Mr. BLANDFORD. All right, let's take a first lieutenant in Air Corps whose date of rank we will say is July 1, 1945, when he was promoted to first lieutenant.

Mr. ARENDS. Wait a minute.

(Discussion off the record.)

Mr. BLANDFORD. Now, let's say he is a first lieutenant in the Air Force Reserve and his date of rank, date of appointment as a first lieutenant in the Reserve we will say is-well, you weren't appointing them in the Reserve until when?

Lieutenant Colonel HYDE. Well, beginning about 1945, 1946.
Mr. BLANDFORD. All right.

Let's say July 1, 1945. This first lieutenant is called back to active duty in the Air Force, now in the Air Force, January 1, 1951. Now, first of all he comes on active duty as a first lieutenant. He reports to a station. Where does he stand in relation to all the first lieutenants in the Air Force at that point?

Lieutenant Colonel HYDE. He is the most junior on that date.
Mr. BLANDFORD. The most junior on that date?

Lieutenant Colonel HYDE. Yes.

Mr. BLANDFORD. Why?

Lieutenant Colonel HYDE. Because he has not served on active duty as a first lieutenant.

Mr. BLANDFORD. So time in grade is what we are talking about there.

Lieutenant Colonel HYDE. Yes.

Mr. BLANDFORD. All right. Where does this date of appointment come in?

Isn't that only with respect to eligibility for consideration? Lieutenant Colonel HYDE. That puts his record before the selection

board.

Mr. BLANDFORD. Right.

So if he has just come on active duty on the 1st of January and on the 2d of January a board is convened to select first lieutenants to promotion to captain with date of rank of August 1947, since he is preceding that, he automatically will be considered because his date of rank is in 1945.

Lieutenant Colonel HYDE. Well, we have a stipulation that he must have served 6 months on his current tour of active duty.

Mr. BLANDFORD. Before he can even be considered. All right. We have him from January 1 to July 1, 1951. He is not a very unhappy first lieutenant. Now, he now comes up and somebody says, "You are now eligible for promotion to captain. You have had 6 months in grade. You have been a first lieutenant in the Reserve for 6 years.'

Now, you pick him up from there.

Lieutenant Colonel HYDE. Well, the board considers his record. Let me say one thing, to start with. You picked two very exceptional type people.

Mr. ARENDS. That is right.

Mr. BLANDFORD. One Republican and one Democrat. [Laughter.] Lieutenant Colonel HYDE. No independents here. The two people that you describe as electronics experts, both of them presidents of big electronic organizations, are actually reappointment problems or

an appointment problem. They do not fit in with the promotion system. The promotion system is designed to handle the mass. However, to get to your statement

Mr. BLANDFORD. Let's say this fellow is an assistant superintendent of electronics in Westinghouse.

General WETZEL. That is better.

Mr. ARENDS. Let's break him down a little.

Mr. BLANDFORD. He knows electronics. He knows it well. He builds the stuff you are using.

Lieutenant Colonel HYDE. The selection board, after he has 6 months in grade on active duty, considers him, along with all other officers.

Now, we have just recently imposed a limitation on the proportion of people that our selection boards may select out of turn, for out-ofturn promotion, and for first lieutenants to captains that limitation is 10 percent of the total number eligible-5 percent of the total number eligible.

Mr. BLANDFORD. That is the same as the Army.

Lieutenant Colonel HYDE. In that grade it happens to be.
Mr. BLANDFORD. Yes.

Lieutenant Colonel HYDE. And for this reason. We in examining, or rather in reviewing the many, many comments which we received from various members of selection boards that served on selection boards in the past, in examining the records of first lieutenants on active duty eligible for promotion, we found that we were only able to identify a small group of people as being exceptionally well qualified for promotion and another small group of people as being not yet qualified for promotion, The mass, or the rest, are all equally qualified.

Now, in lining those people up to determine the time-that is, determining this relative priority for promotion among themselveswe had to turn to some common denominator. We toyed for a long time with some combination of date of appointment. However, you run into many disadvantages. You must remember that this Reserve officer you are talking about in the Air Force that just came on active duty has many, many Reserve contemporaries with no break in service. They are Reserve officers, too, and they feel that their military seniority amounts to something and should give them priority over the Reserve first lieutenant.

Mr. BLANDFORD. Are you inferring that a first lieutenant in the Air Force Reserve in 1945 would still be a first lieutenant in the Air Force Reserve in 1951?

Lieutenant Colonel HYDE. We ran into one just recently, sir, down at Moody Field.

I believe the date of rank was 1944, continuous active duty since that time.

Mr. BLANDFORD. He just doesn't know how to write letters. He must be from the District of Columbia. [Laughter.]

Lieutenant Colonel HYDE. I don't like to think that such influence has an effect on the selection to promotion.

Mr. BLANDFORD. No; but I can't visualize an officer-that is beside the point. That is a rare bird.

Mr. NELSON. That is the extreme example. What you are getting at is the Reserve who has been on duty for a year, instead of 6 months,

and is eligible for promotion to captain and he feels that his year should be more than the 6 months.

Lieutenant Colonel HYDE. Sure.

