In addition to the above, the War Department General Staff has directed that space be allocated at Oakland Army Base to War Department agencies for the following: San Francisco Medical Depot, Central Stock Control Group. Hon. Ross RIZLEY, WAR DEPARTMENT, Chairman, House Surplus Property Subcommittee, Washington, D. C. DEAR MR. RIZLEY: During the course of the committee hearings in San Francisco, Calif., September 15-18, 1947, inclusive, the War Department representatives were requested to submit certain information for the record. On October 6, 1947, certain information was submitted to your office. However, it was indicated that information relative to the utilization of warehouse space at the Oakland Army Base, San Francisco Port of Embarkation, was being compiled and would be submitted to the committee at an early date. The following tabulation shows the present allocatoin of warehouse space (exclusive of pier sheds and warehouses used for in-transit cargo operations): (a) San Francisco Port of Embarkation: Finance Office, U. S. Army. San Francisco Adjutant General Regional Records South Pacific division engineer. San Francisco Medical Depot.. Stock control point_- Subtotal. Total available storage space.. 449, 000 2, 140, 000 (c) The following notes are applicable to space allocations as indicated in the foregoing tabulation: (1) Port stocks: 1,128,000 gross square feet. Seventy-five-day stock level for operation of 34 ocean-going Army transports operated from the San Francisco Port of Embarkation and shore installations of the port. In general, this level of supply has not been attained. All stocks are current and, with the exception of heavy equipment in the nature of marine spare parts, are generally turned over once every 75 days. There is currently on hand a minor quantity of stores, removed from vessels recently decommissioned, for classification and return to port stocks or to appropriate depots. (2) Surplus property: 136,400 gross square feet. Money value records of surplus property generated and disposal action indicate an over-all turn-over of surplus property each 6 months. A minor quantity of this surplus property account has not moved within 12 months. (3) Salvage property and scrap: 94,800 gross square feet. Complete turn-over with minor exceptions within 60 days. (4) Subsistence: 102,000 gross square feet. This stock under control of the Quartermaster General and administered from the Utah General Depot. Fifty percent turn-over during past 6 months; 80 percent past 12 months; 100 percent past 18 months. (5) Caskets: 136,300 gross square feet. Space allocated by War Department for temporary storage of caskets received direct from production sources, intransit to oversea commands, for the return and permanent interment of World War II dead. (6) Household furniture, military personnel: 93,500 gross square feet. Represents space required to store household goods under provisions War Department Circular No. 219, August 14, 1947. Household goods stored under this directive for a period of not to exceed 12 months. (d) Space utilized by War Department agencies other than San Francisco Port of Embarkation: Generally (1) Finance officer, United States Army: 10,000 gross square feet. consists of Finance Department records pending audit and permanent storage. (2) San Francisco Adjutant General Regional Records Depot: 76,000 gross square feet. (3) South Pacific division engineer: 3,000 gross square feet. ing records. Engineer operat (4) San Francisco Medical Depot: 300,000 gross square feet. Space allocated under War Department directive September 10, 1947, for transfer of the San Francisco Medical Depot from leased facilities and consolidation of stocks with stocks of the medical section, Stockton General Depot. (5) Stock control point for establishment of area general distribution depot: 60,000 gross square feet. Space allocated under War Department directive September 10, 1947. 3. Warehouse space for other than storage purposes.—(a) Repatriation of World War II dead (leased property): 128,000 gross square feet; (b) bay area laundry, bakery, and C. and E. facilities: 225,000 gross square feet; (c) movement of lessthan-carload in-transit cargo: 326,000 gross square feet. 4. Cargo movements.-The following list, by month, shows the measurement tons of cargo handled through the San Francisco Port of Embarkation during the past 6 months and includes estimated quantity passing through in-transit cargo storage facilities: 5. Space utilization.-Space allocated for port storage operations, as of September 18, 1947, was 62 percent utilized. Space utilization varies generally between 50 and 70 percent during a period of 6 months. This allocated space not utilized constitutes a reserve storage factor necessary for the handling of frustrated cargo and cargo moving through the port at a rate in excess of that for which pier operated facilities are available. This reserve space is also neces-sary for use in case of rail or ship tie-up which is impossible to foresee. It is believed that the above information completes that which was requested for the record during the course of hearings in San Francisco. However, in the event additional information is desired, please do not hesitate to let us know. Sincerely yours, CLARK L. RUffner, Major General, GSC, Deputy Chief, Legislative and Liaison Division. Total warehouse space used for storage of port supply T-640 (shipping and receiving in-transit stocks, household effects, Transit sheds: Shed 3 (leased for 5 years). Shed 4 (leased for 5 years). 344, 140 146, 880 19, 650 19, 650 2, 140, 000 326, 000 128,000 110, 830 150, 000 Shed 5 (leased for 11 years). Shed 7. Shed 6A (classification). Total transit sheds used for terminal operations... Grand total storage space_- Gross open storage space: Utilized for port supply, including supply of Army vessels, surplus Pier and terminal operations_ Warehouse operations, space adjoins warehouses. Parking purposes and parade ground.