General CURTIN. The approach lighting picture, Senator Case, is one that involves a large program. This is the second year of it. We are installing a new model of approach lighting.

We have given priority to the primary runway and to one end in the first year's increment. In certain cases where the landing conditions so indicate, we are providing some lighting on the secondary end. This is in all cases, in this year's program, the installation of a new and improved lighting that has been jointly approved by all of the services, the FAA and so on.

Senator CASE. Is the Air Force sharing in research on the dispersal of fog?

General CURTIN. I am not aware of any such thing, Senator.

Senator CASE. It is my personal belief, Mr. Chairman, if a fraction of the funds that are spent on instrument landing and lighting and so forth were used in research for fog dispersal, the capability of field would be greatly enlarged and safety increased.

Senator STENNIS. What is your response to that, gentlemen? The Air Force is supposed to be able to answer that.

General MINTON. Fog, of course, is a real problem, but these are new lights in the interests of safety. Incidentally, I just had a long letter from the Director of Flying Safety indicating such things. But, of course, these will take care of such things as snowstorms, rainstorms, and bad visibility, and so forth, as well as fog.

Senator STENNIS. I know, but what Senator Case wants to know, if I may join him in it, what program do you have for dispersement of fog?

General MINTON. I don't know.

Mr. FERRY. I think I can answer, perhaps, on this, Senator Stennis. Senator STENNIS. All right, Mr. Ferry.

Mr. FERRY. So far as I know, there is no Air Force program planned or sponsored to study the effect or the instrumentalities of dispersal of fog, fog being merely one of the numerous landing hazards that an airplane comes to.

And former World War II experience in England on that score was not particularly successful.

Senator STENNIS. What?

Mr. FERRY. Not having been particularly successful.

Senator CASE. We have traveled a long way since then on studies of cloud formation and modification.

Mr. FERRY. That is correct. I know of no program within ourselves and FAA on this.

Senator CASE. Suppose you contact the National Science Foundation.

General MINTON. I think we have a witness who may have some information.

Colonel LEDBETTER. The FAA has conducted tests, and several years ago we were involved in tests. They were very inconclusive, sir. They did not provide the dispersal that we anticipate. In addition to gas, we use varied types of fuels burning on the runway. Some of these were conducted in California, by the old CAA, now FAA.

Senator CASE. Mr. Chairman, I have seen pictures where holes have literally been cut through clouds over airfields and I suggest that the Air Force could profitably contact the National Science Foundation

to see if it would not be warranted in joining in some of their research in this area.

The Air Force did engage in research in Project Cerus and some other projects, but with the greater ability now of pictures of cloud formations 450 miles and up, I anticipate there will be an increase in research in cloud modification. And it would affect not merely fogs, but suppression of hail and other violent storms.

The National Advisory Committee on Weather Control, in its report to the President, suggested the possibilities along this line. We turned the further research on that over to the National Science Foundation.

I don't think that the Air Force should stay aloof from it, where we spend a lot of money to assist instrument landings in various ways and, I repeat, I think that a fraction of that money spent in research in this other field could yield more beneficial results.

Senator STENNIS. Thank you, Senator.

All right, next item, gentlemen.

SUFFOLK COUNTY AIR FORCE BASE, SUFFOLK
COUNTY, N.Y.

Colonel PARKHILL. Suffolk County Air Force Base, Suffolk County, N.Y. This is an air defense base. We have BOMARC, and fighter interceptor squadrons.

Senator STENNIS. Page 124?

Colonel PARKHILL. Excuse me, page 124. Three items, totaling $411,000. The first is a shelter, aircraft weapons calibration. The next is a shop, armament and electronics. We propose to modify an existing hangar. The third, and last item, would be for trailer court parking, 50 spaces for privately owned trailers.

Senator STENNIS. Good gracious, it costs $100,000 just to fix a place for 50 trailers to park?

Colonel PARKHILL. Well, sir, this would be a complete trailer parking area, with the necessary roadway, the concrete pads, utilities to the trailers, and a small storage and laundry building.

