STATEMENT OF COL. JOHN REGAN, ASSISTANT DEPUTY, MILITARY LIQUIDATION SECTION, U.S. EMBASSY, PARIS, FRANCE; ACCOMPANIED BY COL. WILLIAM H. TARVER, EVREUX BASE COMMANDER; CAPT. ROBERT W. DONLEY, EVREUX BASE CIVIL ENGINEER; LT. SCOTT E. LARSON, OFFICER IN CHARGE, MILITARY LIQUIDATION SECTION, EVREUX BASE; AND M. SGT. GEORGE A. HUSKINS, NONCOMMISSIONED OFFICER IN CHARGE, MILITARY LIQUIDATION SECTION, EVREUX AIRBASE

Colonel REGAN. I am Col. John Regan, the assistant deputy, Military Liquidation Section, for the Air Force. You know General Clay, sir, already. This. is Mr. Sidman, chief of Merchandising, from the Foreign Excess Sales Office.

This is Colonel Tarver, our base commander here, representing USAFE Headquarters.

Lieutenant Larson is the Military Liquidation Section officer in charge at Evreux.

This is Captain Donley, a civil engineer with USAFE working for Colonel Tarver.

This is Sergeant Huskins of the Military Liquidation Section here at the Evreux Air Base.

Sir, we had planned today to take you on a trip around the facility, this being a base that has been turned over to the Military Liquidation Section. We had planned to take you through specific buildings that have been closed and have been locked with the idea we will either sell the U.S. related property on this base to the French Government or dispose of it through the Foreign Excess Sales Office or remove items from here and take the items out.

Mr. MONAGAN. We are interested in the organization and operation of the Military Liquidation Section and also of the Foreign Excess Sales Office. We are less interested in looking at buildings. We probably would like to see just one or two as examples, but they are mostly empty, are they not?

Colonel REGAN. They are, sir. The ones we would show you would mostly be empty.

Mr. MONAGAN. We have about reached our quota of empty buildings. I would like to ask you, Colonel, to give us a summary of the operations of MLS and its organization, where it stands in the governmental chart of administration and its relation to the Foreign Excess Sales Office, and when you have done that we will have questions. If you feel someone else should answer, any particular point, we shall be happy to have them do so.

Colonel REGAN. The Military Liquidation Section was established last February 24 to be in business by the first of March. It was established as an agency under the U.S. Embassy in Paris to get political guidance from the Embassy and military guidance from USCINCEUR, and directive No. 60-17 of March 4, 1967, issued by the Headquarters, United States European Command, established the terms of reference for the Military Liquidation Section.

The Military Liquidation Section is a joint organization commanded by the major general, U.S. Army, Gen. R. C. Kyser, who wears two hats. He is commander of the communications zone in Ger

many, and chief of this Military Liquidation Section. He used to be commander at Orleans before it closed on 1 April. So he knew the French situation very well and was the logical officer to place in MLS.

He has as his deputy chief, Brig. Gen. R. J. Harvey. General Harvey has two assistant deputies: I am Col. John Regan, his assistant Air Force deputy; and Col. L. M. Hoover is his assistant Army deputy.

We are organized, sir, as any military organization. I did not bring an organizational chart with me. Unfortunately, it is being used by Congressman Holifield today.

Mr. MONAGAN. We want a chart. We don't need it at this moment but we want one furnished for the record.

Colonel REGAN. Very well, sir.

(An organizational chart was furnished as follows:)

Colonel REGAN. We are broken down into the Foreign Excess Sales "Office, which Mr. Sidman will brief you on.

We have a field operations office. We have broken France into three sectors, the western, eastern, and central sectors. We have small detachments at each area responsible for all these facilities that now belong to the Military Liquidation Section.

We have an installation office that takes care of all our records on Army and Air Force installations the Military Liquidation Section has taken over and does all our engineering work.

We have a security office responsible for all the guards at the various locations, not including Evreux at the present time but all the various bases we have.

We have an administrative shop which does regular administration; and a management office that takes care of our budget and financial problems.

We have an information and reception office that takes care of our visitors and furnishes information.

