You will note as you go around an immense amount of construction. Some has been done in the past and being improved today and some is presently under way as new construction. We have done much in the way of highway and sewerage construction. You will note much open storage and under guard, and you will see something like $130 million work in progress. Personnel has been difficult to retain especially in construction where men only want to stay 1 or 2 years and then go away.

Morale here in the Army, I believe, is very good for the time, location and distance from home, and the climate in relation to the number of personnel. In many cases the military personnel has been here for several years, and now that the rotation has been resumed, I think that the morale of the organization is of a high level.

We are proud of our organization, its training, and its important mission. * * *

I will now call on several of my staff officers to present a picture of the history and militiary engineering and political aspects of these islands.

STATEMENT OF COL. ROY E. MOORE, INFANTRY, G-2, RYUKYUS COMMAND

RYUKYU ISLANDS HISTORY AND LOCAL CONDITIONS

Colonel MOORE. The Ryukyus chain consists of approximately 116 islands spreading from the thirtieth parallel down to within 65 miles of Formosa. * *

Some points which may be of interest to the subcommittee as far as location: We are approximately 335 miles from the farthest tip of Formosa. We are 400 miles from the nearest point to the China coast. We are 467 miles from Shanghai. We are here within a 500 mile radius of many strategic far eastern points.

The population of the Ryukyus is roughly a million people with 600,000 or 60 percent of them natives of mixed Asiatic ancestry. The Japanese language is predominately spoken here. The Japanese customs and traditions are still prevalent.

Since the onset of the American military occupation, the Ryukyus have been organized into four types of government. They follow the province type with the name of the island and the word "gunto" following. The boundaries are indicated by the dark lines here [indicating on map]. These guntos are the political subdivisions of this

Some islands have excellent roads and a sizable proportion of the population, while others are relatively uninhabited with little means of transportation from one coast to the other. Okinawa, which is the largest and most important of all the islands in the chain, is 65 miles and varies in width up to 16 miles. There is a serious shortage of transportation facilities although the roads are numerous and excellent. During the last war the island itself was subject to very severe damage. The southern portion of Okinawa, which involves the Naha region, is rugged hill country; however, not as rugged as

some other islands in the chain by comparison. Okinawa has, I should say again, an admirable road net.

* *

So much for the geography. A few words on the climate. Okinawa is located within the temperate zone. Okinawa enjoys a subtropical marine climate, relatively high of equal temperature throughout the year. The temperature in the Ryukyus varies from about 69° in the northern part to 74° in the western Ryukyus. The warm season is from June to September. The temperature ranges around 81° for the entire period. We have had temperatures as low as 38°. They have been reported. However, the average temperature for the islands range from 52° in the north to 58° down in the south. The rainfall here is quite heavy. At Naha on Okinawa the average annual precipitation is 83 inches. In the northern Ryukyus we have an average annual precipitation of 125 inches. There are some reports that snow has fallen up in the northern Ryukyus, but to the best of our knowledge proven claims have not demonstrated that there was snow in the Ryukyus. These islands lie within the typhoon belt.

We have averaged about 400 typhoons of varying types per year. However, only three to six are expected to pass directly over Okinawa. The rest are diverted through atmospheric conditions at sea. I have hoped in this short space to give you some idea of the position of the geography of the Ryukus. Colonel Lane, our district engineer, will give you a brief summary of the construction program here on Okinawa.

STATEMENT OF COL. THOMAS A. LANE, CE, DISTRICT ENGINEER, OKINAWA

Colonel LANE. The interest of the United States in Okinawa is plainly reflected in the appropriation charts that I have placed before you. I will try to summarize a few and you will note that in 1946 and 1947 after World War II there were sizable appropriations for construction programs at Okinawa. In 1948 and 1949 the appropriation was still considerable although not by comparative analysis. In 1950 and 1951 we have again large appropriations for bases and construction in this area. I would like to take up at this time certain of our military constructions, if I might go off the record.

CONSTRUCTION PROGRAM

I am showing you now on the map [indicating] a construction pro

gram

**

I have outlined these in heavy underlines on the map and dotted lines to show proposed construction. It is costing us approximately $90,000 a mile for our secondary roads

* *

*

Here we have outlined the electrical system for the island. This consists of a power plant generating 36,000 kilowatts ing air bases and other fields and installations.

The sewerage system provides for bases of the islands, * *

serv

* all the surrounding

*. In providing for innerconnection so that there can be reception and dispensing, this has been set up

* *

* *

As far as construction, we have on Kadena Air Base: and certain storage and warehouse facilities all under contract. The value of these installations in terms of dollars and cents is approximately The round figures represent our estimate. Our 1952 expected additional funds are about ** We estimate that our present over-all construction program for the base is additional requirements. The house units average around This is a three-bedroom house, common entrance, duplex, concrete, flat-roofed type. Here is a plan [indicating] where we have 24 barracks under construction; 345 houses in these two areas

*

* * * *

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*

We have a laundry and open shop also. Also, we have plans for barracks of officers' quarters. These is no housing provided at the post or depot. It appears better to build the houses within the confines of the activity.

* *

At the port of Naha we have the main port which is being dredged deep enough to receive our largest ships on the south side. The south side contains the principal administrative and nonoperation offices. We have provisions for a number of ship berths and a small boat base. A big base at this point [indicating], a rescue boat and crash-boat installation possibly here [indicating]. The Army installation at this point has two bases under contract and five more in process of negotiation bids. This is the Army Port Authority. The subport will be dredged to a greater depth and take quite a bit of traffic from the larger port.

The Naha Air Base on the southern end of the island * * * We now have under contract bachelor officers quarters, general

*

*

* * *

*

drill halls. The present project is under contract and calls for the expenditure of about They are open-hand contracts and will be a permanent part of the base. In total it will run about over the next couple of years.

