The recent Parris Island incident is being thoroughly investigated by capable officers and they are not second or third raters. I hope that a congressional investigation will follow, as I am confident that such an investigation would clear the service of any stigma of brutality.

One more thing. The low percentage, 15 percent, of reenlistments was due to several reasons, mostly controlled by appropriations. They are-

I think members of this committee realize the truth of this statement

(1) Low pay, (2) poor housing, (3) unsatisfactory family life, (4) necessary military restrictions on personal liberties, (5) better financial opportunity in civilian life.

Up to now, I have felt that Business Digest and Forecast was a dependable publication based on statistics and accurate forecasting of business conditions. I never expected it to give aid and comfort to a potential enemy or to attempt to exert political influence by playing on the heartstrings of mothers and fathers. For the sake of our honored dead and the millions of service people, please publish only what you know to be the fact.

The CHAIRMAN. Thank you, Mr. Short.

Mr. Brooks, have you any comments?

Mr. BROOKS. Mr. Chairman, I have one or two short comments to make.

I am one of those members of the committee that had serious complaints filed with me in reference to the training of the Marine Corps. · In fact, I had some time back the case of a young man from my home who hung himself out in California rather than continue in the training course of the Marine Corps.

Now, I pass no judgment on what occurred there.

The criticism I have to make in that instance was the Marine Corps would not adequately investigate that death, and I thought the Marine Corps was wrong when it failed to do so.

In this instance, however, I want to say that the Marine Corps has moved promptly, it has moved expeditiously, and it has moved decisively.

You have gone in and you investigated it, as you should, at once, without holding back. And judging by your statements here, you have not withheld any punches. Where it is necessary to bring criticism, you have brought it. Where it is necessary to show rational judgment and wisdom, you have shown that, too.

So, I support the view so well edited by our chairman, Mr. Vinson, in saying that you ought to have reasonable time, perhaps 60 or 90 days, to work out your problem in reference to training, to correct the mistakes which you admit yourself are there in reference to your training, and then come back and tell us and tell the public of the United States what you have done to correct this situation.

The thing that bothers me, however, Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the committee, the Subcommittee No. 1 has before it now a bill to amend the Uniform Code of Military Justice, and one of the fundamental requests in that amendment is to give the officers of the various branches of service more authority for nonjudicial punishment, which is the core, the essence, you might say, of this matter here.

I just do not know how, unless we get full cooperation, we are going to proceed with our hearings to decide whether or not in the light of this, that more authority should be given the various branches, not only the Marine Corps but the other branches of the service for power for additional punishment in nonjudicial cases.

And that does trouble me a great deal.

We have here the setup for Wednesday. We would like to have the cooperation of representatives from the Marine Corps there at that bearing, if it is satisfactory with the chairman and the Marine Corps, to give us their views in reference to these requests. And I am not at all sold on the thought at this hour that we should give more authority to punishment without court-martial proceedings of any sort than they have at the present time.

So I say, again, Mr. Chairman, that I am supporting your idea that the Marine Corps have a reasonable time to correct everything and come back here before the committee.

The CHAIRMAN. Now, members of the committee, we are fortunate in having spelled out here in this very able, frank, and candid statement by General Pate, exactly what he proposes to do.

Now, let me briefly call it to the committee's attention and the country's attention:

(a) I have directed a reorganization of the training at Parris Island insofar as the supervision thereof is concerned.

Now, what does that mean?

This will involve the transfer and reassignment of the commanding general and certain other officers.

Now, those officers that are in command there, even including the commanding general, when this tragedy occurred, will be detailed somewhere else.

(b) I have established at Parris Island and also at San Diego separate Recruit Training Commands. Each will be commanded by a brigadier general especially selected by me and who will report to me directly in order that I may personally control and monitor the steps which must be taken to insure more effective supervision of our recruit-training system.

In simple language, it simply means that the Commandant of the Marine Corps is personally going to get right in the middle of the entire training program and be cognizant and aware of everything that goes on in connection with the training.

