Forms 5084 were prepared and forwarded to depots requesting instructions. Teams were sent in from the various supply depots to assist post personnel in determining what supplies should be returned to the depots and what supplies should be disposed of as excess. These teams came in from such places as Belle Mead, Schenectady, and Letterkenny. Mr. RIEHLMAN. How large a staff did they send in? Lieutenant Colonel JENNINGS. Belle Mead sent 2; Schenectady sent 5-4 civilians and 1 officer; and there was 1 officer from Letterkenny. Mr. COTTER. What department was that? Lieutenant Colonel JENNINGS. Ordnance. Signal Corps men. Baltimore sent in some Classification officers of the various technical services classified property as serviceable, unserviceable, or not economically repairable. Serviceable property was returned to stock. Unserviceable, but economically repairable, property was returned to depots, and wornout or uneconomically repairable property was turned in to Property Disposal Section. We shipped many, many carloads of supplies which were unserviceable, but economically repairable, to the Jeffersonville Quartermaster Depot. Mr. RIEHLMAN. Can you give us an illustration of those items that were shipped? Lieutenant Colonel JENNINGS. Perhaps Lieutenant Colonel Nelson from the Quartermaster Corps could answer that question. Lt. Col. LOWELL NELSON. On the unserviceable and economically repairable property shipped out of Camp Drum, the number of line items is 512. Mr. RIEHLMAN. What is a line item? Lieutenant Colonel NELSON. Any single line entry. I can give it to you in terms of money. It is $1,185,000. Mr. RIEHLMAN. Would a truck be included? Lieutenant Colonel NELSON. No, sir; it would be such things as furniture and clothing. Mr. COTTER. How many carloads? Lieutenant Colonel NELSON. I cannot break it down between economically repairable and unserviceable, but approximately 40 to 50 pieces of transportation, vanloads. Mr. RIEHLMAN. Did you say over $1 million worth? Lieutenant Colonel NELSON. No, sir. That should be over $100,000 worth of unserviceable alone. Mr. RIEHLMAN. How much was the serviceable? Lieutenant Colonel NELSON. $645,845. Mr. RIEHLMAN. The first category was unserviceable? Lieutenant Colonel NELSON. Yes, sir, and economically repairable. Mr. RIEHLMAN. Will that be repaired there? Lieutenant Colonel NELSON. Yes, sir. Mr. RIEHLMAN. You are pretty well sure of that? Lieutenant Colonel NELSON. Yes, sir, so far as we are concerned. Mr. RIEHLMAN. Proceed, Colonel Jennings. Lieutenant Colonel JENNINGS. The following regulations were used. as references in determining and disposing of surplus property: AR 755-5-- July 14, 1953- Property disposal. SR 755-15-10____ TECHNICAL SERVICE SUPPLY BULLETINS . Mar. 10, 1949 SR 755–15–10--------- Sept. 2, 1953. Classification of unserviceable signal supplies. When supplies are received by the property disposal officer, they are recorded in a stock record book and he becomes responsible for them. When sufficient quantities are on hand to warrant a sale, the property disposal officer prepares invitations-for-bids and sets the date for the bid opening and mails copies of the invitations to all interested parties appearing on the bidders list. The bidders list is an up-todate list of companies interested in bidding on items offered for sale. From time to time we receive instructions from First Army to add different individuals or firms to this list of bidders. We have people coming in here who will contact us and request that their name be placed on the bid for certain type items, and we put them in the file and keep that up to date. Bids are opened at the time and place specified on each invitationfor-bids by the purchasing and contracting officer. Each bidder must deposit 20 percent of the amount of his bid at the time the bid is made. Before the successful bidder is determined, sufficient time is allowed, usually 48 hours, for bids which might have been mailed prior to the hour of the bid opening, to be considered. Upon determining the successful bidder, he is notified that his bid has been accepted and is requested to make full payment and to remove the item from the camp. Unsuccessful bidders are also notified that their bid was not accepted, and their deposit is returned to them. The purchasing and contracting officer reserves the right to refuse any and all bids which he deems are not to the best interest of the Government. That is a general statement of the procedures that we have used in setting up these sales. Col. PAUL L. DOERR, HEADQUARTERS FIRST ARMY, Governors Island, New York, N. Y., January 6, 1954. Office of the Chief of Legislative Liaison, Department of the Army, Washington 