but I cannot separate out readily the regular from the contract when it comes to being ordered to cruises, and for pay and allowances. (The information requested may be found on page 479.)

PROGRAM PARTICIPATION

Mr. LAIRD. How many students were in the regular program last year?

Mr. KENYON. About 5,600.

Mr. LAIRD. How many graduated last year?

Mr. KENYON. About 1,000 to 1,100. That is the figure in the admiral's statement.

Mr. LAIRD. Since this program has been in existence, how many have stayed in the Regular Navy after their agreed service time?

Mr. KENYON. The retention rate has increased. I should point out at this time that Marine officers are also educated by this means. The retention rate has increased from about 13 percent up to its present level of just under 25 percent.

Mr. LAIRD. So the fact is that only 25 percent of those people who take this program stay in the Navy?

Mr. KENYON. Stay for more than 4 years; yes, sir.

Mr. LAIRD. Is that not quite a low figure? Do you make them sign a statement, as I do my Annapolis candidates, of why they want to make a career out of the Navy?

Mr. KENYON. The statement they must sign is that they will remain for not less than 4 years.

Mr. LAIRD. That is all that is required of them? They do not have to have a desire to become career Naval officers?

Mr. KENYON. No. I do not think that would follow. We do what we can to assure that the young man is motivated toward a career before we select him in the first place. This is a part of the selection procedure when he goes for his interview. He takes examinations. which are designed to try to find out whether he has the proper motivation or not.

Mr. FLOOD. Is it a Federal aid to education program, or what?
Mr. KENYON. No, sir.

Mr. LAIRD. These young men would have to serve 2 years any way, so you have added 2 years to their service. They would have had to serve 3 years in the Navy, but if they had just gone in the regular draft they would have had to serve approximately 2 years unless they took the 6-months course with the Reserve obligation.

Mr. FLOOD. If the gentleman will yield, this is not my department, but I was just wondering, do you get many Eskimos, Hawaiians, Japanese, and Chinese from Hawaii, Negroes from the South, and Indians and Mexicans-all American citizens? Do they get into this? Mr. KENYON. They are eligible to get in

Mr. FLOOD. I am sure of that.

Mr. KENYON (continuing). If they are American citizens. They do get in; yes, sir.

Mr. FLOOD. Do they get out?

Mr. LAIRD. I do not think we have the costs adequately developed here for this program, and I wish you would supply them for the record.

Mr. KENYON. This would be the total cost, sir?

Mr. LAIRD. The total cost and how it is divided on a student basis. I would like a little better explanation of why so few make careers of the Navy.

Admiral SMEDBERG. Could I add something, sir?

Mr. LAIRD. Yes.

COMPETITION WITH PRIVATE INDUSTRY

Admiral SMEDBERG. I made a speech at Cornell University this year at the graduation of all of the NROTC youngsters. After the graduation exercise I had lunch with the dean of the engineering school. I asked him how we could make our career in the services more attractive to the youngsters, in his opinion. He said, "Admiral, I hate to tell you this but, you know, almost every one of our graduates who is going into the Navy now has a contract in his hip pocket for 4 years from now when he gets out of the Navy." These are our top youngsters. The corporations of the country have been after them. Many of them are accumulating longevity right now with their companies for the time they are in the Navy. I was shocked by that, frankly. I had not realized it. But this group of NROTC boys is the finest group, the most highly selected group of fine youngsters that there is. If we can persuade 25 percent of them to stay in the Navy, it is well worth our while and the cost to the Government. Mr. OSTERTAG. Will the gentleman yield?

Admiral, is not the very fact that they have that contract in violation of the pledge given at the time they are signed?

Admiral SMEDBERG. I think not, sir. That has bothered me. I have not known what to do about the young officer on board ship with a contract in his hip pocket.

Mr. FLOOD. If you will yield, you know the Supreme Court ruling on mental reservation on entrance to citizenship. The Supreme Court. has so declared.

Admiral SMEDBERG. That is correct.

Mr. FLOOD. That is prima facie evidence of reservation.

Admiral SMEDBERG. These young men have every intention of serving during the term of their contract, and they serve faithfully and extremely well-so well, in fact, that we beg many of them to stay with us because they are so outstanding. But they have made up their minds when they were in college what they wanted to do. While they did their best

Mr. LAIRD. I do not disagree with you, Admiral. You are getting good people in this program.

Admiral SMEDBERG. Yes, we are.

Mr. LAIRD. You are getting topnotch young people all over the country.

Admiral SMEDBERG. We are.

Mr. LAIRD. But it seems to me this program was devised to develop. career service people.

Admiral SMEDBERG. It was, sir.

FAILURE TO HOLD NROTC GRADUATES

Mr. LAIRD. I do not think this program is doing that. I think we are developing people for industry.

Admiral SMEDBERG. We are partially, sir. We are getting a very significant number of our career officers from it. When the program was originally designed back in 1946, we hoped for 25 percent retention, which is just what we have today, although today we want much

more.

Mr. MINSHALL. Will the gentleman yield?

Mr. LAIRD. Yes.

Mr. MINSHALL. Would it interfere with your NROTC program, Admiral, if you increased the length of the contract period by X number of years?

