CREDITING CERTAIN SERVICE FOR RESERVE RETIREMENT AND QUESADA REAPPOINTMENT AUTHORITY THURSDAY, AUGUST 13, 1959 U.S. SENATE, COMMITTEE ON ARMED SERVICES, Washington, D.C. The committee met, pursuant to call, at 10:35 a.m., in room 212, Senate Office Building. Present: Senators Russell (presiding), Stennis, Symington, Jackson, Thurmond, Bartlett, Cannon, Saltonstall, Smith, and Beall. Also present: Harry L. Wingate, Jr., chief clerk; William A. Darden; T. Edward Braswell, Gordon Nease, and Herbert S. Atkinson, of the committee staff. Chairman RUSSELL. The first bill for consideration this morning is H.R. 3365, a legislative proposal of the Department of Defense. This is a somewhat technical bill of an omnibus nature. The principal purpose of the bill is to credit for Reserve retirement purposes service as an appointed aviation cadet, and as a nurse, dietitian, and physical therapist or occupational therapist, before these latter categories were given a commissioned status in the Armed Forces. Service in the federally recognized National Guard after June 15, 1933, and before appointment of members of the federally recognized National Guard as members of Reserve components would also be credited for Reserve retirement purposes. Another section of the bill proposes to validate certain appointments in the Army of the United States for the period from July 1, 1948, until April 1, 1953. The first witness who is slated on this bill is Maj. Luther E. Brown from the Office of the Assistant Chief of Staff for Reserve Components, Department of the Army. (The bill referred to follows:) H.R. 3365, 86TH CONGRESS, 1ST SESSION AN ACT To authorize the crediting of certain service for purpose of retired pay for nonregular service and for other purposes Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That title 10, United States Code, is amended as follows: (1) Section 1332(a) (1) is amended- (a) by inserting the following new clause after clause (C): "(D) the National Guard after June 14, 1933, if his service therein was continuous from the date of his enlistment in the National Guard, or his Federal recognition as an officer therein, to the date of his enlistment or appointment, as the case may be, in the National Guard of the United States, the Army National Guard of the United States, or the Air National Guard of the United States;"; 1 (b) by redesignating clauses (D), (E), and (F) as clauses "(E)”, “(F)”, and "(G)", respectively; and (c) by striking out the word "and" at the end of clauses (E) and (F) and adding the following new clauses: "(H) the Army Nurse Corps, the Navy Nurse Corps, the Nurse Corps Reserve of the Army, or the Nurse Corps Reserve of the Navy, as it existed at any time after February 2, 1901; "(I) the Army under an appointment under the Act of December 22, 1942 (ch. 805, 56 Stat. 1072); and "(J) an active full-time status, except as a student or apprentice, with the Medical Department of the Army as a civilian employee “(i) in the dietetic or physical therapy categories, if the service was performed after April 6, 1917, and before April 1, 1943; or "(ii) in the occupational therapy category, if the service was performed before appointment in the Army Nurse Corps or the Women's Medical Specialist Corps and before January 1, 1949, or before appointment in the Air Force before January 1, 1949, with a view to designation as an Air Force nurse or medical specialist; and". (2) Section 1332(a) is amended by adding the following sentence at the end thereof: "For the purpose of clauses (A), (B), and (C), service in the National Guard shall be treated as if it were service in a reserve component, if the person concerned was later appointed in the National Guard of the United States, the Army National Guard of the United States, the Air National Guard of the United States, or as a Reserve of the Army or the Air Force, and served continuously in the National Guard from the date of his Federal recognition to the date of that appointment." (3) Section 1332(b) is amended by striking out clause (6) and inserting the following clauses in place thereof: "(6) Service as an inactive Reserve nurse of the Army Nurse Corps established by the Act of February 2, 1901 (ch. 192, 31 Stat. 753), as amended, and service before July 1, 1938, as an inactive Reserve nurse of the Navy Nurse Corps established by the Act of May 13, 1908 (ch. 166, 35 Stat. 146). "(7) Service in any status other than that as commissioned officer, warrant officer, nurse, flight officer, appointed aviation cadet, or enlisted member, and that described in clauses (I) and (J) of subsection (a) (1).”. (4) Section 3683 (4) is amended to read as follows: "(4) all active full-time service, except as a student or apprentice, with the Medical Department of the Army as a civilian employee "(A) in the dietetic or physical therapy categories, if the service was performed after April 6, 1917, and before April 1, 1943; or "(B) in the occupational therapy category, if the service was performed before appointment in the Army Nurse Corps or the Women's Medical Specialist Corps and before January 1, 1949." (5) Section 3926 is amended by adding the following new subsection at the end thereof: "(d) For the purpose of determining whether a commissioned officer of the Army Nurse Corps or the Army Medical Specialist Corps may be retired under section 3911 of this title, all service computed under section 3683 of this title