don those. It doesn't seem to make sense to come in and ask that great big hospitals be abandoned because we have no use for them, and then to come in for $48,000,000 to build new ones. General BARRIGER. We have reactivated those hospitals, many of them, and we have in our plan to make up the deficiency. Mr. ELSTON. And there are no World War II hospitals, then, Army hospitals, that have been, or which you intend to abandon? General BARRIGER. There are none that I know of; no, sir. Mr. SASSCER. Can you check that? Mr. PHILBIN. Will the gentleman yield? Mr. ELSTON. Yes, we yield to the gentleman from Massachusetts. Mr. PHILBIN. It is true that heretofore you have abandoned several of the larger hospitals. General BARRIGER. Yes, sir; that is true. Mr. PHILBIN. Within the last 18 months. General BARRIGER. That is true, they were abandoned. Mr. PHILBIN. And now you have reactivated some of those hospitals? General BARRIGER. Yes, sir. Mr. PHILBIN. And, in addition, you have this new program of construction to meet the needs that you now face. General BARRIGER. Yes, sir. But we have those that were surplussed I wouldn't say abandoned, because that is probably the wrong word. The ones that we have surplussed we have reactivated and are now using Valley Forge, Murphy, and the one in Michigan. Mr. GAVIN. Percy Jones. Mr. PHILBIN. Murphy General, Valley Forge, and one somewhere on the west coast. General BARRIGER. Yes, sir. Mr. PHILBIN. I can recall very well at that time when we had a subcommittee under the chairmanship of our very able and distinguished colleague, Mr. Rivers, and some other members of this committee who looked into that matter. General BARRIGER. That is right. Mr. PHILBIN. And very strongly advised the Army not to abandon and deactivate these establishments, but they nevertheless went ahead and they deactivated, and now they are back here, just as we told them they would be back here, asking for authority for new construction. Mr. GAVIN. Mr. Chairman Mr. ELSTON. Just a minute. I still have the floor, please. We asked at that time if they were looking at the future and if they were determining whether or not at some foreseeable time in the future they would need these hospitals, and they said they couldn't foresee any necessity at all in using those hospitals. The CHAIRMAN. We know all about the hospitals. Mr. GAVIN. Mr. Chairman Mr. ELSTON. Of course, I think in all fairness to the services, Mr. Chairman, that they did not concur in that position. Secretary BENDETSEN. I think the record will show. Mr. ELSTON. I think it was Dr. Meiling, and he acted contrary to the viewpoint of the services. The CHAIRMAN. Yes. Mr. ELSTON. But, nevertheless, they had to go along because he had the authority. The CHAIRMAN. But, nevertheless, the Department of Defense concurred in his recommendation. Mr. ELSTON. Yes. Mr. GAVIN. Mr. Chairman, I want to say, as a member of this subcommittee, that all branches of the service were in vigorous opposition to the closing of these hospitals. The CHAIRMAN. That is true. Mr. GAVIN. Therefore, we cannot charge the Department of the Army with the responsibility, as it was under the direction of the Medical Director, Meiling. The CHAIRMAN. That is right. Mr. GAVIN. They merely complied with his order. Mr. PHILBIN. I think that is true, that it was at the direction of the so-called Mr. or Dr. Meiling, and over the express objections of practically all the other high officials, high ranking officials of the armed services. Mr. GAVIN. All the Surgeons General. The CHAIRMAN. Go right ahead. General BARRIGER. The next item is storage requirements The CHAIRMAN. Have you a copy of your statement? That is a very valuable statement? Have you any copies of it? Mr. SMART. There were none given to me for distribution. I got one so I could follow the procedure. General BARRIGER. We can supply them. The CHAIRMAN. I want some copies made. I want to follow it closely later on. Go ahead, General. General BARRIGER. The proposed construction of additional storage facilities is required for the storage of reserve stocks to be procured under current approved procurement plans. The construction of additional depot-maintenance facilities is for the purpose of augmenting present facilities for repairing the large quantity of Army stocks now in storage which are presently nonissuable. Approval of necessary funds for constructing these additional facilities will also result in the establishment of a more adequate mobilization base for future expansion, if and when required. Col. De Witt Thompson, of the Supply Division, OAC