Mr. BATES. Has he been in Research and Development himself? General WETZEL. We didn't-yes; but then we called it the Air Materiel Command.

Mr. BATES. He was in that before we separated the Air Materiel Command into the Research and Development Command and the Air Materiel Command.

(Statement off the record.)

General WETZEL. That is again a little out of my field. If you want to take the time and you want to get General Bunker over here, I would be delighted to get him here and have him tell you exactly what he does.

Mr. BATES. I don't know now what he does.

General WETZEL. Well, then, perhaps we ought to do it.

Mr. VAN ZANDT. General, may I say a few words?
General WETZEL. Yes, sir; you could be helpful.

Mr. VAN ZANDT. This general occupies a position in the Air Force that is somewhat administrative, because of the tremendous number of responsibilities that the Air Force has in the atomic-energy program. First, the Air Force is responsible for the delivery ability of the plane, along with the Navy.

Secondly, various types of planes have to be developed to replace what you have at the present time or what are coming.

Then you have the responsibility of sitting alongside of other Armed Forces representatives and talk about weapons and how they will be employed in time of war. Then you have the question of storage. You have many other responsibilities in this field. And General Bunker sits there and looks after the interest of the Air Force. Now we have had this matter before the Atomic Energy Committee several times and General Bunker has been before us and I think he is qualified for his job.

Mr. BLANDFORD. May I say this, Mr. Chairman, that General Bunker does the same thing for the Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations as Admiral Wright does for the Navy.

Mr. VAN ZANDT. That is right.

Mr. HARDY. That doesn't mean necessarily that that is required. Mr. BLANDFORD. No, but I am pointing out you have a director for atomic energy in the Navy and I assume that since the Navy has a rear admiral the Air Force also feels they should have a general officer coordinating atomic research and development and its applicability to Air Force weapons camparable to the Navy.

Mr. HARDY. That is just one of the things that bothers me. Just because the Navy had that type of man in the job, the Air Force wants it. Is that the answer?

Mr. BLANDFORD. I don't know if that is the answer.

Mr. HARDY. The things that Mr. Van Zandt brought up I can understand. But it would seem that a good many of those aspects of those functions which he outlined would fall under the Deputy Chief of Staff for Materiel, and perhaps some of them would fall under the Research and Development. Might it be then that the people over in the Development Section don't have any responsibility for the type of thing that General Bunker is doing?

Lieutenant Colonel BURKE. The adjutant monitors the flow of communications in and out of the whole Air Staff.

The Secretary of the Air Staff handles normal day-to-day housekeeping functions for the entire Air Staff.

Mr. BLANDFORD. May I ask you, is the Air Adjutant General still a colonel?

Lieutenant Colonel BURKE. Yes, sir; he is.

Mr. BLANDFORD. That poor man.

Mr. ARENDS. Why do you say "that poor man"?

Mr. BLANDFORD. The only reason I say it is we went into that at great length during the Air Force Organization Act and the Air Adjutant General is the chief clerk for the Air Force, as I interpret it. He is in charge of filing, I would say, of records.

General WETZEL. Filing of publications of orders.

Mr. BLANDFORD. He does not act in any comparable position with the Adjutant General of the Army.

General WETZEL. That is correct; he does not.

Mr. HARDY. So long as he carries that title, he could at least be addressed as general; couldn't he?

General WETZEL. No, sir.

Mr. BLANDFORD. He is the Air Adjutant General.

General WETZEL. He is Colonel So-and-So, the Adjutant Air General.

Mr. RIVERS. Do you have anybody to compare to the Adjutant General of the Army? He would be chief of personnel, wouldn't he? General WETZEL. Yes, he would be chief of military personnel.

Mr. HARDY. Mr. Chairman, I would like to ask one more question. on this personnel over here.

Mr. ARENDS. Mr. Hardy.

Mr. HARDY. Under personnel. you got a special assistant for the Air Force Academy matters. What rank is that?

