Page:Legislative History of the AAF and USAF.djvu/101

 �This Page Declassified lAW EO12958 Force Reserve and the Air National Guard of the United States referred to in the Army and Air Force Authorization Act of 1949 were both o be reserve components of the Air Force and were to provide reserves for military service. The organization act also provided that there should be on the Air Staff a general officer to assist and vise the Secretary of the Air Force and the Chief of Staff on all matters relating to the reserve components of the Air ForceJ 3 Other laws also helped the reserves, but there continued to be a need for legisla- tion reorgamzing the reserve components of all the services; in 1948 an interservice com- mittee recommended that each setvine should have a single reserve component in- stead of two or more competing groups. This would mean, in the case of the Army and the Ai[' Force, that the lqational Guard would be merged with the existing reserve orõamzatlons. The Department of Defense was currently recommending such legisla- tion for the Air Force. TM However, no such legislation was enacted during the period covered by this study. Not until 1952 was legislation enacted which would remove inequities and discrcpanmes, and place all reserve components, insofar as it was possible, on an equal basis. This legislation was the Armed Forces Reserve Act of 1952, which had as its primary Bur- pose the bringing together in one statute, to the greatest extent practicable, of the great number of laws relating to the re- serve components of the Army, Navy, Force, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard. Its secondary purpose was to correct certain existing defects in pohcies and practmes re- !atin to the reserves and to the individual members thereof. It is evident from the foregoing chscus- sion that personnel legislation occupied an importart part in the congressional legis- lative program dealing with the national mihtary establishment in the period 1946- 51. This legislation dealt with a wide range of ubjects, and m such measures as the Army and Air Force V[talizatlon and Re- trement Equahzation Act, the Career Com- pensation Act, and the act prewding for the Uniform Code of Mfiitary Justice, re- floated the development of the unification of the services. The main purpose of this personnel Iegslaton was to increase the strength of the natrenal military establish- ment by providing for the procurement of sufficient personnel to mar the armed serv- ices and by taking measures to promote their efficiency and morale. Such measures include the improvement of the system of promotion and elimination of officer per- somael; the equalization and liberalization of retirement and other benefits; increases in pay and allowances; improvement of housing conditions; generous insurance provisions; and various acts granting minor benefits. tf the purpose of ths legislation was not always fully attained, especially in regard to the reserve components, it can be said, nevertheless, that Congress' per- sonnel program did a great deal to increase the strength and effectiveness of the Air Force and the other services at a time when a strong military establishment was be- coming ncreasingly important for national security and the preservation of world peace. LEGISLATION DEALING WIl'H MATERIEL, APPROPRIATIONS AND RELATED MATTERS Although the procurement of material was not the pressing problem for the Air Force in 1946 that t had been in the pe- riod of great expansion prmr to and during World War II, Air Force planners were, nevertheless, interested in securing pro- curement Iegslation which would prevent a repetitmn of mstakes made during the war. A comment from Headquarters, AAF to the Research and Development Diwsion in November 1946, listed as desirable at least 15 revisions of H.R. 09, a procure- ment bill which the War Department was then considering for submission to Con- gre$s. TM After the end of the war procurement ac- tivities sank to a low level. Puf01ic Law 615, 9 Cong. 2 Seas. (approved 7 August 1946) discontinued the reports to Congress of air- craft procurement contracts in excess of $150,000 formerly reqmred of the Secretary of War.  There was no other significant THIS PAGE Declassflied lAW EO12958