Mr. BLANDFORD. But the Reserve that comes to active duty, particularly who comes on in an involuntary basis, feels some credit should be given-you brought him in in 1950 and 1951 by the carload lots, including one grandfather. But the Reserve who is on active duty involuntarily feels that somebody should at least give some consideration to his Reserve status and the fact that he at least contributed something to the Reserve while he was in it. Now I say that because the Navy and Marine Corps have continued to promote their Reserves and all this trouble stems from the fact that you did not have any promotion system for Reserves in effect that made any sense. Now, when they came on active duty, you bring up this question of whether a Reserve should have only his time in grade count for him or whether any of his Reserve service should count.

Lieutenant Colonel HYDE. Let me say this, Mr. Blandford, that prior to our use of the involuntary recall business back in 1950, the eligibility zones for temporary promotion were based entirely, wholly, upon date of rank, active duty time in grade. It was as a result of the very thing which you are bringing out here that we changed our criterion for temporary promotion to date of initial appointment, with only a minimum time in grade on active duty requirement.

Mr. BLANDFORD. That is for eligibility, Colonel. There is all the difference in the world between being eligible for consideration and being promoted.

Lieutenant Colonel HYDE. Well, sir; we don't promote people to make them happy. We promote people to fill grade requirements. Mr. BLANDFORD. Well, that may be.

Lieutenant Colonel HYDE. People who are able to do the job in the higher grade in the opinion of the selection board.

Mr. BLANDFORD. When you tell me only 1 officer in 10 is selected under some of your select boards and that you take the 5 percent who are outstanding first and then the other 95 percent come from the very ones who are fully qualified, that indicates to me that the other 9 out of 10 are the ones who are junior to the last senior man that was selected. Now maybe down at the bottom you will pick up a couple of people who are outstanding. But immediately an officer has been for all practical purposes passed over. Now being passed over under this system doesn't amount to anything; does it?

Lieutenant Colonel HYDE. Well, he is not passed over unless someone who is merely qualified passed him. Then he is considered to be not yet qualified, and then he can start looking around to find out what is wrong with himself. But until that time, he really hasn't come up for promotion.

Mr. BLANDFORD. Of course, the reason that you have a large selection zone, so-called, is to give that outstanding officer who may be the anchor man in this class an opportunity to be promoted.

Lieutenant Colonel HYDE. That is the principle.

Mr. BLANDFORD. But the point-I am not arguing for or against your system. It makes the Reserves very unhappy.

General LEE. Mr. Blandford, may I say something-Mr. Chair

man.

Mr. ARENDS. Yes.

General LEE. Mr. Blandford, I think the committee should, and I think the committee does, understand. I would like to repeat that we are promoting people on a qualified basis and not just because he has come in and is a Reserve officer. We must give him credit or give any man credit when he is looked at for promotion for ability, and proven ability, and the man that has served as Mr. Nelson says-has been here a year or 2 or 3 years certainly ought to be looked at and given the opportunity to be promoted ahead of the fellow that has just been in for 6 months. You must give him credit for his military service.

Mr. BLANDFORD. You know what the Reserves are saying-and that was the whole basis of this buildup. You know what the Reserves are saying.

General LEE. I think so.

Mr. BLANDFORD. The temporary promotions in most cases to any of the senior grades at all have gone to the Regulars.

General LEE. Well, there is an answer to that.

Mr. BLANDFORD. And they are getting the grades. General LEE. There is an answer to that, too. Who have been in the service the longest, shall we say? Who is it that has the experience? Mr. BLANDFORD. That is a good question. But that does not justify a brigadier general with 14 years of service. I meanGeneral LEE. You are getting into another field.

Mr. BLANDFORD. I know.

Mr. ARENDS. Due to a little constituent trouble at 12 o'clock, we will adjourn the meeting until tomorrow morning at 10 o'clock.

(Whereupon, at 11:56 a. m., the committee adjourned to reconvene at 10 a. m., Friday, March 27, 1953.)

REVIEW OF PROMOTIONS OF OFFICERS IN THE

ARMED SERVICES

MONDAY, MARCH 30, 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 presiding.

Mr. GAVIN. The meeting will come to order.

Proceed, General.

Mr. BLANDFORD. We were talking in generalities when the meeting closed. Did you have a statement you want to make at this time, or had you finished the statement on general officers?

TESTIMONY OF MAJ. GEN. E. S. WETZEL, DEPUTY CHIEF OF STAFF, PERSONNEL, UNITED STATES AIR FORCE-Resumed

General WETZEL. I had finished that statement on general officers. As we closed last Thursday, we were still discussing the fact that the Air Force does make some general officers at what you consider, or appeared to consider, a young age. I have a little statement on that. Mr. BLANDFORD. All right. General WETZEL. You were also concerned about so many who were young and whether that would stagnate promotion to that general officer grade.

Mr. BLANDFORD. All right. Continue.

General WETZEL. I would like to say we continually monitor and program that situation to insure stagnation will not occur. Currently our general officer promotion program is projected forward over the next 15 years, indicating it is not a hand-to-mouth or day-to-day proposition.

As of January 1 of this year, we had 358 officers of the Regular Air Force serving in general-officer grade.

Every one of these Regulars will be retired from the Air Force by 1968 in accordance with mandatory retirement provisions of the Officer Personnel Act.

Mr. GAVIN. How many are permitted now, General?

General WETZEL. Our percent ceiling in general officers is 409 by Public Law No. 7, and a limitation of 383 by the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Mr. GAVIN. You now have 358?

General WETZEL. 348.

Mr. GAVIN. In the Regular force?

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