Admiral SмOOT. I will generalize on various billets of the type; yes, sir.

Mr. RIVERS. May I ask him a question, Mr. Chairman?

Mr. GAVIN Mr. Rivers.

Mr. RIVERS. Admiral, isn't your service forces billet something new?

Admiral SMOOT. Service force billet was developed during the war, when the importance of logistics began to be important, very important. Mr. RIVERS. But you have retained it after the war; haven't you? Admiral SмOOT. We have retained it. It has been necessary to retain it; yes, sir. They have many, many ships under their command, to support the operations of the fleet.

Mr. RIVERS. That is a logistical setup?

Admiral SмOOT. A logistic setup.

Mr. GAVIN. Mr. Nelson.

Mr. NELSON. Admiral, you say these billets have been established for a good many years?

Admiral SмOOT. Most of the organizational billets have; yes, sir. Mr. NELSON. Have they always carried the same rank, sir? Admiral SмOOT. As far as I can remember, wherever there is an admiral here listed as such, they have carried the same rank. Mr. NELSON. In the billets listed?

Admiral SMOOT. In the billet organization; yes, sir, that is right. Now, there are some new ones, such as HukLant.

Mr. NELSON. Mr. Chairman, I would suggest that he go over the billets that have been added to the regular organization.

Mr. GAVIN. I think the chairman wanted him to proceed

Mr. BLANDFORD. Another thing, Mr. Chairman, is: I think the question should be asked as to why in some cases there are now vice admirals commanding where in other cases there were rear admirals, and explain if there is a difference.

In other words, if historically you have had rear admirals and now you have vice admirals, the justification for that.

Admiral SMOOT. Perhaps that might be the case in the First Fleet, Second Fleet, Fifth Fleet.

Mr. BLANDFORD. That is what I have in mind. All of your fleets,

now.

For example, what is the size of the Seventh Fleet, Admiral?
Mr. KILDAY. Mr. Chairman-excuse me, will you?

I would suggest that we put this list in the record as is, and that anything that is new or different or higher grade be briefly explained and then we go on with the others.

Mr. GAVIN. I think that is satisfactory.

Mr. BATES. If we don't, we will never get through, Mr. Chairman. Admiral SмOOT. That is right.

Mr. KILDAY. There is no point in all this detail of what the commander of the Atlantic Fleet does, or Pacific Fleet, unless there is something that has been added.

Admiral SMOOт. Yes, sir.

Mr. KILDAY. Put this in, and then explain those things which are of higher rank or additional duty or things of that kind.

Mr. GAVIN. Let's proceed on that basis.

Admiral SмOOT. I will be glad to proceed in that way.

Perhaps, then, the fleet commands justifying the vice admiral might be the first thing.

Mr. KILDAY. It is understood this is in the record.

Admiral SмOOT. We had in the prewar Navy type commanders, more than task commanders. The results of the war developed the concept of task commanders.

The 1st Fleet, 2d, 6th, and 7th Fleet are therefore task force commanders, as such. They have under them all types of ships-carriers, battleships, cruisers, destroyers, logistic support forces who report to them from service force temporarily on logistics days. They will have under them rear admirals in command of cruiser divisions, carrier divisions, support divisions, a flotilla commander in destroyers.

In order to coordinate that important work of keeping the fleet mobile, striking where necessary, preparing plans for operations, logis tics, training, he must have a rather sizable, comprehensive staff, and he must be senior and have the experience over all of the other admirals that work for him in this complex organization.

Mr. RIVERS. Mr. Chairman.

Mr. GAVIN. Mr. Rivers.

Mr. RIVERS. Then, too, he runs into, in these large commands in the Far East and also in the Mediterranean, these foreign admirals, all of whom have a higher rank than he.

Admiral SMOOт. He does, indeed.

Mr. RIVERS. And he has to be coequal, at least.

Admiral SмOOT. He does indeed; yes, sir.

Mr. RIVERS. Now, would you explain where does the MSTS come into this, overall the fleet setup at any time?

Admiral SмOOT. It does later; yes, sir. I have it on this first list; MSTS.

Mr. BLANDFORD. Admiral, may I ask how many ships there are in the 6th Fleet, and how many ships in the 7th Fleet? Admiral SмOOT. I have that organization.

Mr. KILDAY. Is it all right to make it public?

Admiral SMOOт. I would rather not make it public, sir, because it

is changing all the time.

Mr. BLANDFORD. We can take this off the record.
Mr. RIVERS. Is this public?

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Mr. BLANDFORD. This is executive.

Admiral SMOOT. It changes all the time.

Mr. BLANDFORD. Well, the only reason I asked the question: I understood that one of these fleets had only half a dozen ships in it; is that correct?

Captain COOPER. I have recently come from the 6th Fleet.

Mr. RIVERS. The 6th Fleet has more than six ships. Mr. GAVIN. Take this off the record, Mr. Reporter. (Discussion off the record.)

