(11) Yards, Curtis Bay, Maryland: Barracks; sewage disposal system; fabricating shop;

(12) Station, Sassafras River, Kennedyville, Maryland: Barracks, messing, and operations building; mooring facilities; public family quarters; (13) Moorings, Vicksburg, Mississippi: Establish moorings for aids to navigation tender;

(14) Station, Wellesley Island, Alexandria Bay, New York: Barracks, messing, and operations building; public family quarters;

(15) Station, Fire Island, New York: Barracks, messing, and operations building; public family quarters;

(16) Base, Governors Island, New York: Industrial facilities; barracks; (17) Training Center, Cape May, New Jersey: Water tank and system; (18) Station, Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina: Barracks, messing, and operations building; mooring facilities; public family quarters;

(19) Moorings, Fort Sallisaw, Oklahoma: Establish moorings for aids to navigation tender;

(20) Reserve Training Center, Yorktown, Virginia: Student barracks; (21) Base, Milwaukee, Wisconsin: Barracks, messing, and recreation building;

(22) Loran Station, Gagil-Tomil Island, YAP, Western Caroline Islands, Pacific Ocean: Fuel-oil system;

(23) Various locations: Aids to navigation projects including, where necessary, advance planning and acquisition of sites;

(24) Various locations: Automation of manned light stations;

(25) Various locations: Advance planning, construction design architectural services and acquistion of sites in connection with public works projects not otherwise authorized by law; and

(26) Various locations: Public family quarters.

SEC. 2. Funds are hereby authorized to be appropriated for fiscal year 1968 for payment to bridge owners for the cost of alteration of railroad and public highway bridges to permit free navigation of navigable waters of the United States in the amount of $3,800,000.

Mr. CLARK. This is the authorization request that we consider each year, and I note with disappointment that the amount sought is far less than the amount required to enable the Coast Guard to do its job. We have with us the Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, Mr. True Davis, and his staff.

Mr. Davis, do you have any statement you wish to make to the committee at this time?

STATEMENT OF TRUE DAVIS, ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY, ACCOMPANIED BY ERNEST C. BETTS, DEPUTY ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR ADMINISTRATION, AND DIRECTOR, OFFICE OF BUDGET AND FINANCE, TREASURY DEPARTMENT; ADM. W. J. SMITH, COMMANDANT, U.S. COAST GUARD; VICE ADM. P. E. TRIMBLE, ASSISTANT COMMANDANT; REAR ADM. M. A. WHALEN, CHIEF OF STAFF; REAR ADM. C. P. MURPHY, CHIEF, OFFICE OF MERCHANT MARINE SAFETY; CAPT. E. D. SCHEIDERER, ACTING DEPUTY CHIEF OF STAFF; CAPT. E. B. ING, DEPUTY CHIEF, FICE OF OPERATIONS; CAPT. J. P. LATIMER, DEPUTY CHIEF, OFFICE OF ENGINEERING; CAPT. J. W. MOREAU, CHIEF, CIVIL ENGINEERING DIVISION; AND CAPT. F. M. FISHER, CONGRESSIONAL LIAISON OFFICER

Mr. DAVIS. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

OF

I have only a brief statement. I am here probably for the very last time representing the Treasury Department and this great service.

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We certainly are in support, as we have been in the past, of this great sea-going service which is the only military service in the world whose primary mission is to save life.

This great service has been in the Treasury since 1790, except in times of war, and we are very sorry to see them leave us and certainly wish them Godspeed.

The Commandant, Admiral Smith, is a very dynamic leader, and with his assistant, Admiral Trimble, and very competent staff, we know that this Coast Guard service could not be in better hands.

I am only here asking the support for what they are asking. Knowing from past history of your committee that you have always been most cooperative, most helpful, we want to again thank you for your extremely friendly cooperation. Thank you, sir.

Mr. CLARK. Thank you, Mr. Secretary.

Admiral Smith, you have some comments I am sure to make and a statement to make to the committee.

Admiral SMITH. Mr. Chairman, I do have a statement. Before reading it, I would like to thank Secretary Davis for being with us this morning and to tell the committee how much we are going to miss his very great support in the Department. He has been a tremendous help to the Coast Guard, and we are certainly going to miss his good offices in connection with our annual appearances before your committee and our other programs.

Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, I welcome the opportunity to appear before you for the first time to discuss the capital' requirements of the Coast Guard. In this initial period of my new term, I have become very much aware of the importance of this committee's assistance in aiding the Coast Guard to accomplish the badly needed replacements for our againg capital plant, and to acquire the new facilities essential to support expanding national programs. This need has been further heightened by the increasing demands upon our personnel and facilities in several most significant areas such as particiaption in the Vietnam conflict, the assumption of all the Nation's polar icebreakers, and cooperative efforts in reexamining the national oceanographic program. Permit me to just briefly bring you up to date.

We currently have over 550 officers and men in southeast Asia. Some are operating a four-station Loran-C electronic navigation system which became operational in August of last year after a tremendous team effort which took only slightly more than 9 months after receiving the go-ahead from the Department of Defense.

The majority of our personnel are assigned to Operation Market Time with 26 patrol boats deployed in three divisions off the coasts of South Vietnam. The primary mission of this operation is to deny the use of the sea to the Vietcong for logistic support. In the first full year of operation, this contingent detected more than 160,000 junks and boarded over 35,000 of them. A Coast Guard officer, adviser to the Commander, Military Sea Transportation Service, Far East, has been assigned to the Saigon area where he assists in the resolution of problems aboard U.S. merchant ships supporting U.S. operations in Vietnam. Additionally, we have two port security teams assisting in supervising the offloading of explosive cargoes in Vietnam, and an aids to navigation team to advise on the establishment of an adequate. system of port and channel markers.

On December 15, 1966, the last of five Navy polar icebreakers was transferred to the Coast Guard. Each of these vessels, with the exception of the Glacier, is over 20 years old and has seen rugged duty in the Arctic and Antarctic. This committee has previously authorized a start on rehabilitation and increased capability projects for these vessels to extend their service life until replacement icebreakers can be designed and built. Funds for feasibility studies for a replacement design were authorized and appropriated last year, and we are well into evaluations to determine the characteristics of the replacement ship, including the type of propulsion.

The termination of the search and rescue vessel standby requirement at Bermuda in September of last year enabled us, without additional funding, to assign one major vessel to full-time oceanographic duties, and to add some additional oceanographic tasks to the Atlantic Ocean station vessel program to acquire oceanographic data essential to the national program.

While touching on this subject, I should mention the national data bouy systems study which the Coast Guard is heading up for the Interagency Committee on Oceanography. The study will compile and analyze the oceanographic and meteorological data needs for all Federal agencies and the scientific community and will determine the state-of-the-art of data buoy technology.

After a cost-utility analysis has determined those requirements which can best be met by data buoys, a step-by-step implementation plan, together with the requisite research and development program, will be assembled. This plan could eventually have a significant impact on our involvement in the national oceanographic program.

The Bermuda phaseout, which included an air station also, was permitted by improved Atlantic search and rescue coverage resulting from closing our Argentia, Newfoundland, air station and reassigning the associated C-130B long-range search aircraft to our station at Elizabeth City, N.C. This consolidation also made several aircraft available to meet an urgent training requirement. Including both ships and aircraft, over $10 million in costs were thereby avoided which would have had to be otherwise budgeted.

By far, the larger part of the Coast Guard's plant is multifunctional and operates in two or three different mission areas. Our missions by law are the basic programs which we carry out; namely, search and rescue; aids to navigation; merchant marine safety; marine law enforcement; oceanography, meteorology, and polar operations; military preparedness and military operations; and reserve training.

Our long-range plans for replacement or additions to capital plant are contained in three major facility plans; the cutter plan, the aviation plan, and the shore units plan. These were recently amended and transmitted to you to provide the basis for annual authorization and appropriation requests. These revised plans establish a desirable. average annual funding level of $201.3 million up to 1974-compared to $188.8 million for the plans replaced.

The bill before you would provide authority for projects totaling $107,014,000 as compared to last year's authorization of $126,079,000 and subsequent appropriation of $103 million. Our 1968 program includes funds for certain alterations to bridges previously provided through the Corps of Engineers budget. This bridge responsibility

has been assigned to us in conjunction with the realignment and consolidation of functions under the new Department of Transportation. The old vessel plan, made up in 1962 and carrying through 1974, suffered slippage to the point that the average annual requirement for 1968-74 stood at $120 million. The amended plan carrying through to the same date requires $117.6 million annually. This downward adjustment was made possible by a reevaluation of requirements in several areas which resulted in substitution of smaller, but adequately capable facilities, and a reduction in end requirements, most notably in the high-endurance cutters which decreased from 38 to 33. These large cutters have been conducting the ocean station patrols, providing the capability for our major search and rescue efforts as well as providing a trained and ready force to augment the Navy's ASW fleet when called upon to do so.

