Mr. Chairman, my purpose in showing you and the distinguished members of this committee the slide presentation on Glasgow Air Force Base is to make sure that you have a feeling for the vast, modern complex that challenges all of us, Montanans and Americans alike. I have submitted more detailed testimony to this committee for the record in absentia while I was engaged in work in Montana during your earlier hearings.

Today I simply want to underscore the fact that the legislation before you, which has had such an exhaustive and careful study in the Senate and which is being given detailed and thoughtful analysis in hearings before this committee, offers the Nation an opportunity for a unique solution to a complex problem. Frankly, I have been impressed by the imaginative thinking that has gone into this legislation. It has been heartening to have suggestions from Montana and throughout the Nation.

Just the other day, for example, a private aviation entrepreneur from Oklahoma suggested to the junior Senator from Montana, Senator Lee Metcalf, an idea that Glasgow Air Force Base and similar large soon-to-be surplus military facilities be developed as a part of "*** a rural airfreight warehousing system." This suggestion goes on to say:

The proposal would contemplate the use of the new C 5A Jumbo Jets with a Vertical Takeoff and Landing air van collection and dispersal system. Justification would consider both military and civilian needs inasmuch as produced answers would help solve the military logistic problems of brush fire wars and also alter the rural to urban migration pattern which is causing so much civil strife in the nation.

I cite this just as one example of the ideas from throughout the Nation that have been stimulated by this project.

In essence, in my view, the legislation before this committee represents an opportunity for the Nation to experiment with a concept. The experiment is simple in nature and complex in potential. Basically, we are faced with the alternative of having this facility designed on behalf of, operated for and paid by the Nation's taxpayers become the largest, most modern and expensive ghost town in the history of the Nation. Present statutes and past policies and precedence provide no solution. The Department of Defense has told the Montana congressional delegation and has indicated in previous testimony that this base closure is the most complicated and difficult of any they have ever faced.

I suggest to my distinguished colleagues that we have before us an experimental opportunity to test whether or not we can combine. public and private sector, resources, needs, know-how and ingenuity and provide the taxpayers of the Nation with a potential opportunity to recover a substantially larger share of their investment than is the case with existing statutes.

Now let me make one thing clear. I cannot guarantee the experiment will succeed; but, from every indication I have had-including discussions with manufacturers, bankers, public officials at the local, State and Federal level and all business people concerned-this legislation provides the greatest hope for the greatest number to achieve the most benefit from the defense resources now no longer needed.

Mr. Chairman, I wish to thank you and your committee along with my esteemed colleague in the Montana delegation, Representa

tive Jim Battin, along with the distinguished Majority Leader Senator Mike Mansfield and junior Senator from Montana Lee Metcalf who have worked as one on a bipartisan basis on this important and potentially historymaking legislation.

Let me say one other thing. We were really kind of feeling hopeless on what would happen to this Air Force base that was to be abandoned and is being abandoned by the Air Force when this man, Dr. Strickler, came to Senator Metcalf's office on loan from the Federal Aviation Agency as-what do you call that program?

Dr. STRICKLER. Mr. Chairman, I was one of the fortunate Federal employees who had the benefit of the Civil Service CommissionAmerican Political Science Association-Congressional Fellowship program. I was a congressional fellow.

Mr. OLSEN. That is right. I have to brag on him a little bit. He said to Senator Metcalf, "I want a job that is impossible." That is what he asked for. Senator Metcalf said, "I will give you an impossible job. What are we going to do with Glasgow Air Force Base?"

This man, Dr. Strickler, went to work on it, I think that he has come up with a marvelous, wonderful, progressive challenge.

Rather than waste, rather than cannibalize this $125 million investment, I think we ought to take this recommendation that now, of course, is a Senate bill over here in the House and accept the challenge and try to reach the goal of attracting private enterprise to this base.

In my statement in detail I have set forth several examples of inquiries that are concrete where people really want to go in there and use this facility both for private enterprise and for training.

The CHAIRMAN. What is to prevent them from going in now?

Mr. OLSEN. We have to have some kind of legal entity to bring them in there to use the facility.

The CHAIRMAN. Why? Why must you have that? We are developing the Brooklyn Navy Yard without this kind of help, without a corporation of this sort. Industry is going in there in New York, setting up plants and putting in installations without the existence of a Federal corporation. Why is there a need for this?