*

The barracks under construction are the Army-type barracks, generally company-size barracks. If I may go off the record at this point

Mr. BONNER. You may.

(Discussion off the record.)

Colonel LANE. I would like to present Colonel Garber of the Air Force.

STATEMENT OF COL. GARES GARBER, UNITED STATES AIR FORCE, DEPUTY FOR MATÉRIEL, TWENTIETH AIR FORCE

Colonel GARBER. In view of the foregoing discussion, I am going to limit my remarks to Okinawa. I think you all are aware of the use of Guam as an Air Force station by the Twentieth Air Force. However, our problems down there are different problems and are considerably less than those facing the Air Force on Okinawa. The Air Force supply picture on Okinawa has been, in my opinion, remarkably good. Especially is this particularly true when you consider

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some of the adverse factors which have affected us here. I believe that a large measure of the successful support of Korean combat operations by the Twentieth Air Force has been due to the magnificent cooperation we have had from General Breighteler and his Ryukyus Command. This cooperation, in fact, is so close that my friend, General Sherman, is always asking me when I am going to move my desk down to this headquarters from General Sterling's headquarters. Seriously though, on Okinawa the cooperation existing between servicemen is the finest example I have seen yet of unification.

AIR FORCE SUPPLY PROBLEMS

*

Now we do have some problems in Air Force supplies, but we here on Okinawa believe that these problems largely originate back in the States, and most of them are due to the fact that here we are 10,000 miles out at the end of the supply line with the corollary that it takes a long time to get material here to us. This cooperation is all the more remarkable when you consider that-take, for instance, the B-29's, which are bombing Korea now, the F-83's and F-82's, are all of modern production. * * It appears to us that Okinawa has a rather low priority supplywise in relation to, for instance, the Middle East, the African bases, the aid to Europe program, the expansion of state-wide facility and the support rendered to the combat units now in Korea. This, of course, is a military decision on the very highest level. We know also the terrific production battle that is going on in the States now in order to produce and distribute the required amounts and types of supplies. That is fine, but it makes it a little rough here in Okinawa.

Now I propose to go into a discussion, if I may, of features which so greatly complicate our supply and maintenance picture. It is, however, a very real problem and an ever-present one. We believe that with a completion on this construction program, which Colonel Lane has just discussed with you, that within the next 2 or 3 years our problem in this regard will have been solved, because we will have a permanent construction which it takes to do our job on Okinawa. Even with that, we will have an adverse effect on economic operations because of the high humidity, the excessive rainfall, and so forth, which is beyond our power, of course. I understand that your subcommittee, Mr. Bonner, is interested in the proper utilization of natural and mineral resources, and, as one who digs into his pocket taxwise, I would like to assure you that all here agree with you in your aims. And with no spirit of levity at all, I should like to say that the waste here on Okinawa is at a minimum, because we just don't have the waste, gentlemen. Our status here is comparable to austerity and in no categories of supplies and equipment were we and I say "we" as the Army and the Air Force-below our authorized allowances. We can see much relief for that in the foreseeable future because of the necessary expansion of the national defense program. The only solution, then, is to rebuild and repair and reuse this material. I think we can say that this is a result of the growing pains, the changing from the Army supply line to the Air Force channels.

Mr. LANTAFF. Colonel, I wonder if you could develop that phase a little, especially with regard to the availability of quartermastersupply items?

Mr. BONNER. Do you think this represents a shortage of quartermaster-supply items available for your use?

Colonel GARBER. I think, Mr. Bonner, this situation has been the result of growing pains of the changing supply lines from Army to Air Force channels.

ARMY AIR FORCE SEPARATION OF STOCKS

Mr. LANTAFF. What types of quartermaster items do you need that the Army cannot furnish you?

Colonel GARBER. Not any, sir. They have furnished us, in fact, until the separation of the stocks on hand. We were depending on the Department of the Army for all our quartermaster items. Within the past few months there has been a division of assets, and this I mentioned in my presentation.

Now that is something I think that will take care of itself as we gain more experience. It is normal that when one goes into a new phase, there will be certain bugs that, as time goes by, will come out. As to the separation of stocks, Mr. Bonner, we have made the division of assets here; however, it continues to be stocked by the Army. Now we do not have an Air Force depot here on Okinawa. These are Air Force stocks even though Army continues to store them. In regard to this separation of stocks, since we do not have an Air Force depot, arrangements have been made to take them into the Air Force depot system so, of course, General Beighteler's command stocks them and we all draw from that source.

Mr. BONNER. Do you have much in the way of Corps of Engineer items?

Colonel GARBER. Corps of Engineer items? We do have in the Air Force a great deal of construction equipment and Corps of Engineer; for instance, survey instruments and some construction supplies. As far as I know, and I think General Sterling knows more about that than I do, but as far as I know there is no intention of setting up an Air Force supply agency.

Major General BEIGHTELER. I should like to introduce now Colonel Goss, of our G-4 section, who will continue this supply discussion.

STATEMENT OF LT. COL. ROBERT J. HOSS, UNITED STATES AIR FORCE, DIRECTOR OF SUPPLY, TWENTIETH AIR FORCE

REQUISITIONING PROCEDURES

Lieutenant Colonel Hoss. I think I should cover briefly a few of the points brought out by Colonel Garber. The Ryukyus Command requisitions overseas many items; some are requisitioned and channeled from oversea's supplying of Japan, Korean, and Far East Command. The Army requirements both as to the need of the Army and the Twentieth Air Force are obtained by requisitions on the United States or in some instances directly from Japan. All Far East commands assist each other to ease the burden of supplying needs. Stock loads for RYCOM are generally set at 60 days for supply. The normal lead time-the time it takes to get supplies from the States from the time