General WETZEL. He is a lieutenant general, but he is a lieutenant general not because he is special assistant for Academy matters, but because he is the senior Air Force representative to the United Nations, Lieutenant General Harmon.

Mr. HARDY. He wears two hats; don't he?

General WETZEL. He wears two hats, and the job up there doesn't take a great deal of his time.

Mr. HARDY. I was wondering about that. How many people does he have in that shop?

General WETZEL. I understand two officers.

Mr. HARDY. He got a very important box seat there for just that spare hat he wears.

General WETZEL. Well, the size of the box really doesn't repre

sent

Mr. BATES. It has a good propaganda value, though, for the Academy.

Mr. RIVERS. That box has to be well insulated.
Mr. HARDY. Was that the
General WETZEL. No, sir.
Air Force Academy matters.

purpose of it, the propaganda value? The chief wanted somebody to work on We in the United States Air Force feel that we should have an academy. We are not the least of the three services, in our opinion. The Navy has one and the Army has one. Mr. RIVERS. So you are entitled to one.

Mr. BATES. It is a little advertising, that is what it is.

Mr. GAVIN. Is he making any progress?

General WETZEL. He hasn't so far. We had hoped that we might get legislation authorizing the start of an Air Academy and we had

26066-53-No. 49-22

hoped at one time a couple of months ago that we could start at the middle of this year.

Mr. HARDY. You say he has just one officer in that office?

General WETZEL. I am not sure.

[Confers.]

He has two.

He doesn't have very many.

Mr. BLANDFORD. He had that special committee, too.
General WETZEL. Yes.

Mr. HARDY. I am interested in how many he has now.
General WETZEL. TWO.

Mr. HARDY. What are their ranks?

General WETZEL. Lieutenant colonel and colonel.

Mr. HARDY. What are their specific jobs, to try to propagandize the Congress or to work on somebody else?

Mr. BATES. Everybody.

General WETZEL. I don't know whether I can answer that. Their boss, General Harmon, is up at United Nations so many days a week, whatever it is, and the colonel and lieutenant colonel are here in the office to keep their fingers on things, I suppose.

Mr. BLANDFORD. His job is to convince 434 Members of Congress that the 435th District is the best place to put that Air Force Academy; isn't it? [Laughter.]

General WETZEL. Thank you, Mr. Blandford.

Mr. BATES. General, you have $10 million now to develop some air base that you have in operation at the moment for barracks, et cetera, for the students, don't you?

General WETZEL. I don't believe so.

Mr. BATES. Well now, that is the information they gave me this week. And in addition, it is expected it is going to cost between $175 million and $200 million for an academy.

Mr. HARDY. But he doesn't have the authority for the Academy. Mr. BATES. No.

General WETZEL. We don't have the authority for the Academy. Mr. BATES. No. But I am talking about you have $10 million for the development of some field, which you apparently have, for the purpose of having an academy in name until such time as

General WETZEL. The permanent one

Mr. BATES. Or the $200,000 one will be finished.

Mr. RIVERS. Have you plans for that academy?

General WETZEL. I don't know, sir. That is kept pretty closely in General Harmon's office-the Chief's and the Secretary's.

Mr. RIVERS. I mean, would it be for 2,500 or 3,000, or what is estimated? What is your guesstimation?

General WETZEL. I have heard. I have forgotten.

Mr. BATES. They will be comparable.

General WETZEL. I think it will be comparable to the United States Military Academy. [Laughter.]

Mr. RIVERS. I am sure of that.
Mr. MILLER. Mr. Chairman.

Mr. ARENDS. Mr. Miller of California.

Mr. MILLER. I have been very quiet this morning, but the gentleman on my left was just telling me about the big atomic energy plant they have down in his district, bigger than Rhode Island. I would like to say a word about California.

Mr. RIVERS. You don't have to.

