Representative PRICE. The act provides for not to exceed a total of three positions for assistant general manager; is that correct?

Mr. BLOCH. Yes. There is one section of the act that authorizes a total of three assistant general managers and there are other sections of the act that authorize executive management positions in addition to those three.

Representative PRICE. Is there anything that would prevent the Commission from conferring upon the Director of the Division of Military Application the additional title of general manager, from appointing the same general or flag officer to both positions, or from reimbursing the military for his pay and allowances? If not, why is this legislation necessary?

Mr. BLOCH. On the last point, that of reimbursement, this would require legislation. As I indicated previously, we would not need legislation to give him the title of assistant general manager. We would not need legislation to put a general or flag officer in that position. However, we feel that the position is important enough that its real place in the organization should be recognized through legislation.

Certainly the responsibilities, the duties, the place of the man in the organization, reporting directly to the general manager, warrants the title of assistant general manager. While, as a practical matter, we have had no problem with respect to rank of individuals who have been assigned to this position, we feel again that it would be helpful for the act to recognize this position as important enough to warrant a general or flag officer assigned to it. The act currently simply says that he would be an active commissioned officer in the armed services. We feel that this would help in recruiting for the position, since the legislation would recognize the importance of the position and the status of the individual that we feel it requires.

NEED FOR LEGISLATION TO REIMBURSE DEFENSE DEPARTMENT

Representative PRICE. Why do you need legislation to reimburse? Mr. BLOCH. Could I ask Mr. Hennessey to respond to that?

Mr. HENNESSEY. We looked into this question, Mr. Price, and concluded that when Congress enacted the Atomic Energy Act in 1946 and at that time authorized us to pay only the difference in compensation between the military pay and allowances of the Director and the AEC-established salary for a Division Director they did this deliberately and with the intent that the military officer remain a full fledged military officer receiving his pay and compensation from the military department.

We were sufficiently impressed with this legislative history in 1946 that we felt the reimbursement of the complete compensation would be contrary to the congressional intent at that time. If the committee wishes, I have written a memorandum on this subject which I will be happy to furnish to the committee. (See app. 11, p. 204.)

RANK OF OFFICER SERVING AS ASSISTANT GENERAL MANAGER FOR
MILITARY APPLICATION

Representative HOSMER. What is the virtue of having the AEC pick up the tab? I think that is the meat of the question here.

Mr. BLOCH. I think that this would facilitate our insuring that we got the type of individual we needed without placing any burden on DOD in the event DOD faced any fund limitation with respect to officers in these categories.

Representative HOSMER. They are not limited by funds. They are limited by an overall ceiling on the number of officers they can have in certain ranks, aren't they?

Mr. BLOCH. The legislation also would make it clear that this position would be filled by a general officer.

Representative HOSMER. Stay on the track here now. About this overall ceiling of rank, DOD is not going to pick up an extra admiral or general this way?

Mr. BLOCH. Well, they could.

Representative HOSMER. Do we want to specify this is outside the established ceiling?

Representative PRICE. They would have to go to the Armed Services Committee on that.

Mr. BLOCH. They could do it on the basis that with reimbursement they could still fill the billet that was vacated by the man they assigned

to us.

Representative HOSMER. If they cannot have any more stars, they are not going to get an extra promotion by the fact that somebody is filling this AEC billet, irrespective of who pays his salary and allowances.

Mr. BLOCH. This would give them a basis for reserving a billet for this job. They would have to make their case as to whether this billet should be over and above whatever allocation they were asking for; and the fact that the billet, while it cost them a billet, did not cost them funds, could help them make the case if they felt that an additional billet was needed.

Representative HOSMER. They are spending $90 billion a year over there. I don't think this is going to have a percentage influence.

On this business of a general or flag rank officer, you know there are five categories of them, from brigadier all the way up to General of the Armies and Admiral of the Navy, or something like that. Representative PRICE. Admiral of the Fleet. Representative HOSMER. Admiral of the Fleet.

