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Staff made the following statement to the committee upon the subject of motorization:

"The motorization program, in general, is to substitute motor for animal transportation wherever such substitution would be advantageous. It involves every arm and service, each according to its specific needs. The total requirement of the Regular Army, both administrative and tactical, is 19,874 trucks, cars, and motorcycles. On July 1 next there will be on hand in the Regular Army 12,525 vehicles of these types, leaving a deficiency of 7,349. In the National Guard the total requirements are 17,266 vehicles, of which approximately half are on hand.

"Due to the urgent need for armament and munitions, which cannot be obtained from commercial sources, and because of the vast mass-production facilities of our motor industry, which can readily meet our wartime requirements for motor vehicles, I have recently directed that a detailed study be made of our minimum peacetime training requirements of motor vehicles. By better distribution and by pooling the motor vehicles on hand, I am convinced a considerable reduction in our peacetime requirements can be made. However, our current losses are exceeding our replacements. The net loss in motor vehicles during the current year will be approximately 700 and in the fiscal year 1939 it is anticipated that it will be approximately 1,674 vehicles."

Horses, draft, and pack animals.-The Budget includes funds for the purchase for the Regular Army of 2,622 animals-1,700 riding horses, 500 draft horses, and 422 mules. The total number agrees with the number for which provision was made in the current appropriation act. A table of animal requirements appears on page 250 of the hearings. Under the National Guard, provision is made for the purchase of about 1,000 horses, or 250 more than proposed in the Budget.

For breeding operations, facially the Budget provides for no expansion. However, it is proposed to transfer certain expenses heretofore charged to this appropriation to the appropriation "Incidental expenses", and the amount thus freed will permit of the purchase of 8 stallions, or a total of 39, as opposed to 31 the present fiscal year. The committee has added an amount that will increase the number of procurements to 51. On February 1, 1938, there were 677 stallions farmed out and in depots and headquarters (see p. 251 of the hearings), and this number, it is estimated, will have dropped to 626 by June 30, next. Losses have been higher than usual owing to drought conditions in the West and to sleeping sickness prevailing among horses in that area.

Military post construction.-The act approved August 26, 1937 (50 Stat., 857-862), authorized numerous projects in the United States, Panama, and Hawaii, to cost, in all, not to exceed $25,587,456. No other construction not heretofore fully provided for is authorized, except under the terms of the so-called Wilcox Act, and the projects authorized by the act of May 14, 1937 (50 Stat., 103), at the Savanna ordnance depot and Camp Stanley, Tex. An initial appropriation was made on account of the latter in the current Military Establishment Appropriation Act.

The Budget proposes appropriations aggregating $9,348,517 under the three acts cited, and the following table gives the items, or, at least, the places, and shows the modifications proposed by the committee:

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The addition proposed for the intermediate air station at Connellsville, Pa., stations of such classification being authorized by the Wilcox Act, is designed to provide essential facilities at that recently established station, the former station in this area at Uniontown having been abandoned primarily because of the unsuitability of the terrain for development to accommodate the larger military planes which fly the route between Washington and Dayton and from other points. in the east to the west and northwest.

The runway item at Fort Leavenworth has been eliminated by the committee because it considers it to be in a desirable but not essential category. This is not a regular air post and the committee feels that for the type of planes ordinarily used at Leavenworth, primarily for Air Corps officer students at the school to keep up their flying proficiency, the project should not be urged at this time.

The increase proposed by the committee for the water-system project at Fort Benning is strongly recommended. During the summer training season of members of the civil components there is a population on the post of around 10,000 persons. Normally, the population is upward of 6,000. The present water system at the post, and there is

H. Repts., 75-3, vol. 2-2

no auxiliary supply, is of such construction as to certain phases as to warrant concern as to a complete break-down or an extended suspension of service. The entire system needs to be rehabilitated and improved, the estimated cost of which is $450,000. The Budget carries only the amount stipulated in the act of August 26, 1937, i. e., $180,000. The committee is advised that if the whole job were done at one time a saving of approximately $114,000 would ensue.

The Fort Sill item, which embraces $300,000 for barracks and $1,000 for telephone construction, is not deemed to be of pressing importance; certainly not as much so, in the judgment of the committee, as a number of authorized projects for which the Budget includes no funds.

The committee is advised that an urgent need exists for noncommissioned officers' quarters at Fort Barrancas, Fla., and at the Army and Navy General Hospital at Hot Springs, Ark. It is recommending appropriations for the provision of such quarters as are authorized in the Housing Act approved August 26, 1937.

Barracks and quarters.-The Budget proposes an increase of $171,400, all of which may be ascribed to the following new establishments: Sacramento air depot; Hickam Field, Hawaii; and Air Corps Technical School, Denver, Colo. The committee actually is proposing a further increase of $183,562 (net), although facially a reduction of $263,620, because it is proposing the reappropriation of $447,182 of the current appropriation, administratively withheld from obligation, in lieu of a like amount of new appropriation. The net increase of $183,562 results from an addition of $224,522 to the amount estimated for repairs and improvements, and the elimination of $40,960 included in the Budget for rentals in China, heretofore made necessary by the maintenance of Army detachments at Tientsin. These forces recently were ordered withdrawn.