-- Total__. Reserved for bay area laundry, bakery, etc., project Mr. DONOHUE. Are all the Army supplies actually loaded at the Oakland Army base? Is that the actual shiploading point? Colonel BRECKINRIDGE. That is the shiploading point for all Army supplies. Mr. ANDERSON. All except ammunition? Colonel BRECKINRIDGE. And except personnel loaded at Fort Mason. Mr. DONOHUE. Are any Army supplies loaded at Fort Mason? Colonel BRECKINRIDGE. Not usually. Simply sufficient supplies for ship supplies for a voyage or something like that or any necessary supplies needed for that particular trip. Mr. DONOHUE. Is there any supply loading for any other branch at Fort Mason? Colonel BRECKINRIDGE. Not to my knowledge. Fort Mason is almost entirely a personnel port and the administrative head for the port of San Francisco. Mr. DONOHUE. Are there any storage facilities for supplies at Fort Mason? Colonel BRECKINRIDGE. Only very limited and most of that is open storage. Mr. DONOHUE. What is the extent of the dockage at Oakland Army base as compared to the dockage at Fort Mason? Colonel BRECKINRIDGE. At Fort Mason we have three Government-owned piers. At the Oakland Army base we presently have seven piers, six piers, which will take nine 500-foot ships, and of those piers three are leased, piers 3, 4, and 5 are leased. Mr. DONOHUE. From the city of Oakland? Colonel BRECKINRIDGE. From the city of Oakland. I believe pier 4 is on a 5-year lease, and pier 5 on an 11-year lease. It has been agreed with the city of Oakland that we will give up pier 3 as soon as we have completed 90 percent of the repayment of debt program through this port. Piers 6, 6, and 7 are Government-owned. Mr. DONOHUE. Is there joint usage of some of those by the Army and Navy and Air Forces and Marine Corps? Colonel BRECKINRIDGE. Joint usage is permitted if space is available, both at our piers and at the Navy piers. In other words, if ours are full and the Navy have a space and we need space, they will give us this space, and the opposite is true. Mr. HOLIFIELD. To what capacity are those dock facilities used ordinarily? Colonel BRECKINRIDGE. They are pretty well utilized all the time. Mr. HOLIFIELD. Up to full capacity? Colonel BRECKINRIDGE. Yes, sir. On several occasions recently we have had to occupy pier 2 which we have returned to the city of Oakland. The port has been very busy. Mr. DONOHUE. Why couldn't this personnel loading at Fort Mason be done through the Oakland Army base? Colonel BRECKINRIDGE. There are several reasons for that. In the first place, the housing facilities of Oakland are nonexistent. We have no place to house anyone, with the exception of a very few barracks there and some conversions for family quarters in process right now. The hotel facilities are practically nonexistent in that area for dependents and people coming into the Port. Another purpose of Fort Mason is the loading of the hospital ships and unloading of hospital ships. If we had to unload those ships at Oakland, it would be an additional expense to the Government to transport them to the Letterman General Hospital, as well as the fact that the railroad yards for hospital ships are at Letterman General Hospital. Mr. DONOHUE. The loading, rather, the unloading of the hospital patients, then, would be the prime continuing factor? Colonel BRECKINRIDGE. That's right. Mr. DONOHUE. The personnel problem could be solved by erecting housing or something of that nature on the Oakland Army base? Colonel BRECKINRIDGE. I think the cost of erecting housing in the Oakland Army base would overcome closing out of any place like Fort Mason. Another point re Fort Mason: The entire administrative set-up and communication set-up for the port has been established there at considerable expense. Mr. DONOHUE. At Fort Mason? Colonel BRECKINRIDGE. At Fort Mason. And to change that would also cost the Government considerable. Mr. DONOHUE. Now, what is the station complement at Oakland Army base as compared to Fort Mason? Colonel BRECKINRIDGE. I am afraid that is a question I will have to answer later. I don't have the break-down. I have the entire port figures. SUPPLEMENTAL DATA (Furnished September 17, 1947. The following statement is submitted by Colonel Breckinridge to answer the questions raised at yesterday's hearings) Personnel at Oakland and Mason cannot be broken down any further as they are one activity, and personnel shift back and forth. Figures for the San Francisco port of embarkation have been submitted to Mr. Harlow. Mr. DONOHUE. And does the port consist of any other facilities besides the two locations we have been discussing? Colonel BRECKINRIDGE. Yes, Camp Stoneman, which is the housing of enlisted and officer replacements while here awaiting shipment overseas. It is a personnel center. Mr. DONOHUE. Enlisted and officer personnel also housed at Fort Mason? Colonel BRECKINRIDGE. No. The people that are housed at Fort Mason are the dependents. Mr. DONOHUE. I see. That is, both enlisted and officer dependents? Colonel BRECKINRIDGE. That is correct, and civilian. Mr. DONOHUE. Well now, relative to the stock you have stored at the Oakland Army base, can you furnish the committee with a breakdown as to percentage of stock that has been stored there for 18 months, 12 months, and 6 months, breaking it down in that order, the stock that has, say, sat there on the base for an 18-months' period, 12-months' period, and 6-months' period? Colonel WELLS. May I answer that in general, first, and then I will have to obtain such information, if it is possible, for the record, from the port over here. (See supplemental data, p. 42.) Since that is an in-transit point, supplies stay in there relatively a short time waiting for the boat which will carry them to their ultimate destination. The depots within the zone of the interior have packed and marked the supplies for their eventual destination. Those supplies are shipped then from the hundred-odd depots that we have in the zone of the interior to the port. There they are gathered together as a cargo load for the ship, and when that ship has arrived they are put over in the transit shed and loaded onto the ship. So in actuality there should be no supplies there which were there, well, 60 days at the most. Now, then, there are some Transportation Corps supplies in there from deactivated ships. When the war was over we commenced to decommission ships and certain supplies on those ships are in storage in the warehouses at the Oakland port. Exactly the tonnage and the length of time I will have to obtain for the record. Now, when the medical depot is moved over there, there will be supplies in there which, of course, are to meet the eventual demands, but you do not know when that demand may come. You must stock in order to meet all demands from the user. Mr. DONOHUE. You mean, then, on the Oakland Army base at the present time, apart from the stocks from the deactivated ships, all other supplies over there are marked for some specific shipment? |