(c) I have appointed at my headquarters an inspector general of recruit training to assist me in the close supervision of the system. I will continue this extraordinary organization under my direct and personal control until I am convinced that there can be no cause for any American to offer reasonable objection to the Marine Corps recruit-training program.

(d) I have issued instructions to these newly formed recruit training commands that all desirable training features be retained, that present standards of discipline and physical conditioning be maintained and that all measures seeking to indoctrinate recruits in love of country and corps be continued but that any and every practice which may have arisen at Parris Island or San Diego which involves or suggests hazing, punishment or any other form of treatment incompatible with accepted American standards of human dignity be absolutely eliminated.

Now, that is as plain English as you can get. Every American can understand exactly what that means.

I am staffing each Recruit Training Command with a full complement of specially selected officers to supervise and monitor, but not to supplant the drill instructors in the conduct of recruit training.

By these measures we shall preserve the best features of the present system, eradicate any existing deficiencies and prevent others from occuring in the future. Well, we recognize that.

Now, that is all I am asking. I am asking that the Commandant of the Marine Corps be given a reasonable opportunity, within 60 or 90 days, to put into effect what he thinks will bring about the elimination

of what has grown up and has been classified as "certain brutalities and indignities."

Then he will come back here before this committee, and then we will determine at that time whether or not we shall open up a full committee investigation. And I think that is the sensible and the right approach. Here is one branch of the armed services saying, "We want to do these things." I am merely asking the committee to give them an opportunity to do it, and then we will ask to have them back here to judge whether or not they have done it. And if they have done it, then we will reach our decision on what we propose to do.

Any further questions?

Mr. COLE. Mr. Chairman

The CHAIRMAN. Mr. Cole

Mr. COLE. I do not see any other course for the committee to follow than has been suggested by the Chair. I do think that perhaps 60 or 90 days is a little too soon for the committee to determine with any reasonable certainty the adequacy of any new systems that might be inaugurated, but at least it will give the committee a chance to look at it.

The CHAIRMAN. That is right. And give the country an opportunity to know.

Mr. COLE. But I would like to ask General Pate a question, if I may, Mr. Chairman.

In his statement, he referred to the methods of selection of the drill instructors used by the Marine Corps, which, General Pate, you said had been highly successful, but you did not amplify on the method of selection of the drill instructors.

I think it would be of interest-I know it would be of interest to me to know what has been the system of selecting these drill instructors.

General PATE. Be very glad to, Mr. Cole.

In the first place and I assume that this particular instructor, McKeon, was selected-was a product of this system of selection, under the system I am going to describe.

As we require the services of noncommissioned officers for recruit training, for drill instructors, we direct certain commands within the Marine Corps to provide a number of sergeants, staff sergeants, and so on. We have a very high set of requirements. These men must be fine marines. They must have a wonderful record. They must have a certain GCT, which I do not recall right at the moment. But everything is done right there so that we do not waste the time of a man coming down who we think might fail.

The GCT is the mental standing-

Mr. COLE. I supposed it had something to do with the mind.
General PATE. Yes, sir.

Mr. COLE. But what does it stand for?

Mr. SMART. General classification test.

General PATE. Yes, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. Are you through?

Mr. COLE. No.

General PATE. These young men, then, are interviewed by the commanding officer locally before they are ever sent to Parris Island and eliminated if they do not have the proper attitude as far as he can determine. Many of them are eliminated there. Those who survive

the initial test in the units from which they came are ordered to Parris Island. They are there indoctrinated for a period of 5 weeks, in an intense course of instruction at a school for drill instructors only, in which they are taught how to be drill instructors and how to understand the psychology of youngsters and how to help them meet the strange situation in which they find themselves. They are given a thorough psychiatric test and many of them are eliminated at that time. The percentage of failures has been about 40 percent.

So, after the first elimination at the man's organization, and again at the school, about 60 percent survive.

Mr. COLE. What is the percentage of survival in the initial screening, would you say?

General PATE. That would be-I could not answer that, sir, because you might have 10 applications and maybe 8 in 1 instance and 2 in another. It would be difficult to define that. I do not really know, sir. We do not keep a record of it.

