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Admiral SмOOT. That is correct.

Mr. ARENDS. Admiral, with the permission of you gentlemen who were such fine witnesses this morning to the committee, I think we will recess the committee now. We have to go to the floor. We will

recess the committee until 10 o'clock, Monday morning.

Admiral HOLLOWAY. Yes, sir.

We will be ready.

(Whereupon, at 11:45 a. m., the committee recessed until 10 a. m., Monday, March 9, 1953.)

REVIEW OF PROMOTIONS OF OFFICERS IN THE

ARMED SERVICES

MONDAY, MARCH 9, 1953

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,

SUBCOMMITTEE No. 2 OF THE COMMITTEE ON ARMED SERVICES,

Washington, D. C.

(The subcommittee met at 10 a. m., the Honorable Leon H. Gavin, vice chairman, presiding.)

Mr. GAVIN (presiding). All right. The committee will come to order.

Admiral SмOOT. I think we are ready to proceed.

TESTIMONY OF REAR ADM. R. N. SMOOT, ASSISTANT CHIEF OF PERSONNEL CONTROL-Resumed

Admiral SмOOT. Good morning, gentlemen.

If I may, Mr. Chairman, I will proceed with the justification of the admirals. I have provided each of the members with a list of the flag officers as they existed on the 28th of February in the billets they occupied, with their name, their permanent rank, temporary rank, their age and the years of service.

I have with me in addition to those lists and I will follow the order of the fleet type billets first, taking each name, describing the type of duty.

If there are any particular billets that the committee feels is justified on its long establishment, I needn't read the duties, at their pleasure. Mr. GAVIN. All right; proceed.

Admiral SMOOT, Commander in Chief of the Atlantic Fleet, and Supreme Commander Atlantic Fleet, is Admiral McCormick, a full admiral. I have his responsibilities and duties listed here.

The same with Commander in Chief, Pacific Fleet, Admiral Radford. Mr. RIVERS. You don't have any such thing as CINCPOA any more; do you?

Admiral SMOOт. No, sir; that went out at the end of the war, sir. The commander in chief, Pacific Fleet, has in addition, however, the duties of Deputy High Commissioner of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands. To that extent, he took over CINCPOA. In that, he acts on behalf of the High Commissioner of the trust territories. Mr. KILDAY. Mr. Chairman,

Where you going to give a little explanation of the trust territory for the record so it will be available on the floor?

Admiral SMOOт. Yes, sir, He acts in behalf of the High Commissioner of the Trust Territory, the Pacific Islands, in the active administration of the trust territory under executive order 9875, of July 18, 1949. Thus his executive assistant, he has full responsibility for the

prosecution of governmental functions in certain departments. Those include administration of the field territories, the social and scientific affairs, the economics and political affairs, finance and supply, public works, public health and education of these trust territories.

Mr. RIVERS. Other than Manus and Guadalcanal and all those islands we turned back to the Australians, what do we have? The Carolinas, Gilberts, Marshalls, and what else?

Mr. MILLER. Marianas.

Admiral SMOOT. Marianas; that is correct, sir.

In general the duties of the commander in chief of a large fleet, in the Atlantic and Pacific: There is the responsibility of organizing, planning, and training for flexibility, mobility, and the bighest combat effectiveness consistent with normal assigned missions, and executing the existing conditions.

He is responsible for maintaining the combat readiness for the operation and extension of such operations, and expanding the forces including those assigned for logistic support.

In the Atlantic, he supports the Caribbean, the eastern Atlantic, the Mediterranean, European and strategic air commanders in their missions. He supports the eastern air defense force commander in his assigned mission; the preparation to protect shipping and direct major shipping routing and convoy movements within the Atlantic; to coordinate routing and control of Shipping between the Atlantic and contiguous theater commanders. He makes available vessels and facilities for training Reserve personnel, midshipmen, cadets, further peacetime training of ships and personnel of the Coast Guard. He conducts training in amphibious warfare for United States military forces as directed; operates to alleviate domestic emergencies; and he has as an additional duty the United States representative of North Atlantic Treaty Regional and Planning Group of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

The commander in chief in addition to those general duties provides logistic support for naval forces employed in the Far East toward the United States, including the overseas possessions and dependencies, against attack from the Pacific area.

In the Far East, and the Alaskan area, the strategic air commanders in their missions as directed. As High Commissioner of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands he administers the government of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands in accordance with trusteeship agreement concluded between the United States and the United Nations.

On the staff of the CincLant is the chief of staff whose duties are generally as follows:

Under the commanders in chief, he is responsible for the supervision and the coordination of the work of the staff and must be kept informed at all times in all manners pertaining to that work. He is the senior personal aid to his commander.

He is responsible for the execution of the policies of the commander in chief, and consults with and advises him in the formulation of policies. He is authorized to act for the commander in chief in matters of administration and policy as specifically authorized by the commander in chief.

In the case of the temporary incapacity or absence of the commander in chief, he acts in his stead.

This will take care of the chief of staff, commander in chief, Atlantic Fleet and the chief of staff, commander in chief, of the Pacific Fleet. Mr. KILDAY. That is Switzer and Warder.