Representative PRICE. You are a Navy man, too.

Representative HOSMER. I am not counting on that kind of pro

motion.

Now if there is some merit in having a general or flag rank officer, let us start talking about what rank. Brigadiers are a dime a dozen, almost, these days, I guess. Do you not think we ought to have a vice admiral or lieutenant general, or something like that, specified here? Mr. BLOCH. Over the years, this position has been filled by men who were brigadier generals or major generals. In a number of instances they came in as brigadier general and were promoted to major general during their tenure.

Representative HOSMER. You brought up the matter of the desirability of a flag rank or general rank. I think you are going to have to specify what you want in that category.

Mr. BLOCH. We think the job warrants a major general's rank. Basically, we are looking for a qualified man with experience. If a

brigadier general were offered and we thought he was qualified, I don't think we would turn him down. We feel, the best we could judge, that the responsibilities of this job are commensurate with a major general rank.

Representative HOSMER. Don't you think somehow you ought to get it specified that, even if you pick a brigadier, he gets a spot promotion to major general while serving in the position?

Mr. BLOCH. What we are proposing here, we felt, would provide a floor and it would recognize that a general officer should fill the job. I am not sure, but if we went beyond that, if we were more specific, this actually might limit candidates or could pose problems for DOD. I just don't know. I am really talking in terms of minimum requirements. Representative HOSMER. Have you had a lot of trouble getting somebody from DOD to fill this job? Have they more or less been trying to foist some "shavetails" off on you? This is not a fact, is it?

Mr. BLOCH. I know of one instance where we did have a problem in securing what we felt were nominations of qualified candidates for the job. Apparently the limitations on some of the services, their need for what billets they had and funds possibly, for other purposes, was the reason why we got what we felt were inadequate nominations.

We believe this legislation would correct that and insure that we did get men of the background and qualifications that the job needs. At the same time by recognizing the rank, at least the minimum rank, it would solve any problem that DOD might have in making billets available so that we would not have a recurrence of this one situation that I am aware of.

Representative HOSMER. By the term "active military officer," would that include an officer who has been retired and called back to active duty?

Mr. BLOCH. As long as he was active militarily, yes; if he were on active duty this would cover him.

Representative HOSMER. In certain areas of the AEC that have a great deal to do with the military we have had one man in continuous occupancy of the particular position for a number of years. There is some thought that continuity, rather than a couple of years in and out, would be valuable. I wonder if the Commission is thinking in terms of doing something with a billet of this nature.

Since it requires a military man, you would have to pull him back to duty if he retired.

APPOINTMENT OF CIVILIAN AS DEPUTY DIRECTOR

Mr. BLOCH. What we would be proposing would be specify a military officer on active duty. There are some advantages, certainly, in securing a man who is on active duty, even though his tour may be only a matter of 3 or 4 years, because he does bring to the program the current knowledge of the thinking and the problems in DOD. We have looked at the problem of continuity and have attempted to solve it by appointing a civilian as a deputy director of this division on the basis that there would be continuity and deliberate overlap between the deputy and the Assistant General Manager for Military Applica

So, while continuity is desirable, also a live and current knowledge of DOD activities and problems are desirable in this job, and we think we have solved the continuity problem by the appointment of a civilian deputy.

Representative HOSMER. The theory is that the appointment of a Deputy Pope would be unwise, and I am wondering if some of this does not have application in this type of job we are talking about here, on which you lay such emphasis in having continuity supplied by a deputy?

Mr. BLOCH. Over the years, until recently the deputy job was a military officer on active duty. So, we had a problem there of a lack of continuity as well as with the division director. We did encounter a situation not too long ago where we had lost a deputy and were faced with the loss also of the division director. Losing the two top men within a matter of a few months would create for us a major problem. This is what led us to decide that we should have a civilian in this deputy position where we could have better control over tenure and assure that we did not run into this kind of situation again.