In addition to replacement, average annual requirements for increasing capability and extending service life are $5.3 million. This brings our annual average vessel replacement and improvement requirements to $122.9 million. The vessel request before you amounts to $41.4 million. To keep within funding limitations we must necessarily stretch out our replacement plans.

Our authorization program includes only one 378-foot high-endurance cutter this year. This provides nine since the replacement program commenced in 1962, compared to 33 required. Because of the slow rate of replacement, we are seeking funds to increase the capability and improve habitability of all six of our 327-foot "Secretary" class cutters, now in their 30th year of service but still very seaworthy vessels. Increasing fuel capacity and modernizing crews' living and messing accommodations in these ships makes their continued use acceptable in our stretched-out replacement program.

You will recall that the Marine Resources and Engineering Development Act of 1966 called for a greatly increased national oceanographic effort. Supported by the National Council established under that act, we are requesting funds for the construction of one oceanographic cutter. With singular foresight, this committee last year authorized, and funds were appropriated for the design of such a vessel. We are out to contractors now with request for proposals for conceptual study, and both preliminary and construction designs.

Oceanographic research is a type of operation for which the Coast Guard is well suited, having gained extensive experience in the past through our oceanographic and meteorological efforts in connection with the Atlantic and Pacific Ocean station program, polar icebreaking operations, and the International Ice Patrol. These efforts presage an active and highly cost-effective role for the Coast Guard in a national oceanographic program where our inputs come from many of our diverse and multifunctional activities.

Returning to the discussion of search and rescue vessels, you will note that we have requested funds for two large patrol cutters, the design for which was authorized last year. They will be approximately 120 feet in length and are in lieu of 210-foot-class medium endurance cutters previously planned. The savings afforded by this substitution will be approximately $5 million. They are being designed to meet a particular requirement in the Gulf of Mexico.

Two river buoy-tender vessels and their companion pusher barges are requested, one for 129 miles on the lower Mississippi River and

one in connection with navigational aids for channel improvements extending 289 miles up the Arkansas River.

We are requesting $1.5 million additional funds for contract design services, including detailed drawings and specifications, for a replacement polar icebreaker. Feasibility studies to determine the type of powerplant to be installed-nuclear or conventional-and the design features consistent with the state of the art for icebreaking are being conducted this year with funds authorized by this committee last year. Meanwhile, authorization is included for continued limited rehabilitation of existing polar icebreakers to extend their service life, since it will be some time before replacement of all icebreakers is feasible. Except for the icebreaker Glacier, they were built during World War II.

Increased ICAO and Department of Defense meteorological data requirements necessitate the continuation of weather balloon tracking radar installations on our high-endurance cutters. These equipments track balloons carrying instruments aloft to obtain data routinely up to 100,000 feet almost to the vertical plane above the vessel. This contrasts with data now obtained only to 80,000-foot heights, which is inadequate for modern forecasting. You authorized a prototype installation last year, and four more are included this year. This equipment can be shifted from old vessels to new replacement ships as they are built.

Precise navigation positioning required for oceanographic data collection will become possible by the installation of both Loran-C and Navy navigation satellite system receivers on selected major cutters and polar icebreakers as their missions dictate. These equipments will be transferable, and placed only on those vessels having the need during specific missions thereby improving the cost-utility ratio.

You may have noted that no offshore structures for replacement of overage lightships are requested in this year's authorization. Instead, we are requesting funds to procure additional large navigation buoys to replace certain lightships. Although one very large buoy is presently under construction for use at the Scotland Lightship location off New York Harbor, additional developmental work will be necessary to provide equivalent lightship service at other locations. Compared to lightship or offshore construction and operation, unmanned superbuoys, where usable, offer savings in capital outlay as well as savings in operating expense.

The 1960 aviation plan was developed for a 5-year period, and at the end of 1966, slippage amounted to $27 million against an average annual plan requirement of $31.7 million. The extension to the 1960 aviation plan, which carries through 1973 and provides for an orderly replacement and augmentation program for our air fleet as well as of several additional helicopter air stations, shows an average annual planned requirement of $33.4 million. Against this average requirement we are asking for $27.6 million in 1968.

Our air fleet is used predominantly for search and rescue, law enforcement, and logistic support of isolated Alaskan and overseas stations. Unfortunately, by 1970 more than 50 aircraft of our present fleet of 168 will be become overage. The bulk of these are the Grumman Albatross amphibian, our fixed-wing, medium-range search aircraft which has been a reliable mainstay of our air fleet since the early 1950's.