of S, G-4, will give you further information on the depot system prior to the time specific projects being proposed for authorization are reviewed by you. (4) Research and development: Included in the Army program is approximately $127,000,000 for this category. The research and development items which appear in the Army construction program are for facilities essential to efficient operation of the expanded research and development program and for research and development projects in relatively new and promising fields. (Discussion off the record.) General BARRIGER. An important item contained in section 101 is for "Restoration and replacement of facilities damaged or destroyed and provision for other urgent construction requirements" in the amount of $37,000,000. This figure has been divided between the continental United States and overseas areas in the amounts of $27,000,000 and $10,000,000, respectively. The authorization requested amounts to 2 percent of our total request and is for the restoration and replacement of facilities damaged or destroyed by fire, wind, and other acts of God and for projects which will develop during the next year for which specific authorization has not been provided. This completes my general discussion on section 101, of the proposed bill and has covered a total of $1,463,028,557, or 80 percent of the amount of new authorization being requested by the Army. Section 102 of the proposed bill includes for the Army $302,234,000, or 17 percent of the total amount, for projects within and without the United States. Mr. COLE. Will you explain that? General BARRIGER. Yes, sir; if I may go off the record at this point, please. (Discussion off the record.) The CHAIRMAN. General, go right ahead with your statement. General BARRIGER. I will go back on the record, Mr. Chairman. Title IV, is in the amount of $55,000,000, that is the remaining 3 percent, of which $40,776,000 is for joint projects within the United States, and $15,000,000 for community facilities. The $40,000,000 contained in section 401 is for the following projects Off the record, if I may. (Statement made outside of the record.) General BARRIGER. I would like to conclude, if I may, by just quoting from the Secretary's statement made before the Appropriations Committee. He said: Although the construction appropriation is contingent upon congressional action on the Department of Defense public works bill, I would like to mention briefly in this presentation the Army's requirements for military construction in order to give you at this time as complete a picture as possible of our appropriation needs. I want to emphasize that the funds for new construction to be requested by the Army for the coming fiscal year represent only a partial funding of our total military construction requirements and that they include only the minimum amount needed during the coming fiscal year to provide essential additional facilities. These additional facilities are needed for the housing, training, administration, and logistical support of the expanded Army; to permit the receipt, storage, and issue of the large stocks of material being procured; and for our expanded and accelerated research and development program. Now, we have, according to previous arrangements with your staff here, Colonel Davis, who is the chief of our construction branch. We have General Nold, of the Office of the Chief of Engineers, who is qualified to discuss the technical aspects of the proposals. They are prepared to answer many of your detailed questions. And we have available on call witnesses from every Army and from the overseas commands and from the technical services and other interested agencies. The CHAIRMAN. Now, General, I would like that is a very fine statement. There is a lot of valuable information in it. Have it printed so you can bring it up here tomorrow. We will give each member a copy of your statement so we can use it, because it gives us some information we want. General BARRIGER. Yes, Mr. Chairman. The CHAIRMAN. Now, members of the committee, let us take the first item in the bill Mr. VAN ZANDT. Mr. Chairman, I would like to ask the general a question. The CHAIRMAN. All right. Mr. VAN ZANDT. General, I asked Mr. Lovett about any planning on the part of the Department of Defense concerning the Reserves. I have been around to most of those camps that you are going to rehabilitate, and I said then that I thought the mistake was made that it was not permanent construction, instead of emergency construction. Now, visualizing in the future this vast UMT program, have