I mean, when they send a man, say, from one of our organizations to Parris Island under the directive from us, in his opinion, the commanding officer's opinion, this young man has all the attributes necessary, and even then some 40 percent of them are eliminated.

Mr. SHORT. Will the gentleman yield for one word right there? Mr. COLE. Yes.

Mr. SHORT. While your drill instructor, noncommissioned officer, is the backbone of your training program, General, it seems to me that if this sergeant's superior officer had exercised a little closer supervision or tighter control over him, not only would those six drowned Marines have been saved but the sergeant himself would have been saved.

sir.

It seems to me that is the weak link.

General PATE. Well, that is the problem that we are faced with,

Mr. SHORT. And you should not leave it altogether up to the noncommissioned officer.

General PATE. That is exactly right.

Mr. SHORT. On this training.

General PATE. That is right.

Mr. SHORT. The commissioned officers must exercise closer surveillance and control.

General PATE. That is correct, sir.

Mr. COLE. When was this sergeant made a drill instructor, General? General PATE. This was his first platoon, Mr. Cole. I think February.

Mr. COLE. Of 1956?

General PATE. He graduated from the school and then within a few weeks was assigned as an assistant instructor with this platoon, and incidentally had been doing very well. The supervisory officers were much pleased with all of his duty and his performance. He stood well above average in their opinions as a drill instructor.

Mr. COLE. How many were in his class at the time he finished the instructor's school?

The CHAIRMAN. Fifty-five.

General PATE. Fifty-five, I think it was.
And he stood-

The CHAIRMAN. Fourteenth.

General PATE. Well, 14th, that is right. I had forgotten that. [Laughter.]

Mr. COLE. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.

(Further laughter.)

Mr. COLE. If the chairman had brought out these facts in his very forceful statement, I could have been spared the need to interrogate the witness. [Further laughter.]

The CHAIRMAN. I do not expect the general to keep these figures on his fingertips.

Mr. COLE. No.

The CHAIRMAN. I read the record last night.

Mr. COLE. Mr. Chairman, I think it is important for the public to know the method by which these drill instructors have been selected, that they are not just grabbed up out of the barrel.

General PATE. They are not.

Mr. COLE. And assigned.

General PATE. They are certainly not.

Mr. COLE. They are carefully screened and thoroughly trained, and this particular lad, it is now disclosed-that out of his class he was 1 of 60 percent who completed the course, and that out of a group of 55 individuals, he was 15th or 14th.

General PATE. That is correct-14th, I think it was.

The CHAIRMAN. Now, in that connection

Are you through, Mr. Cole?

Mr. COLE. Yes.

The CHAIRMAN. Now, in that connection, I want to ask the general, is there any objection to making public this document that you have filed in the committee, giving all the information along the lines Mr. Cole brought up, known from the Commandant of the Marine Corps to the Secretary of the Navy via the Judge Advocate, recording of proceedings, court of inquiry, convened at the Recruit Training Depot, Parris Island, on April 9-is there any objection to this being printed? Is there any objection to all this document you gave Mr. Short and myself yesterday being put in the record?

General PATE. None whatsoever, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. Mr. Smart, put this in the record and make it available to the press and to the country, every phase of it.

Now, Mr. Kilday, any comment?

Mr. KILDAY. Mr. Chairman, it has become quite evident that the chairman has given more than casual attention to this matter.

As I understand it, the only question pending before the committee is whether we should accept the chairman's suggestion that further investigation be postponed.

Of course, the purpose of any congressional investigation of this incident would have to be to assure that nothing similar would happen. in the future. No matter what we did, we could not undo what happened at Parris Island. That is in the past. And not discounting the anguish of the families of the men who lost their lives, I suppose that those most concerned about it at the present time are the Commandant and other authorities of the Marine Corps and the Department of the Navy.

That being true, we should have every assurance that immediate action has been taken that would prevent a recurrence of this tragedy. In addition to that, Mr. Chairman, I think we must bear in mind at this point that we have here a case involving the administration