Mr. GAVIN. Proceed, Admiral.

Admiral SмOOT. Perhaps the one new here that might be explained is commander, Hunter-Killer Force, Atlantic Fleet. It was established because of the very high priority given to our antisubmarine warfare, which has practically the highest training priority that the Navy has today. There the admiral is in command of 2 to 3 small escort carriers specifically trained for antisubmarine work. Under him he has the specially constructed destroyers, with their particular equipment for antisubmarine work, called killer destroyers, and he has the submarines that are operating out of Key West and New London who act as targets in new high-speed, guppy-type submarines. He coordinates the hunter-killer exercises against wolf packs, individual commands, under all sorts of conditions that can be envisaged in our antisubmarine warfare. I can assure you, gentlemen, it is a most complex and important job.

Mr. KILDAY. Of course, that is practically the major mission of the Navy for the future; is it not?

Admiral SмOOT. That is one of them; yes, sir. For convoy work, it is one of the major missions; yes, sir.

Mr. BATES. And he has many captains in his command.

Admiral SMOOT. Many captains under his command; yes, sir, that is right.

Mr. RIVERS. That is very intensive training; isn't it, Admiral? Admiral SMOOT. All the time. It is very intensive training. It has one of the highest priorities on the list of CNO.

Mr. RIVERS. Of course, your mine warfare is also a very intensive training setup.

Admiral SмOOT. That is right; yes, sir.

Mr. BLANDFORD. Admiral, for the record, you have a rear admiral in command of, or as commander, cruisers and destroyers, Pacific, and then you have a rear admiral in command of destroyers, Atlantic. Admiral SMOOT. The main reason for that is, according to Admiral McCormick, although we conceive of the war being in the Pacific, the real threat is in the Atlantic.

Consequently, the Atlantic Fleet is about a third larger than the Pacific. To augment the Pacific Fleet, we rotate to the Pacific.

It therefore saves an admiral in the Pacific, with his fewer forces to combine cruisers and destroyers, Pacific, and in the Atlantic we found it is administratively impossible for one admiral to command both forces.

Mr. BLANDFORD. Well, do your commanders of your cruiser divi sion, who are also rear admirals-would that hold up, then, in the Pacific, that the commanders of your cruiser divisions must still be rear admirals?

Admiral SмOOT. Yes.

Mr. BLANDFORD. In view of the fact you have a rear admiral in charge of both cruisers and destroyers in the Pacific?

Admiral SMOOT. Yes, sir; it certainly will, because the individual cruiser division commanders, in addition to administering their own division, will quite frequently become, for training purposes, a task group commander in the Pacific, who will have not only his 2 to 4 cruisers under him, but he will have destroyers, with the flotilla com→ mander, service forces, to undertake a training exercise, and with our rotation between the Pacific and the Far East we simply have to have help for the administrative type commander carrying out his exercise on the coast.

Mr. BLANDFORD. During World War II, were your cruiser divisions commanded by rear admirals?

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Admiral SMOOT. They were. There is no change in that at all. In any of the type of unit commanders, there has been no change. They have always been commanded by rear admirals.

I believe that is all the unique changes, as far as I can think of, in the fleet type organization, with perhaps the exception of MSTS. Mr. GAVIN. Any further questions on that?

Mr. KILDAY. You mentioned MSTS and then you have MATS. Admiral SмOOT. That is Air.

Mr. KILDAY. Yes.

Admiral SмOOT. The Vice Commander for Air, for MATS, is located here in Washington, is a rear admiral, and acts in the capacity of a deputy to the commander, similar to how a chief of staff acts to a fleet commander.

Mr. KILDAY. I don't believe you mentioned what MSTS is called. Admiral SмOOT. Military Sea Transportation Service has been augmented by a vice admiral at the head of it, since the Navy took over all sea transportation. Prior to that, we had only the Navy's portion of naval sea transportation; that is, our transport for transporting personnel.

Now we have everything. It includes six-hundred-odd ships, both Navy and merchant, who do all the transporting of millions of dollars worth of equipment and material and men to the Far East and to Europe in support of the fleet operations, the Army operations, and occupation forces.

That has required an expansion of MSTS in the Navy since we took over the functions previously controlled by the Army with their Military Sea Transport Service.

Mr. RIVERS. Mr. Chairman.

Mr. GAVIN. Mr. Rivers.

Mr. RIVERS. I would like to say in that connection, Admiral, I think the Navy has done a magnificent job. I have taken a trip on one of your ships under MSTS, and I was particularly interested-I have ridden when it was under the Army and the civilian operators, the civil-service captains, and so forth.

I particularly inquired as to the morale. I think that the Navy has bent over backward to retain the same type of high morale that they found in so many of the ships, from the top echelon of the operating unit. I want to say from my observation I think the Navy did a very good job. I noticed Admiral Will up in New York and all of the employees spoke very highly of them. I think it is a great compliment to the Navy.