25, D. C. DEAR COLONEL DOERR: In reply to your letter of December 30, 1953, requesting information concerning the Surplus Property Disposal Division at Camp Drum, the following data are submitted: The disposal activity has been closed out as a result of Camp Drum's current standby status, and Camp Drum is presently satellited on Fort Niagara for disposal activities. Prior to the deactivation of Camp Drum, the disposal section consisted of 1 officer and 3 civilians as listed below: Captain Manuel S. Pina, infantry, property disposal officer Mr. Dobson, warehouseman, W. B. ($1.44 per hour) Captain Pina is presently scheduled for overseas shipment per paragraph 29, Department of the Army Special Order No. 217, November 1953, and is en route to Fort Lewis, Wash., expected to arrive January 11, 1954. As is customary on a change of station, Captain Pina is carrying his field 201 file. Therefore, only fragmentary information is available at this headquarters. Prior to joining the Army, Captain Pina attended Suffolk University in Massachusetts as a prelaw student. His assignments in the Army have included: Transportation officer, supply officer, adjutant, legal officer, and property disposal officer. The clerk-stenographer and clerk-typist employed in the property disposal activities at Camp Drum performed purely clerical or administrative duties. Sincerely yours, E. B. SEBREE, (Pina's official 201 file indicates that he is qualified as a property disposal officer.) P. L. D. Mr. COTTER. When you knew that you were going to close up or go on a standby basis, the staff here and the various technical services and the technical staff of the First Army came in here and you went over your whole inventory? Lieutenant Colonel JENNINGS. That is right. Mr. CoTTER. And, in accordance with the instructions, you kept such items as were supposed to be left here in the camp to support summer activity, like bedding, chairs, desks and typewriters, and if it was in good condition it was mothballed and stored in the various warehouses. Lieutenant Colonel JENNINGS. That is right. received instructions from the First Army who controlled your stock, to ship it in to them, or, depending on its type, to dispose of it ? Lieutenant Colonel JENNINGS. That is right. Mr. CoTTER. The surplus property which you actually sold-what percentage would that be of the whole including property that you transferred to the other depots and installations and property that you mothballed here? Lieutenant Colonel JENNINGS. Under the Signal Corps it is about 5 percent. Mr. RIEHLMAN. That is Signal Corps property. Lieutenant Colonel JENNINGS. On the post, yes, sir. Mr. RIEHLMAN. Five percent was declared surplus Lieutenant Colonel JENNINGS. Yes, sir. Now, I am not sure about the quartermaster material. Do you know the answer to that, Colonel Nelson? Lieutenant Colonel NELSON. Property disposed of by reports and depots came to 99.9916 percent. Mr. RIEHLMAN. What does that mean in dollar value? Lieutenant Colonel NELSON. That means approximately $90,000 of property disposed of and $1,175,214 to other agencies. Mr. CoTTER. And a substantial amount left here ? Lieutenant Colonel NELson. The $1,100,000-odd I have mentioned is the quantity shipped out. Mr. CoTTER. And will you leave anything here in the quarter master ? Lieutenant Colonel NELSON. Over and above the requirements. Lieutenant Colonel NELSON. I cannot give you exact figures. Lieutenant Colonel NELSON. The requirements will be those to support the National Guard, plus the small party necessary to be here, and 18,000 will be the approximate number. Mr. COTTER. You wouldn't be able to convert that into dollar value? Lieutenant Colonel NELSON. No, sir, not offhand. Mr. IKARD. You are keeping enough to support 18,000 people? Lieutenant Colonel NELSON. Yes, sir, National Guard and Reserve troops. Mr. RIEHLMAN. And that is temporarily put in mothballs? Mr. COTTER. Unless you want to say something more about the general process, or the proportions of the property retained or transferred as against the property that was disposed of, let us move into the next phase. Lieutenant Colonel JENNINGS. There is one thing I would like to bring out, and that is that property disposal has been a normal operation of the post since I came here on the 25th of August 1952. We have got 1 officer, who is Captain Pina, 1 clerk-typist and the warehousemen who will be here until the 1st of December. I felt that it was my job to implement this thing and speed up the property disposal by doing as much of the clerical work as possible and taking the load off the people left at the post, and I threw in additional people from my own organization to do