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5. Not only in my opinion, but as a result of unqualified statements made by the members of the board of supervisors, there is no probability that the State, county, or any other municipality will in the near future construct free bridges at those locations.

I will appreciate your calling on me if I can be of any further assistance. In the meantime I shall be pleased to receive your advice as to the progress of the legislation.

Yours very truly,

CHARLES H. STOLL.

75TH CONGRESS HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 3d Session

{

REPORT No. 2271

REMOVING

CERTAIN INEQUITABLE REQUIREMENTS

FOR ELIGIBILITY FOR DETAIL AS A MEMBER OF THE GENERAL STAFF CORPS

MAY 8, 1938.-Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union and ordered to be printed

Mr. MAY, from the Committee on Military Affairs, submitted the

following

REPORT

[To accompany H. R. 10317]

The Committee on Military Affairs, to whom was referred the bill (H. R. 10317) to remove certain inequitable requirements for eligibility for detail as a member of the General Staff Corps, having considered the same, submit the following report thereon with the recommendation that it do pass:

Existing law requires that an officer be on the General Staff eligible list before he can be detailed on the General Staff.

An officer can gain a position on the eligible list only upon graduation from the Command and General Staff School. To be eligible for assignment as a member of the War Department General Staff, one must in addition, have graduated from the Army War College.

In effect eligibility for detail on the General Staff is determined under present law by academic training.

The enactment of this bill will open up selection to all qualified officers without regard to the fact of graduation from the general service schools. Lifting of the present restrictions is necessary because the capacity of the school is so limited that it is not possible for all qualified officers to attend the courses of instruction. As a result, many officers find themselves denied the opportunity of being selected for detail on the General Staff. This condition is having a bad effect upon morale.

The operation of the present eligibility law has likewise had the undesirable effect of overstressing the importance of staff duty in comparison with command and other types of duty. The proposed legislation will correct this and will restore the basic principle governing selection for General Staff duty, which was obtained when the H. Repts., 75-3, vol. 261

General Staff law was first enacted. At that time selection was based upon demonstrated ability and aptitude as evidenced by an officer's record. The enactment of this bill will give recognition of the American concept of military personnel management, that opportunity be afforded to all in accordance with merit and without regard to purely academic accomplishments. The committee believes that this bill will afford these advantages without lowering the present standard in performance of General Staff duties.

No additional cost to the Government will result from the enactment of the proposed legislation.

Attached hereto and made a part of this report is the letter from the War Department, under date of April 14, 1938.

The SPEAKER, HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.

WAR DEPARTMENT, Washington, D. C., April 14, 1938.

DEAR MR. SPEAKER: There is enclosed a draft of a bill "To remove certain inequitable requirements for eligibility for detail as a member of the General Staff Corps, and for other purposes," which the War Department presents for the consideration of the Congress with a view to enactment into law.

Existing law prohibits the detail of any officer of the Regular Army as a member of the General Staff Corps unless his name is borne on a list of General Staff Corps eligibles. Subsequent to the creation of the initial eligible list, no officer of the Regular Army may be added to the list unless upon graduation from the General Staff School (Command and General Staff School) he is especially recommended as qualifying for General Staff Duty. Existing law further requires that no officer of the General Staff Corps, excepting the Chief of Staff, shall be assigned as a member of the War Department General Staff unless he is a graduate of the General Staff College (Army War College) or his name is borne on the initial eligible list. (Sec. 5 of the National Defense Act approved June 3, 1916, as amended by sec. 1, act of September 22, 1922 (42 Stat. 1032) as amended by the act of May 21, 1928 (45 Stat. 4516).)

The establishment of the General Staff Corps eligible list was a byproduct of the World War, due directly to the shortage of trained General Staff officers in our Army at the time we entered the war. To meet this demand we had only a small number of officers who were graduates of the General Staff School at Leavenworth, and a still smaller number of officers who, while not graduates of Leavenworth, actually had General Staff experience. By the end of the war we had a large number of officers who had successfully performed General Staff duty. Our shortage in qualified General Staff officers upon our entry into the World War, and the importance of that class of duty as such, served to magnify unduly that class of duty in that it later caused the establishment of the so-called initial General Staff Corps eligible list, and likewise the General Staff Corps eligible list. The practice followed in various European armies in selecting general staff officers exerted a powerful influence upon our own course of action in this connection.

The creation of a General Staff Corps eligible list, the publication annually of the list of officers eligible for General Staff duty, and the notation of such eligibility in the annual Army Register, as provided by existing law, is concrete indication of the overemphasis given to General Staff qualifications..