General CURTIN. One of the things we found, Mr. Chairman, is that in the past these trailer parks, as you are well aware by visits to the bases, have developed, unfortunately, somewhat like Topsy. Senator STENNIS. Yes.

General CURTIN. And we are looking into the possibility of developing these properly. If we are going to have them, let's have them so they are clean and decent and supported by adequate utilities. Senator STENNIS. I was just surprised by the figures.

General CURTIN. This is considerably lower than what you would experience in developing a comparable commercial trailer court.

Senator CASE. Mr. Chairman, I have no doubt of that, and I have no doubt that a little expenditure of money for roadways and even utilities, to assist with garbage disposal, provision of water supply, and things like that, might be a moneysaving proposition, as compared with extending a Capehart project, for example.

But I am a little surprised your putting this in here in view of the difficulty that the trailer courts adjacent to Ellsworth have found

in even purchasing water from the base when they were willing to pay for it.

I suggest that you examine the policy that is indicated here of spendspending $100,000 to encourage a trailer court, with a policy that is being followed at Ellsworth in denying the opportunity to the trailer court there even to purchase water.

Mr. FERRY. Senator, I think I might comment on that. It isn't only the trailer court. Other people in Ellsworth have been trying to purchase water from us, from the airbase.

They have been put on notice for some several years that we are going to need our entire water supply for utilization on Ellsworth. We were not in the public utilities business, and we have given ample warning to go and provide their own water supply.

They have deliberately refrained from doing so in the hopes, I suspect, that some manna from heaven is going to descend on them. Senator STENNIS. May I ask, right there, is that on base or off base?

Mr. FERRY. It is off base.

Senator CASE. Off base. However, the store there has now gone ahead and supplied its own water. It was able to acquire some land where they were able to develop a collecting gallery and have their own water supply, so they are not in that position now of wanting to buy water.

They have provided it, but the people that are pinched are the people who are living in the trailer court there.

Mr. FERRY. The trailer court man, I understand, is having to truck water to the trailer court.

Senator CASE. Yes. And that is a pretty expensive proposition, as well as being rather uncertain, and certainly provides a limited supply, at best.

Mr. FERRY. Our trouble is, sir, as you are well aware, if you let one fellow hitch on your waterline, everybody in the neighborhood immediately says, "Me, too."

Senator CASE. However, I think in the light of this proposal for Suffolk, and in view of the fact that the store, the commercial development of Ellsworth, has now been able to solve its water problem, that you might reconsider the trailer court proposition there, because the existence of that trailer court has minimized the housing requirement to a considerable extent. They were encouraged to come in there in the first place, as I understand it, because of the housing situation.

Mr. FERRY. That is right.

Senator CASE. And with Rapid City now having voted bonds to provide a filtration plant so that water can be supplied in abundant quantity, I would think that the Air Force might well consider the possibility of selling water to the trailer court from the wells that the base has.

Mr. FERRY. I think we are- were the trailer court, alone, involved in this, Senator, I think probably we would have shut our eyes to the policy of not providing public utilities to offbase commercial enterprises, but because there were a number of other people, several involved, besides the trailer court, we found ourselves caught in the principle: Are we or are we not going to become a public utility?

Senator CASE. Mr. Chairman, I do not know, but here is the description of the project proposed for Suffolk. The project calls for the construction of a trailer court with parking spaces for 50 trailers and a central utility building. Trailer parking spaces will be provided hard-surfaced pads. A masonry utility building will provide laundry and storage facilities. Utility connections to each parking space are included for a complete usable facility.

I could understand the Air Force's difficulty in considering the requests that were presented at Ellsworth when one or two of the principal demands came from commercial enterprises. But now that they have taken care of their needs privately, and independently, of the Air Force, if the remaining requirement is for trailers, which house military people, and where the trailer development has provided the space, parking spaces, and roadways without cost to the Government, it would seem to me that you might reconsider the supplying of, the selling of, water to them, if at Suffolk County you are proposing not only to construct a trailer court but to provide a masonry utility building with laundry and storage facilities and utility connections to each parking space. The privately financed trailer court at Ellsworth providing for over 100 military families only asks permission to buy water and pay for it.

