Lieutenant Colonel JENNINGS. That was salvage wire that had been picked up around the post. Some of it was telephone wire. The Bell Telephone Co. had been in here stringing new wire. A lot of it was wire abandoned during the exercise that was picked up. Some of it was engineer electrical wire.

Mr. COTTER. Just accumulated incidental to good housekeeping? Lieutenant Colonel JENNINGS. Yes, sir.

Mr. COTTER. And the second lot in this sale No. 6 involved 205 miscellaneous items of hospital equipment. One hundred and fifty-nine of the 205 items were bedside tables.

Lieutenant Colonel JENNINGS. Yes, sir.

Mr. COTTER. I understand they had been condemned as unserviceable and obsolete by a medical survey team from the Schenectady Depot. Lieutenant Colonel JENNINGS. That is right.

Mr. RIEHLMAN. Why were they declared obsolete?

Lieutenant Colonel JENNINGS. Mr. Love is here and Colonel Blasingame is here. He can probably explain that.

TESTIMONY OF LT. COL. F. J. BLASINGAME, CHIEF, MEDICAL SUPPLY SECTION, ARMY GENERAL DEPOT, SCHENECTADY, N. Y.

Lieutenant Colonel BLASINGAME. We have exhibits here. These tables which you see there, I cannot give you the acquisition date of those but they are the tables involved in this bid and they are at least 10 or 12 years old.

In the latter part of 1946 the Army adopted a new and improved type of bedside table. The Army standardized the new item in 1947. The old item was declared limited standard on October 2, 1947, which means that the items will not be procured any more. As long as the items remain serviceable they will continue in use, but when they become unserviceable they will be disposed of.

We find that they were deleted from the catalogs on 13 June 1952, at which time they were carried as a nonstandard item. The Surgeon General put out a directive regarding those tables, and he stated that after that porcelainized finish was cracked and chipped the tables could not any longer be repaired and put in a satisfactory condition for use, and therefore they would be disposed of when they became unserviceable.

These tables are what I consider in condition R-4. In other words, in order to put them back in condition they would have to have all that finish removed and be repainted. Furthermore, they have been in use for 10 years, which should be the normal life expectancy of a table of that type.

Therefore, since the tables were nonstandard and were station excess and technical service excess, they were turned over to the property disposal officer.

The table you see over there is now the standard table which we removed from moth balls today for this exhibit. It is a much more sturdy table and much more adaptable in a hospital for bedside use. It has a drawer plus some additional shelving, and on the back there is a chromium plated bar to serve as a towel rack or something of that kind.

Mr. COTTER. I understand that this was done in connection with the placing of the camp hospital on an inactive status and reducing the

hospital from a 300 bed hospital to a 200 bed hospital with the inactivation of the camp.

Lieutenant Colonel BLASINGAME. Yes, sir, but that is only partially correct. It was not done in reducing the hospital from a 300 bed hospital to a 250 bed hospital at all. It was done because those tables are not in a fit condition to be mothballed.

In connection with the medical equipment in this hospital we mothballed equipment there sufficient for a 300 bed hospital. All of the equipment, if it was serviceable, was either mothballed, or lateral distribution was made to some other hospital in the area, or it was returned to the depot whether it was serviceable or unserviceable. All unserviceable equipment, if it was economically repairable, was returned to the depot for repair and return to stock.

Mr. COTTER. You say you obtained a new bedside hospital table and you finally threw these old tables out because of their being unrepairable. Was any effort made to determine whether there was a use for these tables in some other manner in the armed services, such as a barracks table? Was there any purpose to which the old table could be put? The table still looks rugged and strong, and it might have other purposes than a bedside table.

Lieutenant Colonel BLASINGAME. So far as I know, no other uses were contemplated. Those old tables in their present condition are extremely hard to keep in a sanitary condition, whether in a barracks or in a tourist court or any place else.

Mr. COTTER. Do you have a sufficient quantity of the new table to equip the hospital if we were to go to war tomorrow?

Lieutenant Colonel BLASINGAME. No, not here at Camp Drum. Mr. COTTER. Would you have sufficient quantities that you could ship in?

Lieutenant Colonel BLASINGAME. Yes, sir.

Mr. COTTER. How many of these old tables will you leave in mothballs here at Camp Drum?

Lieutenant Colonel BLASINGAME. Ninety-eight.

Mr. COTTER. And how many beds are you leaving here?
Lieutenant Colonel BLASINGAME. Three hundred.

Mr. COTTER. So you have 200 beds that do not have bedside tables?
Lieutenant Colonel BLASINGAME. That is right.

Mr. COTTER. Was any consideration given to holding these old tables until you did have full equipment?

Lieutenant Colonel BLASINGAME. No, because we felt that if and when the hospital is opened up we can ship the good ones in. These old tables are not worth repairing, and they are not worth holding because they would deteriorate very rapidly.

Mr. IKARD. You say you have enough of the new type to meet any anticipated demand that you might have?

Lieutenant Colonel BLASINGAME. So far as I know, we do. I do not have the exact figures on that. I don't know whether we have an unlimited supply of this new table on hand. I do believe that we have enough to fill Camp Drum requirements in the event they should open on a 300-bed capacity. We don't know whether they will open up a 200-bed or a 300-bed or a 100-bed hospital.

Mr. COTTER. Your office had no alternative but to dispose of the old tables?

41957 054 -7

Lieutenant Colonel JENNINGS. That is right.

Mr. RIEHLMAN. Do I understand that there are a number of this old type of table being used in military hospitals today? They are not disposing of them; are they?

Lieutenant Colonel BLASINGAME. No. It is just possible that had this hospital remained active they would still be in use. But when a hospital is inactivated, it is not practicable to set them to one side and expect them to last without being mothballed, and that is expen

sive.

Mr. RIEHLMAN. I would hate to see this old type of table taken out of active hospitals on the ground that it is not serviceable. I have been in plenty of hospitals where I have seen worse tables than this

one..

Lieutenant Colonel BLASINGAME. I would surely hate to use this

one.

Mr. RIEHLMAN. That isn't the question at all. I would like to drive a Rolls Royce, if I could afford it, but I happen to drive a Ford. I do not want to appear too critical, but I do not want to see you dispose of items which can be used.

Lieutenant Colonel BLASINGAME. Those old tables are extremely difficult to keep sanitary.

Mr. RIEHLMAN. I will agree with you, but that new one right there isn't going to be the easiest one to keep sanitary, either. It has closed drawers and crevices and a covered area with a composition cover on the top of it, and you know what can get under there. This old table which you are replacing has nothing to conceal other than when the porcelain is cracked. Am I correct?

Lieutenant Colonel BLASINGAME. Yes, sir.

Mr. RIEHLMAN. That is the point I want to make. From the sanitation angle you might well have a greater problem with the new one than you had with the old one.

Lieutenant Colonel BLASINGAME. I am not a professional man on

that.

Mr. RIEHLMAN. Neither am I, but I think good commonsense will tell us that.

Mr. COTTER. These other items which were in the minority were an operating table, dental lamps and cabinets, surgeons stools, and so forth. They were also enamel and were replaced for some other similar reasons?

Lieutenant Colonel BLASINGAME. They were all unserviceable and not worth repair.

Captain PINA. The dental cabinets and the dental lamps are still in the disposal warehouse.

Mr. COTTER. Your acquisition cost was $3,931.28 on the lot sold, and you received $373 for it; is that correct?

Captain PINA. Yes, sir.

Mr. COTTER. Being the highest of four bids.

Captain PINA. Yes, sir.

Mr. RIEHLMAN. And that includes the dental equipment?

Captain PINA. That is right.

SALE NO. 7

Mr. COTTER. We will now go to Sale No. 7.