You have these applicants who want to put up their plants in this area, in the Glasgow Air Base.

Mr. OLSEN. We need a coordinator. We need a unit coordinator. That is one of the reasons for the Federal corporation.

The CHAIRMAN. I still don't see why you need a Federal corporation if you say that these applicants are waiting to go in there. Why do you need a corporation? What is so occult or majestic about a corporation?

Mr. OLSEN. It is just too much redtape to deal with the Department of Defense.

Dr. STRICKLER. Mr. Chairman, if I may add to this. I think Secretary Morris, who will be testifying later, will probably touch on this. Let me say that the reasons for the legislation stem from careful examination of the existing statutes, surplus property, and the existing laws which indicate that unless there is a means of being able to deal, for example, with profitmaking corporations, the existing statutes would not permit making this base available without having some financial arrangement that simply has not been economically feasible.

So I can say in all fairness, based on the analysis that I am aware of and consultation with the legislative people and the economic people, that this legislation seems to be the best attempt to make the best uses of the resources.

The regular statutes and regular procedures, such as do apply in your area, don't apply because this is not in the metropolitan area. This is not in a location that is conducive to industry normally moving in without extra incentives. That is the reason.

Mr. Chairman, could I take 45 seconds, in a combination of humility and honesty, to add to what the distinguished Congressman from Montana said? I have only been a catalyst in this effort. I would be pleased to take more credit than is due but I am just a catalyst in this. There have been many, many fine people working on this. It would be unfair for me to accept all the credit that the Honorable Congressman Olsen has tried to bestow on me. I would like to have the record reflect that.

The CHAIRMAN. Does that complete your testimony?

Mr. OLSEN. I think that we ought to thank you very much for all the time that you have given us. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. The CHAIRMAN. Any questions? Thank you, Congressman Olsen, and you, Dr. Strickler, for your testimony.

(No response.)

The CHAIRMAN. Secretary Morris, will you come forward?

STATEMENT OF THOMAS D. MORRIS, ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF DEFENSE (INSTALLATIONS AND LOGISTICS), ACCOMPANIED BY DONALD F. BRADFORD, DIRECTOR, OFFICE OF ECONOMIC ADJUSTMENT; ALLAN KERR, DIRECTOR, BASE UTILIZATION; AND JAMES M. WARNOCK, FAMILY HOUSING OFFICER

Mr. MORRIS. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

The CHAIRMAN. State your name and that of your assistants for the record.

Mr. MORRIS. Yes, Mr. Chairman.

I am Thomas D. Morris, Assistant Secretary of Defense (Installations and Logistics). I am accompanied today on my left by Mr. Allan Kerr of our Base Utilization Division, and on my right, by Mr. Donald Bradford, who directs our Office of Economic Adjustment. We also have Mr. James Warnock present, our specialist in family housing.

I have a brief prepared statement, Mr. Chairman, if you would permit me to present it.

The CHAIRMAN. Go right ahead.

Mr. MORRIS. Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, the Department of Defense appreciates this opportunity to appear in support of S. 1602, a bill to create a Northwest Regional Services Corporation to provide a central location for various training centers. and programs and for other purposes.

I would like in this statement to outline for you (1) the reasons for our interest in this bill, (2) why we support the unusual concept of a Federal corporation as a unique experiment, and (3) certain suggestions to clarify the bill from the Defense Department point of vie .

The CHAIRMAN. May I ask at this point: Have you shown any interest of the type that you are showing here now in Glasgow with reference to any other base declared obsolete?

Mr. MORRIS. Sir, we have had since 1961 a full-time program of assistance in the utilization of our excess facilities. We have, in fact, worked in some 55 different communities, on bases that were being closed out, to provide special assistance. We have been successful in almost all of those situations except Glasgow.

The CHAIRMAN. Does this program envisage or provide for the establishment of a corporation similar to the one envisaged in S. 1602? Mr. MORRIS. It does not. This is unique. This is the first time this kind of solution has seemed necessary or worthy of consideration.

The CHAIRMAN. Is it conceivable, then, that all these other communities that ever asked for aid might likewise ask for similar cooperation like the one envisaged in S. 1602?

