. DEAR SENATOR REYNOLDS: There is attached a draft of a bill, to prohibit the allowance of credit in the computation of lump-sum payments to Air Corps Reserve officers under the provisions of section 2 of the act of June 16, 1936, as amended, for active service hereafter performed during the present wars and for 6 months thereafter, which the War Department recommends be enacted into law. Under the provisions of section 2 of the act of June 16, 1936 (49 Stat. 1524), as amended by section 6 of the act of June 3, 1941 (55 Stat. 240), an Air Corps Reserve officer who has not been selected for commission in the Regular Army is entitled to receive a lump-sum payment, in the amount fo $500 for each complete year of active service as such officer, upon release from active duty that has been continuous for 1 or more years. If such an officer is released from active duty otherwise than upon his own request, or as a result of inefficient or unsatisfactory service, such lump-sum payment is prorated for fractional parts of each year of active service performed. The foregoing provisions contemplated peacetime conditions and service on active duty for 3 years of officers commissioned upon the successful completion of aviation cadet training. The authorization of this lump-sum payment was highly desirable under such conditions, as it encouraged young men to seek active duty with the Army Air Forces. It would tend to compensate them for having relinquished the opportunity to enter into business or professional pursuits during such periods, and would provide funds for their economic rehabilitation upon their return to civil life. The War Department does not believe that the continuance of the provisions for lump-sum payments for wartime service performed by Air Corps Reserve officers is advisable. It is evident that the majority of young men who could meet aviation cadet qualifications will enter the armed forces in some capacity, and thus that no inducements are necessary to further aviation cadet procurement under present conditions. The provisions of section 3 of the above-mentioned act of June 3, 1941, which authorize the enlistment or appointment of aviation cadets and their subsequent appointment as Air Corps Reserve officers, were suspended by section 2 of the act of July 8, 1942 (Public Law 658, 77th Cong.), for the duration of the war and 6 months thereafter, except as to any person who had enlisted or who had been appointed as an aviation cadet prior to the date of enactment of the act of July 8, 1942. Aviation cadets are now enlisted or appointed under the provisions of the act of July 8, 1942, and upon the successful completion of the prescribed course of training are commissioned as second lieutenants or are appointed as flight officers in the Army of the United States. After service in time of war as commissioned officers or flight officers, such persons may be appointed officers in the Air Corps Reserve at the end of the war. However, commissioned officers appointed under the provisions of the act of July 8, 1942, as well as other flying officers who are members of components of the Army of the United States other than the Air Corps Reserve, are now undergoing the same dangers and hardships as those encountered by officers commissioned in the Air Corps Reserve, but are not entitled to receive the above-mentioned lump-sum payments upon the termination of their active service. It is manifest that the allowance of such' payments to Air Corps Reserve officers for wartime service under these circumstances is discriminatory and unjustified,. The War Department does not believe that the provisions of the proposed legislation should be retrospective so as to divest the rights to lump-sum payments which may have accrued to those persons who were appointed as officers in the Air Corps Reserve under the provisions of the act of June 16, 1936, as amended, Accordingly, the proposed legislation, if enacted, would deny such payments only for service performed from the effective date of the proposed act and for the duration of the present wars and 6 months thereafter. In this connection, it is noted that those provisions of the Naval Aviation Reserve Act of 1939 (act June 13, 1939, 53 Stat. 819), as modified by the act of August 4, 1942 (Public Law 698, 77th Cong.), which authorize the payment to certain Naval Aviation Reserve officers of a lump sum of $500 for each complete year, not exceeding seven, of continuous commissioned active service, have been suspended during the present war as to those officers who were enlisted in the grade of naval aviation cadet or transferred to that enlisted grade subsequent to September 3, 1942 (Executive Order 9268, November 9, 1942). The Bureau of the Budget advises that there is no objection to the submission of this proposed legislation for the consideration of the Congress. Sincerely yours, (Signed) HENRY L. STIMSON, Secretary of War. [S. 1106, 78th Cong., 1st sess.] A BILL To prohibit the allowance of credit in the computation of lump-sum payments to Air Corps Reserve officers under the provisions of section 2 of the Act of June 16, 1936, as amended, for active service hereafter performed during the present wars and for six months thereafter Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That in computing the lump-sum payments made to Air Corps Reserve officers under the provisions of section 2 of the Act of June 16, 1936 (49 Stat. 1524), as amended by section 6 of the Act of June 3, 1941 (55 Stat. 240), no credit shall be allowed for any period of active service performed from the effective date of this Act to the termination of all wars in which the United States is now engaged and six months thereafter. Any Air Corps Reserve officer who is subject to the provisions of the above-cited Act of June 16, 1936, as amended, and who is on active duty on the effective date of this Act, who has performed continuous active service for only a fractional part of a year immediately prior to the effective date of this Act, and who is not selected for commission in the Regular Army, shall, when released from active duty that has been continuous for one or more years, be paid the lump-sum payment provided by such section 2 of the Act of June 16, 1936, as amended, prorated for the fractional part of the year of active service performed prior to the effective date of this Act. The CHAIRMAN. I think I had better read the letter. (Senator Reynolds reads the letter from the War Department immediately appearing hereinabove.) Senator JOHNSON. I move favorable consideration. The CHAIRMAN. Is there any comment? Senator AUSTIN. I would like to make an inquiry. Captain Crosland. STATEMENT OF CAPT. E. B. CROSLAND, OFFICE OF THE JUDGE ADVOCATE GENERAL, WASHINGTON Senator AUSTIN. Captain Crosland, how would this bill affect any man who now is acting under the provisions of it? Would it affect any such person? Captain CROSLAND. Yes, sir, Senator; it would insofar as the accrual of any rights to future payments from the effective date of the act are concerned. In other words, the right to earn future credits toward a lump-sum payment of $500, or any pro rata share thereof, will be suspended upon the effective date of this bill, and will remain so suspended during the war and for 6 months thereafter. Senator AUSTIN. Are there many of those? sir. Captain CROSLAND. Yes, sir; there are quite a number of them, The number of Air Corps Reserves who have been called to active luty is approximately 5,000. There is also a considerable number of aviation cadets who were enlisted in the special enlisted grade of viation cadet in the Air Corps of the Regular Army under the act f June 3, 1941, and who were commissioned as Air Corps Reserve fficers, sir. Senator AUSTIN. I do not know as I understand the policy. I vant a clear explanation of it. Does it go into operation on any han who is inducted into the Regular Army? Captain CROSLAND. Senator, I do not understand the question, sir. Senator AUSTIN. The question is whether the law applies only to hose cadets, those members of this Reserve Corps, who are not inucted into the Regular Army. Captain CRO-LAND. If they are inducted into the Regular Army, hey are not entitled to receive any lump-sum payments, sir. Senator AUSTIN. So it applies to those who are not inducted into he Army? Captain CROSLAND. That is right, sir. Senator AUSTIN. Does it apply to any who are inducted into the rmy of the United States? Captain CROSLAND. This bill only applies, Senator, to Air Corps eserve officers. Those persons who are only members of the Army the United States are not entitled, under the present law, to ceive any lum-sum payments. That is one of the reasons the War epartment believes it is discriminatory to permit these Air Corps eserve officers to receive this payment, whereas other flying officers ho are undergoing the same hardships and dangers are not entitled it under the existing law. |