Admiral SMEDBERG. We are thinking very seriously of that. This year they have to serve 4 years instead of 3, and from now on. We are seriously considering increasing the length of service from four to six or maybe longer for Naval Academy and the regular NROTC.

Mr. MINSHALL. Have you sounded out the sentiments and the feeling of these youngsters? Would they be reluctant to come in under a 6- or 8- or even 10-year program? Would you still get the same caliber of young man?

Admiral SMEDBERG. We think we would, sir, because right now we have it from 16,000 to 20,000 youngsters applying for 1,400 vacancies each year.

Mr. LAIRD. You will not have any trouble filling them?

Admiral SMEDBERG. I do not think so.

Mr. LAIRD. I have had as many as six qualified alternates from my district for Annapolis. I cannot get very many qualified for NROTC but they do get very high marks on the college board entrance examinations. I have about 38 young people who want to go to Annapolis every year from my congressional district.

Mr. FLOOD. Why don't we scrap this program and build an Annapolis on the west coast and get Academy officers such as you get from Annapolis? You would save money in the long run. There has been a lot of talk about another Academy on the west coast. Scrap this program and put another Annapolis on the west coast. You would get the same type of men from the west coast Academy you get from Annapolis, and you would solve your problem and save a lot of money.

COST OF PROGRAM, 1957-1958

Mr. LAIRD. Could we have a chart showing the cost of this program for each of the last 5 years, the number of students in it, and the retention rate over the period of the last 5 years?

(The information requested follows:)

Retention rates, past 5 years—NROTC REGULAR (Navy and Marine Corps)

On the basis of the above cost and retention data, the acquisition cost of a career U.S. Navy officer obtained through the Regular NROTC program is about $35,000. This compares favorably with the cost of a career officer acquired through the Naval Academy.

In addition to those retained in the year of retention noted above, there are some NROTC Regular program graduates who remain on active duty for longer periods than their obligated service time. Of these a number, estimated to be about 2 percent of each commissioned year group, apply for transfer to Regular Navy status and become career officers. Thus, the actual retention is somewhat augmented above the percentages tabulated above.

Contract NROTC source officers, all of whom are commissioned in the Naval Reserve originally, are afforded an opportunity to request transfer to U.S. Navy status and become career officers, if selected. It is estimated that on the average about 4 percent of each year group become career officers. From this data, it is evident that the cost of a career officer from the contract NROTC source is much greater than the career officer obtained from the Regular NROTC source. For purposes of the above discussion, career officers are considered to be only those who have been commissioned in the Regular Navy and who have not less than 3 years of active service. Career officers do not include any officers from the NROTC source with Reserve Commissions who remain on active duty beyond their period of obligated service.

Mr. KENYON. If I may add to what Admiral Smedberg is saying. The rate has gone up from 13 to 25 percent. Steps were taken 4 years ago to raise the obligated service from 3 years up to 4 years, and we have not yet had an opportunity to test that as to what effect it will have on retention. This is because his is a long-lead-time program where you cannot tell what you have done to it until 4 years later.

66865-61-pt. 1——31

SELECTION COMMITTEES

Mr. LAIRD. How are the selection committees put together in each State?

Mr. KENYON. The selection committee consists of an educator from the State concerned, a naval officer, and another prominent citizen from the State.

Admiral SMEDBERG. The naval officer is generally the professor of naval science of the university in that State or a nearby State.

Mr. LAIRD. These lists are confidential lists?

Mr. KENYON. Of the people on the selection committees ?
Mr. LAIRD. Yes.

Mr. KENYON. No, sir.

Mr. LAIRD. It seems difficult to get their names. If you want to write them a letter you have to write to the Secretary of the Navy. I cannot even get the names of the members of the committee.

Admiral SMEDBERG. I see no reason why you cannot have it. After we have received their acceptances, sometimes we have to write two or three people to see if they will agree to serve, but after we have the acceptances from the committees I see no reason why we cannot make them available.

Mr. FLOOD. I can show you 100 letters in the last 16 years on certain commissions, and since you started this program I have a file full of communications, and which I received signed by somebody in the Navy, stating that the names of these people are confidential and cannot be released.

Mr. LAIRD. That is a standard answer.

Mr. FLOOD. These are sacred cows. That is a form I have been getting for years.

Admiral SMEDBERG. It could be that the men have asked us not to release their names because of the floods of letters they get in. Mr. FLOOD. That is a figure of speech, I am sure.

Admiral SMEDBERG. I see no reason we cannot furnish those names.

SELECTION PROCESS

Mr. LAIRD. How much weight is given to their recommendations and how much weight is given to the score in the examination, and so forth?

Mr. KENYON. They must get by all of these obstacles, Mr. Laird. They must meet a certain cutting score to get to the physical exam; pass that to get to the interview; and they must be selected by the State Selection Committee.

Then at that time their scores, by a rather complex and complicated formula, take over. It is from this basis that the highest scores are derived. The selection process is designed to obtain the best prospective naval officer judged on the basis of academic scores and motivation for a career.

Mr. LAIRD. The kinds of people you are getting, though, are not the kind that necessarily want a Navy career in this program, whereas at Annapolis you are getting a different kind of boy who wants to make the Navy a career. You are getting a boy here who wants an education and he wants to choose where he wants to go and he wants the Government to pay for it. I think there is a certain danger in