Admiral SMOOт. That is Switzer and Phillips.

Mr. KILDAY. May I ask, Admiral, if it is customary in an important command like this, commanded by an admiral, that his chief of staff be a rear admiral?

Admiral Sмoor. It has always been that a fleet commander of this size has a rear admiral as his chief of staff.

Mr. KILDAY. Now, one other thing:

These additional duties, such as you described, the trust territory and all that: Is that distributed through the regular staff, I man, the performance of those duties?

Admiral SMOOT. It is not, sir. We will find, as I go down here, he will have an additional deputy chief of staff for plans and operations on the joint staff for these operations, sir.

Mr. KILDAY. Well, from the number of duties you outlined, I should imagine that he would need a pretty high-ranking, capable man to handle all that.

Admiral SмOOT. Yes, sir; he does. He has an additional staff called the joint staff, that I will explain as I come along, sir.

Mr. RIVERS. Now, Warder works

Admiral SмOOT. Well, Warder is the deputy chief of staff and deputy chief of staff for plans and operations for commander in chief, Atlantic Fleet.

Mr. RIVERS. He is the only one who is a permanent captain; isn't he, in those two commands?

Admiral SмOOT. He is one of the junior admirals, and is a permanent captain; yes, sir.

Mr. GAVIN. Any further questions on those billets?

If not, proceed, Admiral.

Admiral SмOOT. You wish an explanation of these deputy chiefs of staff for CincLant and CincPac?

Mr. GAVIN. I think we should have them for the record; yes, sir. Admiral SмOOT. That would take care of Warder on the Atlantic Fleet.

In the temporary absence of the chief of staff, the deputy chief of staff acts in his stead, and he performs such additional duties as may be directed by the chief of staff. But his main duties: It is the most important part of any large staff organization to coordinate and work the assistant chiefs of staff under him, which include his training, operation, planning, logistics. All of the major functions of the fleet are headed by a senior captain who must have the experience of a fleet organization, planning ashore, strategic ability, and over them to coordinate their work must be a rear admiral in this most important work of plans and operations of a major staff of this size.

Mr. MILLER. Why is there not one in the Pacific? A deputy chief of staff in the Pacific?

Admiral SMOOT. I didn't understand the question, sir.

Mr. MILLER. I see you haven't a deputy chief of staff in the Pacific shown here. Only one in the Atlantic.

Mr. RIVERS. The reason for that is they have a sitdown war over there, and they haven't that many plans that can't be handled from Washington.

Mr. KILDAY. Apparently he is not an admiral.

Admiral SMOOT. It has not been so set up there. Their work is divided a little differently in the Pacific, in that he has a considerable field command in far places that he puts under representatives.

Mr. KILDAY. Of course, you only have Clark out there; Jocko Clark. Who else have you out there?

Admiral SмOOT. Well, the first and the second fleet commands. Mr. KILDAY. First and second. There are three of them.

Admiral SмOOT. Commander, Naval Forces, Far East. He has considerable help in his work in the Pacific, under major commanders that the Atlantic Fleet commander

Mr. KILDAY. He has three out there.

Admiral SмOOT. On the staff of CinCPac, in addition to the chief of staff, is a flag officer in the Medical Corps who is called a fleet medical officer.

Mr. NELSON. Mr. Chairman.

Admiral, why do you have a fleet medical officer in the Pacific and none in the Atlantic?

Admiral SмOOT. I tried to get that question answered because I knew you were going to ask me that, by sending a dispatch to them and getting their organization as to why that was different. I talked to the chief of staff to CinCLant, and asked why he didn't have a medical officer on his staff as the fleet surgeon. One of the reasons is that there is a fleet medical officer attached to the service force, Atlantic Fleet, who is right with CinCLant, and there is a medical officer with commander, eastern sea frontier, and the combination of those two jobs being close together can take care of the fleet surgeon needs on CinCLant's staff, whereas CinCPac is alone at Pearl Harbor and need the administration of medical matters close to the staff and within it.

Mr. BATES. He is actually stationed at Pearl Harbor ashore. Admiral SмOOT. He is with the staff ashore in Pearl Harbor. All medical matters in the fleet and in the trust territories are under his aegis, and he acts as an adviser to CinCPac in this capacity.

Mr. MILLER. I will say, too, Admiral, that the medical problems in the trust territory are great.

Admiral SMOOT. Very great; yes, sir.

Mr. MILLER, Much greater, in the fighting of tropical diseases, and the things they are studying out there are much greater than they are, comparably, in the Atlantic.

Admiral SмOOT. Quite so.

Mr. GAVIN. Mr. Bates.

Mr. BATES. Admiral, excepting for Navy-I have looked over this list here there doesn't appear to me to be anything particularly new that you haven't had for a long period of time, in this list here.

What do you have in this list here that is actually new? You have ComHunter-Killer Lant. What is that? Is that a new one?

Admiral SмOOT. That is a new one. That is right. Most of these have been organized for many years under the fleet organization. But I was proceeding individually with each officer, if that is the pleasure of the committee.

Mr. GAVIN. You expect to generalize as you proceed on these various billets?

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