Mr. MORRIS. We do not think so. In most of the cases our bases have been located in or near growing metropolitan communities which have been able to acquire the property from the Federal Government and to foster the development of the resources of the property.

The CHAIRMAN. In those communities that you just mentioned, there has been cooperation by the local authorities and, I take it, by the States, also?

Mr. MORRIS. That is correct.

The CHAIRMAN. That is absent in this case?

Mr. MORRIS. In this case there has been cooperation but the resources available have not been such as to make it possible for the local community or the State to help finance the initiation of the kinds of developmental opportunities that were shown on the film.

The CHAIRMAN. Why can't the State of Montana help in this regard?

Mr. MORRIS. Because its resources are not adequate for that purpose, as I understand it, Mr. Chairman.

The CHAIRMAN. What are the financial requirements?

Mr. MORRIS. As I will bring this out in my testimony, if I may proceed with it, Mr. Chairman

The CHAIRMAN. Go ahead.

REASONS FOR DOD'S INTEREST IN S. 1602

Mr. MORRIS. Under S. 1602 the Secretary of Defense would be directed to transfer to the Northwest Regional Services Corporation the entire interest of the United States in the property, both real and personal, of Glasgow Air Force Base, except for "combat-missionoriented equipment and supplies.".

Glasgow Air Force Base was originally activated in 1955 as an air defense (F-101) base, and later enlarged to serve as a B-52 base. However, by 1964 it had become apparent that a realinement of our strategic bomber bases was necessary, and that certain bases, including Glasgow, would not be required in the future, including all-out mobilization requirements. Closure of Glasgow was thus determined to be necessary by June 30, 1968. Among the reasons for discontinuing Glasgow is the fact that relocation of the B-52 fleet to more southerly locations offers significant military advantages, including longer warning time. Such bases were coming available as a result of other changes in the Air Force inventory. Furthermore, the full introduction of jet tankers had reduced the former requirement for northerly bases,

which were originally required to provide a location nearer the target area. Thirdly, closure of the base will effect operating savings of $12.6 million annually, and release several thousands of military personnel for other assignments.

The decision to close Glasgow Air Force Base was publicly announced on November 19, 1964. The decision has recently been thoroughly reviewed and revalidated by the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of the Air Force.

The base is a diversified facility, in excellent condition. Its original acquisition cost was over $90 million. On its 6,800 acres are major runway and hangar facilities, industrial shops, dormitories with a capacity for 1,900 men, 1,227 family housing units, three schools, a hospital, a chapel, and other normal support facilities.

WHY WE SUPPORT A NORTHWEST REGIONAL SERVICES CORPORATION

Since the initiation of our base realinement and closure program in 1961, every effort has been made to assist both employees and local communities affected by these actions. Our goal is to turn the misfortune of losing a military payroll into an economic benefit by using the facilities released for long-term civilian purposes. This program of economic adjustment, and conversion of surplus facilities from defense to nondefense uses, has been eminently successful. In most cases, a surplus defense facility is located in or near a metropolitan area which has growing requirements for schools, recreational areas, or industrial expansion and, in such cases, the community has taken the initiative to utilize the facility. Glasgow Air Force Base, however, presents a unique problem. Since December 1964, my office, plus experts from other Federal agencies and special consultants, have energetically searched for opportunities to put this fine facility to other Federal or to self-supporting civilian uses. These efforts to date have not succeeded, and the base ceased to be operational on June 30.

The reason for this lack of success is the absence of two key factors which have caused successes in dozens of other communities:

First is the absence today of State and local resources available to exploit the potential of the facility for community and industrial purposes.

Second is the absence of a trained labor force to support industrial growth. Hence, such uses of the facilities will require the importing and development of such a force.

Despite these obstacles, our studies indicate that with patience, imagination, and time, it should be possible to exploit the potentials of Glasgow Air Force Base. Its present facilities are constructed and arranged to support an educational program of up to 2,000 or more students; together with an industrial enterprise, or group of enterprises, with up to 1,000 employees and their families. The presence of the airbase facilities themselves will further enhance both types of projects by affording modern transportation support as well as tourist and commercial traffic in the area. The problem is that after sponsors have been found, several years will be required in each case to make such undertakings self-supporting and that during this transition period special arrangements will be required. Hence, there is a need for a full-time management group such as this Corporation, which would have authority to make flexible arrangements with prospective