you any plans to construct these stations or installations permanently now to take care of that program, or are you just working for the emergency? General BARRIGER. We are working for the emergency, sir. Mr. VAN ZANDT. Why General BARRIGER. The facilities that we hope to build if you gentlemen give us the authorizations are not the tar paper type construction that would go into the complete camp. So they are modified emergency, of reasonable life-warehouses, the station complement headquarters, cold storage. Mr. VAN ZANDT. I am thinking especially of the barracks. General BARRIGER. We are not building any in this program at the so-called railhead facility locations. The CHAIRMAN. I would suggest this: In this breakdown, when we run across permanent established camps, then the question of permanent installation should be given careful consideration. We are warranted in putting permanent installation at permanent camps. Secretary BENDETSEN. We are trying here, Mr. Chairman. The CHAIRMAN. That is what we are doing here. Mr. Brooks has just notified me that he has obtained permission for the committee to sit during the general debate. It is 12:30 now. Let us take a recess until 1:30. We will get back here. Wait one minute now. We are going to have to be in position to reach a decision on each one of these items as we go along. If members are not here, you might be embarrassed by those who are being here being contrary to what you want. So everybody better be back. Mr. VAN ZANDT. What time? The CHAIRMAN. We will take a recess until 1:30. Mr. GAVIN. You better make it 2 o'clock. The CHAIRMAN. No, we won't. We have too much work to do. Leave these books here. (Whereupon, at 12:30 a recess was taken until 1:30 p. m. of the same day.) AFTERNOON SESSION The CHAIRMAN. Mr. Smart, read the first item in the bill. Secretary BENDETSEN. Mr. Chairman, may I make a request before we start? The CHAIRMAN. Yes. Secretary BENDETSEN. In title I of the bill, covering the Army area, there are in some cases hospital requests. I should like to ask, and I believe it would serve the convenience of the committee, that all hospital items, as we go through, be passed, so that we can have the Surgeon General and his group cover that all at once. The CHAIRMAN. All right. Read title I. Mr. Smart. Mr. SMART (reading): Sec. 101. The Secretary of the Army, under the direction of the Secretary of Defense, is hereby authorized to establish or develop military installations and facilities by the construction, conversion, installation, or equipment of temporary or permanent public works, including buildings, facilities, appurtenances, and utilities, as follows The CHAIRMAN. The bill is broken down. The first is the First Army Area. How many Army areas are there? Secretary BENDETSEN. Six. The CHAIRMAN. Read the first item in the bill, Mr. Smart. Fort Devens, Mass.: Training facilities and utilities, $725.200. The CHAIRMAN. What does the Department say about that? STATEMENT BY LIONEL INGRAM, DEPUTY FIRST ARMY ENGINEER Colonel INGRAM. Mr. Chairman, gentlemen of the committee: Our headquarters are at Governor's Island. The area for which we are responsible in the States of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York and New Jersey. The first item is the rail training facilities at Fort Devens. An authorization requested of $419,200, consisting of certain classrooms, shop facilities, and one Mr. JOHNSON. Could the witness identify that page? The CHAIRMAN. It starts at page 11. If you will turn to page 12 you will see how he breaks it down. Classrooms, 17,700 square feet, at $6.30 a square foot-he is not asking for any appropriation for that. Shops, 21,000 square feet, at $10.20 a square foot, $214,200. He is asking for an appropriation for that. That is in the appropriation bill. Auditorium, 5,500 square feet, at $17 a square foot, he is not asking for any appropriation for that. Now, total amount of that is $419,200, and of that he is asking for $214,200. Now then, he is asking for an authorization of $306,000 for a training facility; is that correct? Colonel INGRAM. Yes sir. The CHAIRMAN. You add those items together and it is $725,200; is that correct? Colonel INGRAM. That is correct, sir. The CHAIRMAN. The only item that he thinks is important for the fiscal year 1952 is the shop, 21,000 square feet. Now, this camp was established in 1917? Colonel INGRAM. Yes, sir. The CHAIRMAN. It is 9,838 acres, a permanent installation; is that correct? Colonel INGRAM. Yes, sir. The CHAIRMAN. And ever since 1917, at various times, there have been additions to it? |