that. Mr. COTTER. The invitations-for bids that are out include practically all the property you are going to dispose of? Lieutenant Colonel JENNINGS. Yes, sir, practically all of it. My intention was to get as much of it as I could and get this paperwork accomplished prior to the people leaving here. Mr. RIEHLMAN. Is there other property that you are going to dispose of that we do not have knowledge of today? Lieutenant Colonel NELSON. Not that I know of. Mr. COTTER. That would be a negligible amount? Lieutenant Colonel NELSON. It would be negligible. It might still come in. Mr. RIEHLMAN. If the colonel, or whoever is left in charge, decides that there is going to be an additional declaration of surplus we would like you to notify our committee. Colonel BEDELL. We can send you copies of all future invitations. Mr. RIEHLMAN. Good. Now, Colonel Jennings, I would like to ask this further question; since the subcommittee started studying this sale program here, has there been any cancellation of any of the program to dispose of certain properties? Lieutenant Colonel JENNINGS. Not to my knowledge. There was one bid canceled on the coal in its entirety by the direction of the First Army, and my understanding was that the coal was to be here for you people to see. On the furnace parts, we issued the invitation. We have to send seven copies of the invitations to the First Army, and they keep screening them continually. They deleted several items which they found use for at another post, and we had to put out an addenda to the invitation deleting those items. Mr. RIEHLMAN. Those are the only items that were originally on the list or intended to be put on the list for surplus sale? Those are the only changes? Lieutenant Colonel JENNINGS. That is right. Mr. RIEHLMAN. My colleague has a question he would like to ask. Mr. IKARD. I would like to ask Colonel Beckwith or Colonel McCluskey from First Army headquarters what will be the mission of Camp Drum after April 1, 1954. Colonel MCCLUSKEY. Summer training. Mr. IKARD. In other words, it will continue its present inactive status? Colonel MCCLUSKEY. That is right. Mr. IKARD. It will not change any after April 1, 1954, will it? Colonel MCCLUSKEY. No; the mission will still continue to be a summer mission of support. Mr. IKARD. Then why is there this termination? On your inventory you say you have maintenance only until April 1, 1954. Colonel MCCLUSKEY. It was considered that the equipment would be in order and there would be very little retention needed for inactive status, and before the post opened in April the First Army would have sufficient on hand to put it in preparation. Colonel BEDELL. During the winter months only a very few buildings will be used. The building where post headquarters is, the engineer's office and shops, the engineer heavy-equipment shop, and the warehouse you were in, plus probably 30 or 35 family-housing units. The level of supply that we keep in our new warehouse is not to exceed 60 days; is that right, Captain Nance? Captain NANCE. Ninety days. Colonel BEDELL. For those buildings and such utilities as we will use from October 1 to April 1 of next year, 1954. Then presumably the activities at the post here will accelerate. The personnel that we have kept on here during the winter will form the cadre which augments forces who must be here during the summer months to keep the camp going and to keep it in shape. Mr. IKARD. I have been trying to find out if that is to be the continuing mission of Camp Drum, to give logistic support to these civilian training groups. In the case of these items used for maintenance in your warehouses, I understood you to say that your directions which came from First Army were to maintain only the supply levels which would maintain the camp until April 1, 1954. Colonel BEDELL. Yes, sir. Mr. IKARD. You said you received such an order, and that is the reason I asked for the First Army people. It is a little baffling to me if you are going to continue on. I can understand why you would keep a 30- or 60- or 90-day supply, but why stop at April 1, 1954? Colonel BEDELL. When we resume summer training the camp will be funded from civilian component funds, I expect, and any supply material needed after April 1, payrolls and so forth, will be met from civilian components. Mr. IKARD. What about the winter of 1954-55? Colonel BEDELL. The camp will again revert to an inactive status. Mr. IKARD. Are we going to be procuring items for maintenance during that period? Colonel BEDELL. Presumably; yes, sir; again a 90-day supply. Mr. IKARD. It looks to me as if you have the inventory now. Much of it you are disposing of or diverting to other camps or posts or |