SIGNAL CORPS

The Budget proposes an increase of $2,307,240. Of that amount $916,650 is required to satisfy current year contractual authority for the procurement of radio equipment for airplanes, and $1,235,820 is responsive to a prospective larger outlay upon radio equipment for airplanes in the 1939 procurement program and to supply a deficit of $615,715 in the amount available for such purpose for the present fiscal year. The remainder of the Budget increase ($154,770), apart from some relatively negligible items, is for the provision of equipment and supplies for other combat organizations, and for the rehabilitation of radio stations and the provision of equipment for the facilities to be provided at various stations under "Military posts," ante, in aid of air navigation.

In lieu of a like amount of new appropriation, the committee is proposing the reappropriation of $189,700 of the current appropriation, which has been administratively withheld from obligation, and is proposing an increase of $23,140 for the equipment of 2 of 7 air stations, which now gather data on upper air conditions for the Weather Bureau by means of airplane flights, with a newly developed and almost uncanny device called a "radio meteorograph," which is carried into higher altitudes than a plane can go by means of a small hydrogen-inflated balloon, and by means of certain mechanism within the device there is transmitted to a ground receiver impulses which convey the same information which would be gathered in an airplane flight. (See hearings, p. 327.)

AIR CORPS

The amount recommended in the Budget and by the committee under the head of "Air Corps, Army," is $70,556,972. This is an increase of $11,938,566. The total amount carried in the accompanying bill under all appropriation heads on account of military aviation is roundly $124,000,000. In other words, approximately 28 percent of the Military budget for 1939 is chargeable to the air arm, and that is 1 year in advance of the time (July 1, 1940), when it is expected to have on hand the authorized quota of 2,320 serviceable airplanes2,149 for the Regular Army and Organized Reserves, and 171 for the National Guard. It is estimated that the maintenance and operation of such a force will impose an annual overall cost of around $144,000,000, which discounts all factors which might result in either greater or lesser costs than presently prevail.

A project break-down of the estimate under "Air Corps, Army," commences on page 433 of the hearings. A recapitulation thereof on a strictly cash basis, omitting contractural authority, follows:

New airplanes.

Spares for new airplanes..

Experimental and research work.

Maintenance and operation..

To satisfy all but $3,000,000 of 1938 contract authoriza

tion..

Total..

$19, 150, 646

5, 302, 273

3, 564, 390

26, 412, 769

16, 126, 894

70, 556, 972

Of the 1938 contractural authority, an appropriation to satisfy $3,000,000 of the amount will not be needed prior to the fiscal year 1940, commencing July 1, 1939. In addition to the cash total above indicated for 1939, contractural authority is included in the Budget and in the accompanying bill of $19,126,894, of which $14,000,000 applies to new airplanes and $5,126,894 to spares therefor.

The following table compares the amount in the Budget, including contractural authority, with the amount in the current War Department Appropriation Act for the procurement of new airplanes, and spares, radio equipment, and armament therefor for the Regular Army, the National Guard, and the Organized Reserves, the amounts for the latter two being chargeable to the respective appropriations for such components:

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The committee has reduced the amount of $5,302,273 in the estimate column for spares for new planes by $1,862,548, and the amount of $1,662,726 in the same column, applying to the Organized Reserves, by $47,624, both of the reduced amounts representing the difference in cost between provision for 75-percent and 50-percent spare engines for new airplanes. The committee is not convinced of the need to provide above the 50-percent rate at the present time. Engine deliveries now run well ahead of the planes for which provided.

Of the reduction of $1,862,548 just mentioned, which applies to the appropriation "Air Corps, Army" the committee has employed $1,691,044 to supply a shortage in the current appropriation for spare engines, plane spares, and engine spares. It is the thought and desire of the committee that the remainder ($171,504), in conjunction with an amount ($600,000) of the allocation of the current appropriation for experimental and research work it is understood remains unobligated, will be employed in the conduct of experiments in less costly and more expeditious methods of airplane production, and in the autogiro field. As to the latter, it would seem that they offer possibilities which justify additional purchases for a thorough service test.

Our airplane situation as of December 31, 1937, including the National Guard and the Organized Reserves, was as follows:

Project airplanes on hand.

Project airplanes on order

Project airplanes remaining to be ordered.

Nonproject airplanes on hand, obsolete but usable.

Total....

1, 226

1, 022

103

475

2, 826

Adding to the foregoing 394 airplanes for the Regular Army, 32 chargeable to the appropriation for the Organized Reserves, and 48 for the National Guard, 476 all told, which are provided for in the Budget and in the accompanying bill, the total is raised to 3,302.

Making due allowance for washouts-and the nonproject airplanes above listed may be wholly discounted as soon as replacements become

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