Representative HOSMER. Are you going to insist that you have a deputy in the Division of Naval Reactors?

Mr. BLOCH. NO. That question has not been raised, Mr. Hosmer. Representative HOSMER. You are selling deputies today. I thought maybe you ought to make the application universal.

Mr. BLOCH. Well, I was trying to respond to your earlier question as to the desirability of continuity and was trying to point out that we recognize the desirability of continuity, but in this case have attempted to provide the continuity in the deputy slot rather than trying to devise some means of continuity and long tenure in the division director.

Representative HOSMER. That accords with this well-rounded career thesis which, as a matter of fact, I think the DOD is in the process of getting away from a little bit. It kind of looks to me as if you are going counter to the current.

Mr. BLOCH. I am not aware of any determination by DOD that they would be prepared to assign a military officer to this job on a permanent basis. The normal tour has been 3 years. We have in most instances secured extensions of the normal tour for the Director of the Division of Military Application. I am not aware of any proposals that would make this sort of assignment a permanent one in the military. In fact, if it were, it might not be too attractive to the military career officers.

Representative HOSMER. You say it would not be a good idea to switch things around and have the director a permanent civilian and the deputy a military man, that the infusion of current military thinking would be inadequate in that situation?

Mr. BLOCH. Of course, since 1946 the act has recognized and specified that the Director of the Division of Military Application be a military officer. We have not given consideration to filling the top job with a civilian. There are some obvious problems, including whether this would really be consistant with the intent of the act. I think there is a balance here. If you do bring in a director who has long tenure, either civilian or perhaps a retired military officer, it would seem that in time he would not be as close to current activities and prob

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lems within DOD as he would if he is an officer on active duty who comes fresh from DOD and after a reasonable number of years goes back. It is a matter of judgment, and I think there would be some other problems in attempting to fill this job with a civilian. Representative HOSMER. Thank you.

APPOINTMENT OF ASSISTANT GENERAL MANAGER FOR
MILITARY APPLICATION

Representative PRICE. Now the act provides that the Assistant General Manager shall be appointed by the General Manager with the consent of the Commission. Division directors are appointed by the Commission. To whom will the Assistant General Manager for Military Application be responsible, and by whom may he be removed? The Commission or the General Manager?

Mr. BLOCH. The legislation that we hopefully will be sending up would continue the requirement that this Assistant General Manager would be appointed by the Commission. To this extent, it would differ

Representative PRICE. The legislation provides that?

Mr. BLOCH. Yes, sir. It is our intent that the Assistant General Manager for Military Application would be appointed by the Commission.

Representative PRICE. If you elevate the Director of the Division of Military Application to the position of Assistant General Manager, would you also have a Director of Military Application?

Mr. BLOCH. No, sir; we would not. This in effect would consolidate the two positions in one man.

REIMBURSEMENT OF DEFENSE DEPARTMENT FOR OFFICERS

ASSIGNED TO AEC

Representative PRICE. Now if you establish the precedent of reimbursing the Defense Department for the pay and allowances of the military officer who eventually receives this appointment, do you anticipate that the DOD will want reimbursement for all military personnel assigned to the Commission?

Mr. BLOCH. No, we would not, Mr. Chairman. In fact, this point has been discussed with DOD. They are supporting this legislation. They recognize this as a special situation and have indicated to us that they would not expect that any precedent here would be set for extending reimbursement to any others that might be assigned.

AMENDMENT TO ALLOW CIVILIAN TO HOLD POSITION

Representative PRICE. Inasmuch as we are considering amending the Atomic Energy Act to strengthen this particular provision concerning the Division of Military Application, has the Commission given any thought to broadening subsection 25 a. to allow for a civilian or retired general officer to serve as Assistant General Manager for Military Application? Would there be any benefit to such a course? Mr. BLOCH. As I indicated in responding to Mr. Hosmer's questions, this could create problems. You can argue that the benefit might be continuity. On the other hand, I indicated we were trying to take