We have a coordinating office that coordinates our activities and works daily with the French on coordinating matters.

And we have a liaison office that works with French-speaking personnel and does translation of correspondence.

I want to make a correction about the coordinating office.

It coordinates activities in the service but does not deal with the French.

UMD calls for 507 in the Military Liquidation Section. Our current strength is slightly under 400. We thought we would have 507 by the 1st of July. However, we will never reach this peak strength because we have frozen our hiring. We have found we do not really need all this strength and we feel we do not need to fill these vacancies, so we will not reach our 507.

Under the terms of reference our mission is:

The Military Liquidation Section is responsible for the disposition of matters of military interest, including the disposition of property, remaining after the relocation of U.S. military forces from France.

This is either by negotiated sale or sales through the Foreign Excess Sales Office, or removing items to where they are required by the component commanders of the Army, Air Force, or other commanders. Our functions and responsibilities are limited to those which are directly related to the liquidation of U.S. military interests as a result of the military withdrawal from France, and the functions include the following:

Acceptance of custodial responsibility, including control, ownership, security, protection and accountability for U.S. installations and facilities, including all real, personal and related personal property contained therein, on "A" date. And I will explain what "A" date is. "A" date is described as follows: The date on which operations at a base or installation have terminated, all stocks, supplies and troops (except for the custodial force) have been withdrawn and all personal and related personal property for which there is a U.S. requirement has been removed.

We came into business on the 1st of March. Prior to the 1st of April MLS had taken over all the U.S. facilities in France from the component commanders, USAREUR and USAFE, with the exception of 32 real properties that belonged to the Petroleum Distribution Command

and one Air Force property which is the Suippes Gunnery Range. We have taken all of those over and as of now we own all in France except the 33 I have told you about.

Mr. MONAGAN. How many are there?

Colonel REGAN. There are a total of 311 installations.

Mr. MONAGAN. When you say you own them you mean?

Colonel REGAN. We have custody of them and are responsible for guarding them.

We are in a peculiar situation at this base. The decision was made by European Command Headquarters at Evreux would stay in operation through the 15th of June for two purposes: (1) To be the logístic base for the removal of items that we had to move by air from France, high-value items for EUCOM and some for SHAFE. The second purpose was to support the Paris Air Show. Colonel Tarver, as the Evreux Air Base Commander, has retained

Colonel TARVER. I have only 120 military but 220 total personnel, including local nationals.

Mr. MONAGAN. Are these included in the 400?

Colonel REGAN. No, sir; they are not included. That figure is a little false. I will go back to the figure of total personnel. MLS took Evreux over on the 24th of March as belonging to the Military Liquidation Section, and I released to Colonel Tarver on a hand receipt 19 buildings so he could operate here using the 19 buildings, and USAFE is responsible for all the costs of electricity, water, sanitation, et cetera. Colonel Tarver on June 15 will start to fold his operations here and will be completely out by the end of June and be in a caretaker status by the 1st of July. We will have from 15 to 18 personnel, mostly guards, 14 guards. These will be turned over to Lieutenant Larson to keep this base in fair condition, keep it guarded until we either sell the base or dispose of the related personal property on the base.

Back to the total number of people. I said we had slightly under 400 for the Military Liquidation Section. This is MLS proper. Recently we had to pick up 600 local nationals and 22 more military to take care of Army installations because we have taken these Army installations over from what was called the French support group, the Army group that takes care of dependents remaining here until the end of the school year. The French Government agreed we could keep the schools open. These dependents are still here and will be here until the termination of the school year. Once these dependents have departed the French support group will still have items to remove from their bases, and when we take over the 1st of July we will have to guard these facilities.

Mr. ROMNEY. You mentioned the French support group?

Colonel REGAN. Yes. It used to be the communications zone personnel but when the communications zone folded the 1st of April they left behind a French support group.

Mr. ROMNEY. You don't mean French nationls, but that is a geographical description?

Mr. ROMNEY. You don't mean French nationals, but that is a geographical description.

Getting back to the functions of the Military Liquidation Section, another function is described as follows: