SECOND ARMY-FORT BELVOIR, VA.

Major General SHULER. We come now to the 2d Army, Fort Belvoir, Va., on page 19.

Senator STENNIS. This division here, Senator, that is 1st Army and 2d Army, and it is simply for their records and not so much ours, you see, to present it in sections.

Major General SHULER. On this station we are requesting four line items, sir, in the total amount of $1,083,000. Page 21 is the first item. This particular project at the missile instruction school will provide additions and alterations to four buildings at a cost of $164,000.

The proposed modification, sir, will permit full utilization of training equipment on hand so that the men completing the course will be more fully qualified to operate and maintain the complex power generating and air-conditioning equipment associated with our expensive missile systems.

Due to the inadequacy of our present facilities, sir, we do not feel we are putting these men out as fully qualified as they should be. This will rectify this deficiency.

MODERNIZATION OF FACILITIES

Senator STENNIS. It says you are using old facilities on old buildings but you want them brought up to date and modified to meet the more exacting requirements of working on these parts and component parts of these missiles, is that right?

Major General SHULER. Yes, sir. To learn how to operate the special generators and air-conditioning equipment associated with the missile system, yes, sir.

Senator STENNIS. All right. Take your next item.

Major General SHULER. May I ask a question off the record?

Senator STENNIS. Go ahead.

(Discussion off the record.)

Major General SHULER. Mr. Chairman, the next item at Fort Belvoir is an item which the House Appropriations Committee denied us appropriations for.

Senator STENNIS. Page?

Major General SHULER. Page 22, sir.

CLASSROOMS

This item is to provide air conditioning for 13 classrooms in Humphreys Hall, which is the main academic building at the Engineer School. It will cost $290,000. Approximately 5,000 students make use of this facility annually. All we have is floor pedestal-type fans. During the hot, humid weather we have to turn them off most of the time because the noise level cannot be tolerated in carrying out the instruction.

I have sat in this very school myself in these courses, and it gets as high as 95° in the summertime in these classrooms. The reason this is an extraordinary request as far as we are concerned, sir, is that the classes in this building are much more formal-type classes than we normally find in military school buildings. Students have to sit in class in the dress uniform. This is college-type instruction. The classrooms are very heavily scheduled, and the students stay in the

classrooms all day long. So we feel this is a request that should be considered above the ordinary air-conditioning classroom-type of question.

Senator STENNIS. Senator Proxmire.

Senator PROXMIRE. Sir, what would be the maintenance cost of this air conditioning, annual maintenance cost? Do you have any estimate on it?

MAINTENANCE COST

Major General SHULER. I would like to furnish it. I do not have the maintenance man here.

Senator STENNIS. All right. Put it in at this point in the record now, if possible.

(The information follows:)

The estimated annual operating and maintenance cost for the proposed 270ton air-conditioning unit in Humphrey Hall at Fort Belvoir, Va., is $5,485. Of this cost $2,650 per year is for operation, principally electricity, and $2,835 per year for maintenance. Maintenance costs are based on average costs over the life of the equipment.

AIR CONDITIONING CRITERIA

Senator PROXMIRE. What proportion of your classrooms are air conditioned in this part of the country, or, for that matter, all over the country? Do you have this same type of problem all over the country? Major General SHULER. Yes, we have a definite set of criteria which the Department of Defense gives the three services which not only prescribe where we can air condition but what we can air condition in each area, depending on what the dry and wet bulb readings are.

Mr. ZACKRISON. We provide air conditioning where the wet bulb temperature is 67° or higher 1,000 or more hours during the 6 warmest months of the year.

Senator PROXMIRE. Belvoir qualifies under that?

Major General SHULER. Yes, sir.

Mr. Chairman, I would like to insert in the record our reclama for this item.

This project is urgently needed to eliminate a serious deficiency in 13 classrooms in Humphreys Hall, the principal academic building at Fort Belvoir. A daily average of 800 student officers occupy the 13 classrooms.

Five other classrooms and the auditorium in Humphreys Hall have previously been air conditioned. The remaining 13 classrooms are now ventilated in the hot, humid summer months by noisy floor-mounted pedestal-type fans. Ventilating fan noise and lack of air conditioning definitely reduce instructor effectiveness and student receptiveness.

The school conducted in Humphreys Hall is an academic type where officer students in class A uniform attend classes all day. Courses are conducted

throughout the year. This requested air conditioning, which meets Department of Defense criteria, will complete air conditioning of classroom space and greatly enhance the instructional environment for all the important courses presented.

HOUSE REPORT STATEMENT (P. 6)

"The committee has approved the request for nuclear power and missile instruction facilities at Fort Belvoir, Va., but has denied the request of $290,000 for partial air conditioning of Humphreys Hall."

NUCLEAR POWERPLANT

Major General SHULER. The next item is on page 23, sir. This item will cost $473,000 and it is for a 6,745-square-foot addition and improvements to the stationary nuclear powerplant at Fort Belvoir. The present facility cannot be modified, without an addition to the plant, to provide for proper control of the radioactive contamination. The central control of entry and exit from the contaminated area is essential to eliminate a hazard to the health and safety of the men. Additional operating space is required to properly isolate the activities subject to contamination. We feel we should have done this prior to this year. This is a safety and hazard type thing.

The next item is on page 24, and this is the last item at Fort Belvoir. It is for a nuclear power simulator building at 5,856 square feet, costing, we estimate, $156,000, required for training nuclear powerplant operators of the three services.

There are no existing facilities at Fort Belvoir which meet the requirement in terms of space or environment. This building will house simulators representing mobile nuclear powerplants. The delivery of the simulators is scheduled for fiscal year 1965. By the use of these simulators, the students are trained to respond quickly to malfunctions and unusual conditions which would be very costly and dangerous to produce in a real nuclear powerplant. This saves us money and gets our people trained.

Senator STENNIS. All right, I think those are relatively simple.

Major General SHULER. The next station on page 25 is at Fort Eustis, Va., and we are asking for two items and the first is on page 26.

MOTOR REPAIR FACILITIES

This one is for a motor repair shop and related facilities at $164,000 and it will provide 4,800 square feet of shop space and 7,700 square yards of hardstand for servicing 102 tactical and nontactical vehicles assigned to 4 units.

The lack of essential utilities and the deteriorated condition of the temporary World War II shops reduces the effectiveness of our maintenance. We will demolish the two temporary shops we are using now when we get this construction because they are no longer capable of being economically maintained.

Senator STENNIS. Let me ask you one question now. You have tried to have some other existing buildings made available?

Major General SHULER. Yes, sir. This is an item which is part of the post master plan, and the master planning board considered every other possible solution. We have done that here at Fort Eustis.

Senator STENNIS. All right, the next item.

Major General SHULER. The next item is at page 27 and this item provides for replacing 2,190 feet of steam supply and 3,608 feet of

condensate lines in the hospital area at a cost of $133,000. The steam supply system serves the recently completed 116-bed hospital, 16 retained World War II hospital buildings and enlisted women barracks for 93 WAC's.

This is a case, sir, where it would cost us $55,000 to repair this system, and we would still have a very, very old system and we feel it is more economical to replace it at this time.

Senator STENNIS. If you repair it you still have a very old repaired system which could cause us trouble right soon again. All right, your next item.

FORT KNOX, KY.

Major General SHULER. Page 28, Fort Knox, Ky., and we have a request for six items and the first is on page 30. This is another threestall fire and rescue station and it is estimated to cost $105,000. This, supports Godman Army Airfield at this station.

This requirement does not derive from a new mission but it is necessary to replace inadequate deteriorated structures constructed in 1942. The nearest fire station is a mile and a half from the airfield and travel to get there is through a very congested area of the post.

Senator STENNIS. I assume that there is a good chance of approving that.

Go to the next item.

Major General SHULER. On page 31 at a cost of $87,000, this would provide for completion of a regimental motor park to serve 283 tracked and 85 wheeled vehicles. The present deficiencies are due to incomplete facilities.

Senator STENNIS. What do you mean by "motor park"? Is that a parking place?

MOTOR PARK

We

Major General SHULER. No, sir, a place to park and service the vehicles. For instance, we lack an oil and grease storage shed and the vehicles must be greased without means of elevating them. have to jack them up and prop them up. They must be washed on makeshift wash racks and we have to have a guard assigned in the absence of a security fence around the area. This is really where the motor pool dispatcher operates and where the first echelon mainterance is accomplished on the vehicles before they are dispatched.

Senator STENNIS. All right. On the next item, $236,000, that is $4 million almost for a battalion tank repair shop, and I notice you have already $191 million invested at the old batteries. It seems to me that you should find a battalion tank repair shop in all of those buildings you have out there without building new ones. What about that?

Major General SHULER. Sir, of course Fort Knox is a very important, permanent station in the Army. We are very desirous of keeping or equipment in battle readiness and this certainly includes our tanks. We are unable to do it in the type of shop we are operating in now. This is another part of the replacement effort I mentioned earlier where we must make these replacements on a reasonable annual rate or these buildings are going to fall down and we have the job then to do in a short period of time. It is going to cost too much money in a short period and we feel this is a very necessary project.

I am talking about over 200 tanks here and heavy-wheeled vehicles. These are large vehicles. This is not like a motortruck, nothing like a motortruck.

Senator STENNIS. These are your big cranelike vehicles, I mean? Major General SHULER. These are tactical-type vehicles, tanks and tank retrievers, and tracked vehicles. This is not an engineering equipment maintenance job. I would like to elaborate a bit on this very important subject of maintenance shops.

(The information referred to follows:)

MAINTENANCE SHOPS

Maintenance shops for military equipment are specialized structures which cannot be compared readily with the usual repair shops found in the civilian community. Even shops for the repair of motor vehicles are not comparable with civilian automobile shops.

Most military equipment is rugged, heavy duty type, requiring heavy repair tools and hoists. Floors must be extra heavy, industrial type to withstand loadings and the abrasion of tracked vehicles. Building frames must be structurally capable of supporting craneways or other hoist equipment. For really heavy vehicles, such as tanks, armored personnel carriers, and self-propelled artillery, a maintenance shop is more like a locomotive repair facility than a vehicle shop. There are few structures of other types which can be adapted to heavy maintenance work under any circumstances. Ceilings are too low, frames are too light, columns are too close together, and doors are too small. Even warehouses are not readily adaptable and administrative, training, recreational, or housing type buildings are out of the question.

Only in the recent past has the Army begun to procure sizable quantities of modern weapons and related equipment. Our longstanding deficiencies in maintenance facilities is therefore only now becoming acute. This accounts for the number of shops in this current program.

DENTAL CLINIC

Senator STENNIS. All right, next.

Major General SHULER. Page 33, and this is for a 26-chair dental clinic at $387,000. There is a very large turnover of personnel at this post because of the training center which we have here, with consequent large dental workload which approximates 19,000 visits per month and 56,000 dental procedures per month.

The military strength is approximately 38,000 of Army and Air Force personnel. With the exception of 17 dental chairs in the Army hospital and in building 851 all of the dental facilities are located in 5 of these old temporary World War II buildings which are not suitable in any sense of the word for modern dental practice.

Senator STENNIS. That is a good deal of money but I think one of the best things about the military program is the personal attention that is given to these young men, getting their teeth straighened out, and the treatment generally. This is recruiting, I mean the training

center.

Major General SHULER. Yes, sir; this is the training center.
Senator STENNIS. All right, your next item.

Major General SHULER. It is as well the armored center, but it is a training center. The next item is on page 34, at $59,000, for a battalion headquarters building to support a permanent complex built during the 1950's. No other space is available in the troop housing area for this battalion headquarters; consequently, we diverted permanent barracks for this and we want to put the barracks back to their designed use. This gives us a chance to administer our troops better.