Mr. FERRY. Senator, I can only answer you that then the Villa Ranchero is going to descend upon us with rage and ire because we made them buy water of their own instead of supplying it to them.

Senator CASE. Well, they were a commercial enterprise, and they now do have their own pressure system. I saw it the last time I was there, I saw the pressure tank and the gage working when they opened some faucets and the pumps started working.

Mr. FERRY. If they can get water, so can the trailer court. Senator CASE. I don't know whether there is any land available for the trailer court to try to develop a collecting basin. I doubt it.

Mr. Chairman, I would like to make one additional comment.

I have also thought there was some validity to the Air Force's position with regard to the Villa Ranchero because it was a commercial enterprise, and because I had resisted the proposal to build a commissary on the base there at Government expense.

The Villa Ranchero, for those who have not been there, I might say, is practically a community shopping center with everything from a barber shop to a service station, and clothing and so forth, just off the base. It is within 3 minutes' drive of the Capehart and Wherry housing.

So I always thought that with only a 3 minutes' drive and practically being just off the base, that the same justification for Governmentexpended funds to build a commissary was not justified as there is with some of these we have been talking about this morning, where they are 20 or 22 miles from a shopping center.

But the trailer proposition at Ellsworth was developed under the encouragement of the commanding officers of the airbase, and it was encouraged because it would reduce the demand for housing at Government expense. So now that the Villa Ranchero has developed its own water supply, I do hope you will take another look at that trailer court which has to haul water from town day and night to take care of its more than 100 military families.

Mr. FERRY. We will be glad to do so, sir. At the moment I don't know any new facts except that you have brought out that the Villa Ranchero has finally decided to spend their own money in developing a water supply.

Senator CASE. Thank you.

Senator STENNIS. I thank you, Senator Case. I am pleased you made your comments and your observations, and I wanted to encourage you rather than interrupt you. I thought you had concluded.

May I ask a question about this masonry utility building. I suppose that runs the cost up?

Colonel PARKHILL. That would be $14,000.

Senator STENNIS. That will provide a laundry and storage facilities. What do you mean by "laundry"? Space for laundry machines? Colonel PARKHILL. That is right, sir, and storage for the tenants. Senator STENNIS. Storage, that is just general storage?

Colonel PARKHILL. Yes, sir; for trunks and footlockers, things like that.

Senator STENNIS. Yes. And that is $14,000 of your $100,000?
Colonel PARKHILL. That is right.

Senator STENNIS. All right, let's proceed to the next one, the next item.

TYNDALL AIR FORCE BASE, PANAMA CITY, FLA.

Colonel PARKHILL. Tyndall Air Force Base, page 128. This would be in Panama City, Fla. This base supports what we generally call the weapons deployment center where the fighter-interceptor squadrons go to do their training. They fly from Tyndall out over the gulf range.

The program requested for Tyndall amounts to $1,715,000, which consists of the following items:

The first item is for a power check pad to be used while performing full power engine check. The pad previously used had to be removed in order to construct the access taxiway which supports the runway extension which is under construction. This facility will be utilized to support approximately 200 Century series and supporting aircraft assigned to this base.

The next item is an addition to the flight line fire station to accommodate longer fire apparatus and provide space for the inspection and maintenance of fire equipment and apparatus.

The next item requested is for a personal flight equipment building which is needed to provide a consolidated facility for the issue, inspection, maintenance, and replacement of all high altitude pressure suits. This facility will care for equipment valued at approximately $2 million. The temporary building now being used as an interim facility will be razed when the requested facility is constructed. This item will fulfill the total requirement for this facility.

The next item is to provide adequate operation space for three TDY squadrons deployed to Tyndall for missile and rocket firing. Functions are presently housed in tents, trailers, and line shacks placed along a highly congested flight line.

The next item is for an automotive maintenance shop. Presently, 10 widely dispersed, temporary-type structures totaling approximately