shall be treated as if it were service as a commissioned officer.". (6) Section 6324 is amended by striking out the words "an officer" and inserting the words "a regular officer or a reserve officer" in place thereof. (7) Section 8683(4) is amended to read as follows: "(4) all active full-time service, except as a student or apprentice, with the Medical Department of the Army as a civilian employee "(A) in the dietetic or physical therapy categories, if the service was performed after April 6, 1917, and before April 1, 1943; or "(B) in the occupational therapy category, if the service was performed before appointment in the Army Nurse Corps or the Women's Medical Specialist Corps and before January 1, 1949, or before appointment in the Air Force before January 1, 1949, with a view to designation as an Air Force nurse or medical specialist." (8) Section 8926 is amended by adding the following new subsection at the end thereof: "(d) For the purpose of determining whether an Air Force nurse or medical specialist may be retired under section 8911 of this title, all service computed under section 8683 of this title shall be treated as if it were service as a commissioned officer.". SEC. 2. All appointments made after December 6, 1941, in the Army of the United States without component under the joint resolution of September 22, 1941 (ch. 414, 55 Stat. 728), that were not earlier terminated by administrative action or specific provision of law may be considered for all purposes to have continued in effect until the close of March 31, 1953. SEC. 3. This Act does not deprive any person of any service credit to which he was entitled on the day before the effective date of this Act. SEC. 4. Any person who, on the effective date of this Act, would not have completed 18 years of service for which he is entitled to credit in the computation of his basic pay under the laws in effect prior to the effective date of this Act, and who, as a result of the enactment of this Act, is credited with more than 17 years of such service, shall be allowed twelve months from the effective date of this Act to make the election provided by section 1431(b) of title 10, United States Code, notwithstanding the requirement of the second sentence of that section. Passed the House of Representatives March 4, 1959. RALPH R. ROBERTS, Clerk. Chairman RUSSELL. Have a seat there at the end of the table, Major Brown. Major BROWN. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. STATEMENT OF MAJ. LUTHER E. BROWN, OFFICE OF ASSISTANT CHIEF OF STAFF FOR RESERVE COMPONENTS, DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY Major BROWN. Mr. Chairman, and members of the committee, it is indeed a pleasure for me to appear before this committee this morning in support of H.R. 3365 and to recommend to you its enactment. I do not have a prepared statement; however, due to the nature of the bill, I have submitted to counsel four separate detailed statements of the various categories of service covered in this bill. Witnesses are available in the room to answer detailed questions should they come up. As mentioned by the chairman, the purpose is to credit certain service for retired pay purposes that is now creditable for other purposes. The services that are mentioned in the bill fall into three major categories: that performed by nurses and members of the Army Medical Specialist Corps, certain service by members of the Army National Guard of the United States and Air National Guard of the United States, and certain service performed under appointments during World War II and thereafter without specification of component, that is Organized Reserve Corps, Regular Army, or the National Guard of the United States. I would like cover very briefly the major parts of these four separate statements to give to you in a concise form exactly what we are asking to do. First in the lady officer category, I would like first to discuss the nurses. Prior to July 10, 1944, the nurses held what we call relative rank. It was not commissioned rank. Yet they wore the uniform, were the insignia, were subject to military law, change of station orders and that type. On July 10, 1944, their status was changed by Presidential Executive order to a commission status. The service before July 10, 1944, is now credited for other purposes and so forth, so we are asking for credit for retired pay purposes for this relative rank service that they performed. The other category, or one other category, is that of dietitians and physical therapists. Prior to April 1, 1943, the dietitians and physical therapists were employed by the Medical Department of the Army on a full-time basis. They had the same privileges as the nurses did. They were subject to military law, change of station orders. They wore a uniform with a distinctive insignia and so forth. And we had in our tables of organization specific slots calling for dietititians and physical therapists in the various hospital installations as civilians. Between April 1, 1943, and July 10, 1944, these ladies held relative rank the same as nurses had held. Now this service that I have just mentioned is credited for other purposes except for promotion and appointment in the Regular Army. After July 10, 1944, these dietitians and physical therapists held commission status. Chairman RUSSELL. Do you have anything that indicates the number involved in each category? Major BROWN. The