1 Chief of the Office of Personnel at Coast Guard E Before proceeding with my statement, I would like regrets of the Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, J in not being able to appear before this committee t shown a great interest in this legislation and he appe before the House Merchant Marine and Fisheries Cor proposal. I would like to introduce into the record of this he: ment before that committee. He understands that I and desires that I do. Senator BARTLETT. His statement will be accepted. STATEMENT OF JAMES A. REED, ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF TH Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, I appreciate of appearing here in support of H.R. 5623. My statement w Admiral Roland and other Coast Guard officials are here to on the bill. However, I do want to make four points concern First, this bill has my complete support and that of the ment. I do not profess to be an expert on military personn familiar with all the details of this proposal, but I am cogniz promotion problem in the Coast Guard today and I have foll ment of this bill with great interest. I am persuaded that necessary, and in addition its enactment will eventually r Coast Guard. In my opinion the promotion system now in Guard is not responsive to the demands of today. It pre from obtaining full use of the abilities of its officer corps. it reduces the incentive for excellent performance by the concept of seniority alone. Indeed, it is becoming incre that it is an anachronism to promote officers on a basis of the Coast Guard now does. Under that system each office promoted to successively higher grades unless the service that he is clearly not qualified for promotion. That such a should be changed to one based on merit is beyond questi that it is a military organization should not allow for an concept. Second, I believe enactment of S. 1460 during this session is urgent. The bill attacks a problem which exists today and worse. The problem is to remove the debilitating effect of s motion by providing for a fair and equitable system of attriti em in a way that will be as fair as possible to all officers long-range permanent promotion system that will lead to a and efficient officer corps. I reaffirm that this bill has my t and that of the Treasury Department. s my statement. Thank you. LAND. I appreciate the opportunity of appearing before elieve that this is one of the most important bills the has proposed in many years, important because it will eaching and fundamental changes in the Coast Guard's nd in the service itself, important also because it will impact on the life of each officer in the service. the culmination of almost 3 years of study and work. esis in the recognition by the Coast Guard in late 1959 ce of a hump problem—that is, a slowdown in promoofficer corps. But the bill is more than a hump bill. han merely provide a mechanism for speeding up prostudies convinced us that it would not be enough to ly to speed up promotions. We concluded that there ntal weaknesses in the Coast Guard's present officer stem and that these should be corrected. If they were similar hump problems would continually occur in The bill, therefore, is designed to accomplish two primary attack the present hump problem and to improve the on system so that such problems will not recur. ojective, of course, is the improvement of our officer ement system and through it an improvement in the e service. uss the hump problem briefly? It had its origin in I when the service expanded and took in large groups of result was that for each year from 1942 through 1945 officers who entered the service was considerably larger ber who entered yearly before or after the war. ime officers constitute the hump. Our officer distribuidal in form with the result that in the higher ranks are authorized than in the lower echelons. As these ers moved up to the commander grade, promotions The promotion time to commander is, at present, over 18 ce. We estimate that if no corrective action is taken, o 22 years of service by 1972. Similarly, under present e estimate that by 1970 an officer will not be able to be can only offer them such a limited career opportunit do not believe that we can maintain the efficiency of the conditions are permitted to continue. Section 3 of S. 1460 is patterned after the Navy hump law of 1959. This portion of the bill would en Guard to take immediate action to speed up promotion be accomplished by forcing the retirement of some offi grades of commander and captain. The vacancies would be filled by promotion of officers whose advancen deyaled because of the hump problem. This part of be temporary law, the authority would only be effecti period, at the end of which it would expire. At that the permanent promotion system will be able to ope by itself to control the flow of promotions. We, of course, regret the necessity for such forced at officers. But fairness and necessity dictate that it l is not done the officers below them will suffer even h under the proposed new promotion system. One way this part of the bill is to remember that these officers of captain and commander reached those grades with jected to forced attrition. The officers junior to the face selection and forced attrition to reach those ranks. part of the bill, we are in effect applying an after-thefied selection to the officers now serving as captains an S. 1460 will thus give to the Coast Guard the mea with the present hump problem. But as I mentioned it goes further than that-this bill is also designed service with the ability to avoid such problems in will give us the tools by which a planned career established and maintained. It will make possible e of the flow of promotion so that these wide disparitie times can be reduced or eliminated. I believe some of the members of this committee that in 1955 the Coast Guard asked for legislation t flow of promotion in the grades of captain and a legislation was enacted by the Congress and has work it has accomplished the purposes for which it was des the results is that we have been able to maintain a of promotion into the captain and admiral grades legislation was under consideration my predecessor, a reasonable flow of promotion only part of the ven grade can be advanced to the next higher grade. us that if only part of the officers can be advanced, eive the promotions should be those who are the best the heart of S. 1460. It creates a system for selecting o are best qualified for advancement. Under this selection system, boards would screen the records of mine which of them should be promoted to the next This is thus a competitive system under which the od performance is the reward of promotion. romotion system which this bill proposes would be a nge for most of the Coast Guard, it is not entirely present time we choose our flag officers on a "best . We also choose our cadets at the Academy on the In this bill we are merely applying this system of st qualified to the grades in between. jor principle of the best qualified selection system em60 is that officers who are not selected for promotion or retired from the service. This is an essential e system of selecting the best qualified officers for officers who fail to be selected for a higher grade to remain in the service indefinitely they would incement of the more qualified officers below them. tiveness of such officers would be reduced by their they could not be promoted beyond their present refore, provides that any officer who fails of selection parated from the service. Those officers who are below eutenant commander would be separated by honorable severance pay. Those who are lieutenant commanders who have a greater investment in the service would y retirement when they have completed at least 20 ciple which the bill adopts is that of terminating most at 30 years if they have not been separated earlier. require that all captains, not selected for flag rank, pletion of 30 years of service. This is by no means a such officers are no longer capable of giving good that point. But their retention after 30 years would nd less complicated organization of the Coast Guard, ble to simplify many of the provisions of Navy law in a to the Coast Guard. However, the two systems are the extent that under S. 1460 the Coast Guard shou offer our officers a career pattern comparable to that of I might mention at this point that this bill has b examined by the Department of Defense and it has t Its enactment will in fact advance uniformity in offic matters and aid in equalizing career opportunities amo services. We have tried to make the operation of the pron flexible and adaptable. At the same time we have tried it necessary protections for the individual officer and reduce the adverse morale impact. In the develop bill we conducted a continuous review to ensure that officer career management program would be attained. probable that with experience we will discover that son will one day be necessary. I have discussed the major parts of S. 1460. The r tions of the bill contain savings clauses and transition These various provisions are necessary in effecting the proposed new promotion system. For legislation such as this to be completely successfu the support of the officer corps. Before the bill can be must be understood. We have therefore made special sure that the bill is widely understood in the servic S. 1460 have been distributed to each district in the explanatory material has been published for servicewid and officers familiar with the legislation have given b in Coast Guard Headquarters, the district offices, and units. I have with me a copy of the explanation of this distributed to the service. If satisfactory to the comm like to have it entered into the record of these hearings. Senator BARTLETT. It will be included. (The document follows:) SUPPLEMENT No. 1 TO THE COMMANDANT'S BULLETIN NO (Comments on legislation to amend the provisions of title 14 Code, relating to the appointment, promotion, separation of officers of the Coast Guard) |