VARIOUS LOCATIONS OF SHELL HOUSING Colonel PARKHILL. On page 14, this shell housing is $1,621,000. Senator STENNIS. All right. Colonel PARKHILL. This is for the conversion of the so-called shell housing from four-family units to two-family units. There are 712 units currently to be modified. I think you will recall that these buildings were originally designed for ultimate conversion. First, they were built on a very austere basis and arranged to house four families and in this program we are proposing to convert them to two-family use. Senator STENNIS. You are going to convert 356 units now for $1,600,000? General CURTIS. We would wind up with 356 units, Mr. Chairman. As Colonel Parkhill has pointed out, these houses were built in 1946-47. I believe they were built under what was then the Emergency War Powers Act. They were limited to $7,500 expenditure per unit. Since that time, we have made certain physical improvements in the structures. In their initial configuration for example, casing was left off the doors and only one or the first layer of flooring was put on and so forth. We have considered these as valuable assets in developing our Capehart housing programs. And at the bases where the Capehart housing programs do exist, we have considered these as ultimate field grade officer houses, despite the fact that they have not yet been converted into such. We had hoped originally to accomplish this under the inadequate housing legislation. However, it was felt that, because of the history of these houses, the matter would be better to place before the Congress for specific authorization. I have pictures, and also some plans of the present configuration; the work proposed. If you would care to review this data, sir, we have it. Senator CASE. Apparently, you will cut into the number of quarters available, but you will get three- and four-bedroom houses in some instances and you will get dining quarters in these units where none existed. General CURTIN. You may be familiar with them, the upstairs apartments have outside stairs leading up to them. Now, those stairs will be taken off and the door bucked in for a window. We would now convert them into an upstairs-downstairs duplex. Senator CASE. Let me ask this question. As of today, where you use these, are they regarded as standard housing? General CURTIN. As of today, no, sir; they are regarded as inadequate quarters. Senator CASE. There is a rental fee placed on them rather than a commutation of quarters? General CURTAIN. At the present time that is correct, sir. Senator CASE. If you convert them, will they meet the requirements for quarters allowance? General CURTIN. They will, sir. This was our proposal to integrate these into the inventory of public quarters. Senator CASE. From a dollar-and-cents standpoint then, will the Government actually get a better return on them by bringing them up to standard? General CURTIN. That is a hard one to answer, Senator. Mr. FERRY. You are getting $45 to $46 a month for them now. When these are converted, you will get field grade officers quarters at $137 a month. You pick up about $90 per month-or about $1,000 a year, roughly. General CURTIN. I think that would be on the high side, but there will be some. Senator CASE. That would tend to amortize out this $1,600,000 you are asking for? Mr. FERRY. Yes. General CURTIN. In addition, Senator, instead of putting additional field grade officers houses in the Capehart programs for these bases, we have reduced the numbers of field grade houses that would be built under the Capehart program so that we could build more junior grade and airmen houses. This was done with the idea ultimately that these shell houses would be converted and could be occupied by field grade officers. Senator STENNIS. All right, that is very interesting. Now this is a new one on me-shell houses. I am not familiar with that. I have seen some of them, however. General CURTIN. They were shell house in their original configuration, Mr. Chairman. Senator STENNIS. I had seen some of them but had forgotten about it. Next item. Mr. FERRY. Before we go into executive session, may I just touch upon one thing? Yesterday, Senator Case raised the question of the possibility of fog dispersal at airbases and I think at that time, in my ignorance, I said that I knew of nothing that was going on within the Air Force of that nature. I was wrong. I find that we are working very closely with the National Science Foundation and we have a project now going on up at Hanscom Field under the Geophysical Research Division where they are actually making field experiments out on the west coast for the dispersal of fog by various methods such as ultrasonic soundwave transmission, by sprinkling with chemicals, by heat dissipation and such things, and we are carrying on quite an activity, although so far unrewarding on this business of fog dispersal. I was wrong, sir, and I wanted to clarify it. Senator CASE. I am glad to have that additional information in the record. As I indicated yesterday, I felt there were some projects coming on under the direction of the National Science Foundation. I wasn't sure of the identification of the Air Force with them, but I felt there were some going on, and in the age in which we are living, I think we need this. Mr. FERRY. I regret to say that so far it has been relatively unrewarding. Senator CASE. Well, it may be, but we have done a lot of other lesser unrewarding things than that and I feel that we ought to continue research in that field, because if something substantial is accomplished there, we could save a great deal. Mr. FERRY. And what application it would have in the civilian field would be a tremendous thing. Senator STENNIS. All right, we will now go into executive session. (Whereupon, at 11:25 a.m., the committee proceeded into executive session.) MILITARY CONSTRUCTION AUTHORIZATIONS, FISCAL YEAR 1961 MONDAY, APRIL 25, 1960 U.S. SENATE, SUBCOMMITTEE ON MILITARY CONSTRUCTION, OF THE COMMITTEE ON ARMED SERVICES, Washington, D.C. The subcommittee met, pursuant to call at 2:30 p.m. in room 212, Senate Office Building. Present: Senators Stennis (presiding), Engle, and Cannon. Also present: Gordon A. Nease, Harry M. Wingate, Herbert S. Atkinson, and Edna E. Johnson of the committee staff. Senator STENNIS. Those of you gentlemen expecting to testify at this hearing in keeping with the Senate's policy, some of you have already been sworn and some have not. Do you and each of you solemnly swear that your testimony before this committee will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God? (Chorus of I do's.) Senator STENNIS. I have a very brief statement here for the record. The purpose of the hearing this afternoon is to take up title VI of the bill which relates to the Reserve facilities. The total new authorization requested in this title in the bill as originally submitted was $42,108,000, and an increase of $197,000 in prior years authorization, for a total of $42,305,000. The House increased the new authorization by $808,000. It is understood that since House action, the Defense Department has requested certain other changes which the witnesses will be expected to clarify this afternoon. We will first take up the Army portion, followed by the Navy, and the Air Force. Then, if time permits, we will continue in executive session taking up the Army classified portion of the bill which we were unable to do when the Army witnesses were before us earlier. I might state that we hope to complete hearings on the bill this week. On Wednesday at 10:30 a.m. we expect to hear outside witnesses. On Thursday afternoon at 2:30 p.m. we will hear Dr. Herbert F. York, Director, Research and Engineering in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, and Mr. Allen W. Dulles of the Central Intelligence Agency, on air defense. While Dr. York is here, we will also take up title IV of the bill which relates to the Advanced Research Projects Agency that is under Dr. York's jurisdiction. May I ask, Dr. Nease, do you have anything scheduled for tomorrow, Tuesday? Mr. NEASE. No, sir. |