Mr. GAVIN. You are doing pretty good in California. You have most of the Navy out there now.

Mr. ARENDS. Colonel, go ahead with your presentation.

Lieutenant Colonel BURKE. Sir, that concludes our immediate discussion of the Air Staff.

Mr. NELSON. Could I ask the colonel a question?

Mr. ARENDS. Just a moment.

Lieutenant Colonel BURKE. Yes, sir.

Mr. NELSON. Is the special assistant for reserve forces a Regular or Reserve?

General WETZEL. He is a Reserve officer.

Mr. BLANDFORD. He has to be a Reserve.

General WETZEL. I don't believe he has to be.
Mr. BLANDFORD. Maybe not; I don't know.
General WETZEL. But he is.

Mr. VAN ZANDT. Prescribed by law.

General WETZEL. The job is prescribed by law.
Mr. NELSON. He is a Reserve officer.

General WETZEL. He is a Reserve officer.

Mr. BLANDFORD. He doesn't have to be a Reserve.
General WETZEL. He doesn't have to be.

Mr. GAVIN. Any further comments on the Air Academy, Mr. Chairman?

The ARENDS. No; that is all this morning.

Mr. BLANDFORD. He does have to be a reservist under the Reserve Act. He does not have to be under the Air Force Reorganization Act. Mr. ARENDS. All right, Colonel.

Lieutenant Colonel BURKE. Now, gentlemen, on this chart we portray what we call a typical major air command, in order to show you how the wings, the air divisions, and the Air Force Headquarters fit in.

You will note that the relationship is the major air command headquarters, the Air Force headquarters, the air division headquarters, and the wing headquarters.

Now I call this chart a typical chart because there is nothing arbitrary about it. Because we set up a major air command headquarters doesn't automatically mean that we need a specific set number of Air Force headquarters under that, nor, in turn, that we need a specific number of air division headquarters under that. Not at all.

We have some commands that have no air forces under them, nor even air divisions. Some of our forces, particularly the Fifth Air Force in Korea, directly supervises the wings which are assigned to it.

Now, there are many elements which enter into the determination of how many intermediate headquarters we interpose into the system. These are such facts as span of control, unity of command, homogeneous assignment, and so forth.

Mr. BLANDFORD. Well, would it be fair to ask you this, Colonel: A lieutenant general usually commands a major air command? Lieutenant Colonel BURKE. That is right, sir; yes, sir.

Mr. BLANDFORD. And a numbered air force is usually commanded by a major general?

Lieutenant Colonel BURKE. Yes, sir.

Mr. BLANDFORD. You would like to have a brigadier general as a deputy commander?

Lieutenant Colonel BURKE. Yes, sir.

Mr. BLANDFORD. Then you have an air division, which I assume would be a bridgadier general, and then under that you have wings which also are brigadier generals?

Lieutenant Colonel BURKE. Yes, sir.

Mr. BLANDFORD. Then you have maintenance and supply groups

Mr. GAVIN. Let him answer that.

Are they brigadier generals or are they major generals in your air divisions and your wing command?

Lieutenant Colonel BURKE. With the possible exception, as General Wetzel has already pointed out, of our Fifth Air Force in Korea, where we have a lieutenant general, they are all at this level-major general billets.

This level, air division, is also a major general billet. This level (wing) is a brigadier general billet. From there on down, they are colonels in charge of groups.

Now, of the factors which influence our placing intermediate headquarters, perhaps the most important is called span of control. Span of control is simply the grouping of individuals and organiza tions in such a manner as to most effectively accomplish their overall mission.

The span varies according to certain factors, such as that mission, geographical considerations, time and distance, and certain operational requirements.

Now that is exactly what I meant previously when I stated that there was nothing arbitrary at all about this pattern. When we establish an intermediate headquarters, we put it there because we have a definite requirement for it. The sole reason for the existence of an intermediate headquarters is to reduce the overall span of con