Senator SPARKMAN. Secretary Stevens.

Secretary STEVENS. I don't have, Mr. Chairman, any prepared statement but just, if you will, a comment or two.

First of all, I'd like to express my appreciation for the opportunity to appear here before this committee, and in so doing I hope I can indicate the vital importance the Department of the Army feels on this housing matter. Also, I would like to express my appreciation for the interest of this committee in helping us to get at this military housing problem and do something about it.

I think we are all agreed on the need for the housing. We have so many people who are living under substandard conditions, who have been subjected to rents that are out of proportion, and personally I regard the question of adequate housing for the military in the same class with the Career Incentive Act which the Congress recently passed. I think it's that important as we go about the business of handling our service problems from the standpoint of an individual on a better basis, making the career more attractive and thus contributing to the security of the country, as well as, in the final analysis, saving substantial sums which it's hard to get up figures on, but in connection with the training matter which was referred to earlier. We have in the Army program, under the appropriated fund program-and I appeared before the subcommittee of the Senate Committee on Armed Services yesterday on our program which we hope to be able to fund for the new fiscal year-8,912 units. That is made up of 2 parts, one of which is a new request for authority for some 5,600 units, the balance of which was authorized last year but for which funds were not appropriated.

Now, as Secretary Floete said, there are some different estimates of the situation with respect to the individual services. I consider that a rockbottom long-range requirement for the Army, as near as I can estimate at the present time, to be approximately 54,000 units. Senator CAPEHART. That is for the Army alone?

Secretary STEVENS. That is for the Army alone. That is a little less than is shown on Mr. Floete's chart. Of course, as he explained, the question of community support is one where it has to be an estimate, has to be an evaluation, and one person might probably figure it one way and another person another.

I am certain if we could complete a plan of 54,000 units for the Army we would certainly put ourselves in such a vastly improved position that we could just do our job a lot better and we could improve our reenlistments and reduce our training costs.

Senator CAPEHART. Would you care to estimate how much money you can save on training costs and reenlistment costs?

Secretary STEVENS. That is hard to do. In the case of one electronics expert of a certain type that we train, we figure the cost of that training to be somewhere in the neighborhood of $22,000.

Senator CAPEHART. $22,000 to train 1 man in certain electronics processes?

Secretary STEVENS. That is right. If he leaves us and goes back to civilian life where there is a ready demand for his services, then we are faced with the expense of the retraining as well as not having our job in the meanwhile done so well because we haven't got an experienced fellow to do it.