number is relatively small. Dr. KIDDER. The numbers involved in nurses on active duty would be 50; not on active duty, 1,200. Major BROWN. Now this bill, S. 3365, would credit for retired pay purposes the full-time service prior to April 1, 1943, and it would also credit the relative rank service during the period of 1943 to 1944. We have another category, that of occupational therapists. Prior to the Army-Navy Nurses Act of 1947, these occupational therapists held the same status as the dietitians and physical therapists before they held relative rank status. After the Army-Navy Nurses Act, however, the occupational therapists held commission status. Now the full-time service that these occupational therapists performed in World War II and so forth is creditable for the same purpose as were the dietitians and physical therapists, and the bill would credit this full-time service for retired pay purposes. We have some related amendments in the bill as a result of the service credit that we are asking for here for those on active duty who could voluntarily retire after 20 years of active duty, 10 of which must be commission service. Some of these ladies would not have, under the terms of the law, 10 years of commission service, so we are asking a modification so that this service that would be creditable in relative rank status, and so forth, would be considered as commission service for the purposes of voluntary retirement after 20 years of active duty. There are some technical amendments in the bill, and the amendments made are carried over into the Air Force subtitle, because most of the service performed by these ladies was performed in the Army before the Air Force became a separate service. The second major category of service involved is that of certain National Guard service. What we are asking here is that service performed, continuous service in the National Guard units, between the time an officer was afforded Federal recognition until the time he was appointed a National Guard of the United States officer be credited for retired pay purposes. That service is already credited now for other purposes. As you know, the National Guard of the United States was established on June 15, 1933, as a Reserve component of the Army, and it was quite some time, actually in April 1934, before the Army issued its general order which established the procedures for appointment of these officers in the National Guard of the United States, and specified that those officers who were on board on June 15, 1933, were appointed in the National Guard of the United States subject to their acceptance of this appointment, and there was established a cutoff date of October 31, 1934. The question is, Why do we have a problem? There was a time lag between the time of the officer being given his Federal recognition status and the time that he was actually given his appointment as a National Guard of the United States officer. This ties into the language of the title III retirement law of 1948, which states that before June 15, 1933, service in a federally recognized status by these National Guard officers is creditable for retired pay purposes. However, after June 15, 1933, the service that is creditable is service in the National Guard of the United States. It may be well to note at this point that in the title III retirement law we have a date of July 1, 1949. Prior to that date the service in the National Guard of the United States is counted if he was performing his duties creditably. After July 1, 1949, the National Guard officer must earn 50 points in each retirement year in order to be credited with a satisfactory retirement year for pay purposes. The question may come up, Why have we had a time lag? To begin with, the issuance of the War Department general order setting up the procedures and so forth caused some delay. After Federal recognition has been afforded the officer, there is an administrative delay in processing in the Department and other places before the officer actually had a chance to accept and sign his NGUS appointment. Chairman RUSSELL. It is your position, as I understand it, that everyone of these officers after June 15, 1933, and between the time that he was accredited, was subject to Federal call? Major BROWN. Yes, sir. Chairman RUSSELL. And he also received military pay. Major BROWN. Yes, sir. Chairman RUSSELL. And any other benefits? Major BROWN. Yes, sir. Chairman RUSSELL. And therefore he is entitled to be credited with this service? Major BROWN. We believe that he is, sir. Chairman RUSSELL. All right. Major BROWN. The Comptroller General did validate this timelag of those officers who were actually on board on July 15, 1933, but he specifically excluded all other officers who had a timelag who were afforded recognition after that date, and those are the officers we are here asking to be taken care of. The Armed Forces Reserve Act of 1952 remedied this situation almost entirely. It provided that when the officer went before the Federal Recognition Board and the Board recommended that he be afforded Federal recognition, he be given a temporary Federal recognition status. Then the paperwork started and it goes up through the State adjutant general and to the Chief of the National Guard Bureau and the Chief approves it and sends it to DA Adjutant General and finally back down and the officer signs his NGUS appointment, and the appoint 45009-59-2 |