The War Department recognizes fully the educational value of our Army schools, but to use graduation from such schools as the sole and exclusive criterion for assignment to General Staff duty is illogical and wrong per se, and in practice produces an extremely adverse effect upon morale. As a further demonstration of this contention, the selection of officers as members of the initial General Staff Corps eligible list, which was created immediately after the World War, was based primarily upon the principle of demonstrated efficiency, to wit, graduates from the General Staff School at Leavenworth, as well as nongraduates, were placed on that list in recognition of outstanding performance in either command or staff positions during the war, while the names of many Leavenworth graduates were omitted.

Selection of officers for General Staff assignments, as well as for all other important assignments, is based upon a careful study of the complete records of the officers. In the interest of administrative efficiency, the War Department is firmly convinced that selection to General Staff duty should be based upon the same principle of demonstrated efficiency as are selections for other important assignments, and while our service schools, including the Command and General Staff School and the Army War College, will continue as outstanding agencies in the development of our officer personnel, graduation therefrom should not in itself be the controlling factor in subsequent assignments. The War Department for the above reasons recommends the abolition of the General Staff Corps eligible list.

The proposed legislation will in nowise affect existing law as provided in section 4c of the National Defense Act, as amended, which prescribes the requirements in reference to command and other service necessary for duty on the General Staff in time of peace.

No additional cost to the Government would result from the enactment of the proposed legislation.

This proposed legislation was submitted to the Bureau of the Budget which reports that insofar as the financial program of the President is concerned there would be no objection to the submission to Congress of this proposed legislation. Respectfully,

HARRY H. WOODRING,
Secretary of War.

In conformity with paragraph 2a of rule XIII of the House Rules there is herewith printed in parallel columns the provision of the existing law and the provisions of the proposed bill:

PROVISIONS OF PROPOSED BILL

CORPS.

SEC. 5. GENERAL STAFF The General Staff Corps shall consist of the Chief of Staff, the War Department General Staff, and the General Staff with troops. The War Department General Staff shall consist of the Chief of Staff and four assistants to the Chief of Staff selected by the President from the general officers of the line, and eighty-eight other officers of grades not below that of captain. The General Staff with troops shall consist of such number of officers not below the grade of captain as may be necessary to perform the General Staff duties of the headquarters of territorial subdivisions, appropriate installations, General Headquarters, armies, army corps, divisions, General Headquarters Air Force, brigades, and similar units, and as military attachés abroad. In time of peace the detail of an officer as a member of the General Staff Corps shall be for a period of four years, unless sooner relieved.

SEC. 2. That the second paragraph of section 5 of the National Defense Act of June 3, 1916 (39 Stat. 166), as amended by the Act of September 22,

EXISTING LAW

Act of June 3, 1916 (39 Stat. 166) as amended by the act of June 4, 1920 (41 Stat. 759)

SEC. 5. GENERAL STAFF CORPS.-The General Staff Corps shall consist of the Chief of Staff, the War Department General Staff, and the General Staff with troops. The War Department General Staff shall consist of the Chief of Staff and four assistants to the Chief of Staff selected by the President from the general officers of the line, and eighty-eight other officers of grades not below that of captain. The General Staff with troops shall consist of such number of officers not below the grade of captain as may be necessary to perform the General Staff duties of the headquarters of territorial departments, armies, army corps, divisions, and brigades, and as military attachés abroad. In time of peace the detail of an officer as a member of the General Staff Corps shall be for a period of four years, unless sooner relieved, and such details shall be limited to officers whose names are borne on the list of General Staff Corps eligibles. The initial eligible list shall be prepared by a board consisting of the general of the army, the commandant of the General Staff College, the commandant

1922 (42 Stat. 1032), be, and the same is of the General Service Schools, and two hereby, rescinded.

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other general officers of the line, selected by the Secretary of War, who are not then members of the General Staff Corps. This board shall select and report the names of all officers of the Regular Army, National Guard, and Officers' Reserve Corps of the following classes who are recommended by them as qualified by education, military experience, and character for General Staff duty:

(a) Those officers graduated from the Army Staff College or the Army War College prior to July 1, 1917, who, upon graduation, were specifically recommended for duty as commander or chief of staff of a division or higher tactical unit, or for detail in the General Staff Corps;

(b) Those officers who, since April 6, 1917, have commanded a division or higher tactical unit, or have demonstrated by actual service in the World War that they are qualified for General Staff duty.

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