EVACUATION AND RETURN OF WORLD WAR II DECEASED The funds contained in this section of the estimate are for the purpose of continuing the evacuation and return of World War II deceased as authorized by Public Law 383, Seventy-ninth Congress, and amended by Public Law 368, Eightieth Congress. To date, the Congress has appropriated $152,500,000 and the request for fiscal year 1949 amounts to $38,369,000. In addition to the amounts mentioned, an estimated $23,606,000 has been deferred to take care of future requirements, all of which reflects an estimated $214,475,000 for the total program. It will be noted that the total estimated program exceeds the previous estimate by approximately $35,176,100. The majority of this increase is accounted for by (1) price redetermination of casket contracts which has increased the cost per casket from approximately $125 to $183; (2) withdrawal of troops from overseas areas which requires independent action of graves registration units; (3) drastic increase in rental rates and salaries of indigenous personnel in unoccupied areas overseas due to action of foreign governments; (4) additional travel of military and civilian personnel in connection with identification and final disposition of remains and for providing burial honors; (5) delay in casket production and delay in obtaining replies to letters of inquiry sent to the next of kin; (6) initial development of permanent cemeteries in foreign countries; (7) unanticipated difficulties and delay occasioned by indecision on the part of the next of kin which requires special individual handling of the cases involved. While expenditures to date have been comparatively small in relation to the total program, they will increase rapidly with the movement of remains for final interment. As of January 1, 1948, the status of the program is as follows: (1) 227,049 letters of inquiry have been dispatched to the next of kin and 85,379 acceptable replies have been received. All remaining letters of inquiry will be dispatched to known addresses by February 1, 1948, and it is anticipated that replies will be received by June 30, 1948: (2) 53,611 disinterment directives have been dispatched to Overseas areas. All disinterment directives for the mass movement of remains will be dispatched by January 1, 1949; (3) as of January 1, 1948, approximately 14,000 remains have been returned to the United States. It is anticipated that 50,000 additional remains will be returned during fiscal year 1948 and that 78,000 will be returned during fiscal year 1949; (4) based on experience records, it is estimated that of the remains buried in overseas areas due to nonreceipt of replies from next of kin, the return of approximately 28,600 remains will be requested subsequent to July 1, 1949, after completion of the regular program. Mr. ENGEL. Does that conclude your statement? NUMBER OF DECEASED OVERSEAS Mr. ENGEL. General, you furnished us last year a statement showing, first, the number of men who died in the service or were killed in action overseas. General LARKIN. Yes, sir. Mr. ENGEL. Second, the number and percentage of the bodies that would be returned in compliance with requests by the nearest next of kin. You also had in your statement a sort of poll as to how many_of those wanted to have their dead buried in national cemeteries. Do you have that list? General LARKIN. Yes, sir. Mr. ENGEL. Has that been brought up to date? General LARKIN. Yes, sir; that has been brought up to date. General LARKIN. Yes, sir. (The data referred to follows:) Number of remains.... Number of remains to be returned (60 percent). 286, 170 170, 748 Number of remains returned to be interred in national cemeteries (20 percent) _ 34, 149 Mr. ENGEL. Also, I would like a statement showing, if possible, how many of the next of kin who are requesting burial of their dead in a national cemetery are living now near to a national cemetery or in close proximity to a national cemetery. General LARKIN. It would increase with the proximity to a national cemetery. SUFFICIENCY OF SPACE IN EXISTING NATIONAL CEMETERIES Mr. ENGEL. How many new national cemeteries do we have to take care of, and will it pay to have a national cemetery for the number who are requesting burial in a national cemetery? Could you give us that information? General LARKIN. There is sufficient space in existing national cemeteries to take care of the number requesting burials therein if proximity to next of kin did not have to be considered. It is impossible to determine at this time without an individual examination of all poll letters received to determine the relationship between requests for burials in national cemeteries and the proximity thereto of the next of kin. However, the following tabulation indicates the estimated number of remains to be returned, by States, and the States in which there are existing national cemeteries. The following list indicates the number of World War II dead to be returned to each State. Also listed by State are the national cemeteries and Department of Interior cemeteries in which interments may be made: World War II dead to be returned and available cemeteries World War II dead to be returned and available cemeteries-Continued LEGAL AUTHORITY FOR NATIONAL CEMETERIES Mr. ENGEL. We were confronted last year with a situation on three cemeteries, namely, at Alaska, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico, where, with the exception of Hawaii, the cemeteries had not been authorized by law. I understand the budget officer has made a ruling that the Department of the Army has authority to establish national cemeteries without further authorization, under the Repatriation Act. Is that a ruling you have made? General LARKIN. Not by the Repatriation Act; no, sir. Mr. ENGEL. By what act? General LARKIN. By a previous act. Mr. ENGEL. When was that act passed? Colonel MARSHALL. It is under the general act found in the provisions of sections 4870, 4871, and 4872 of the Revised Statutes, 24 United States Code, 271-273. Mr. ENGEL. In what year was that act passed? Colonel MARSHALL. That was in 1877. An opinion was rendered by the Judge Advocate General based on that act. I think it is in the testimony of last year. Mr. ENGEL. You mean under your interpretation of that act you can buy land and establish a new cemetery in any State of the Union? Colonel MARSHALL. No, sir. Mr. ENGEL. What are the limitations? Colonel MARSHALL. The limitations are that Congress must first appropriate the necessary funds. Mr. ENGEL. But if the land is donated, then you can? General HORKAN. You can either purchase it or get it by donation. Mr. ENGEL. Then why this new cemetery act that they are talking about passing? Congress has not been aware of your authority, apparently; because we have been arguing in here for the last 5 or 10 years about establishing a new cemetery in every State. Mr. MAHON. I think perhaps the point is this, that under existing law if you had appropriations and if the Army was willing to take the initiative, they have the authority to construct new cemeteries; but they hesitate to do that when the matter is being considered by Congress and without a direct expression on the current will of Congress. That is my recollection. General LARKIN. That is correct. Mr. ENGEL. What I do not want to see done is this: We passed an act for a new national cemetery in Oregon several years ago, put through by itself on unanimous consent, as I recall. I do not want to have a situation where the Department of the Army is pressured by politics into putting a new cemetery somewhere. I think Congress ought to say where it goes. General HORKAN. That is correct. We will not put in any new national cemetery until Congress has approved it. We are not asking anything Mr. ENGEL. Has the Attorney General ruled on that, or the Comptroller General? Colonel MARSHALL. No, sir. Mr. ENGEL. Could you get a ruling of the Comptroller General on that? Colonel MARSHALL. We are in process of getting a ruling of the Comptroller General on that. Mr. CASE. Mr. Chairman, this opinion which has been handed me was rendered by the Judge Advocate General of the Army on November 30, 1934. General HORKAN. We are not asking for any national cemeteries without approval of Congress. Mr. ENGEL. I would like to get an opinion from the Attorney General and the Comptroller General sources outside the Armyas to whether or not you have authority. I would like to get that settled once and for all. I think the committee is going to appropriate any money that is required to bury the dead, and you will get that from us, but I would like to get that point settled. General LARKIN. Yes, sir. Mr. ENGEL. The national cemetery you expect to establish in Guam will be established in accordance with the authority you have under that ruling of the Judge Advocate General? General LARKIN. And with the approval of Congress in appropriating the necessary funds to do so. You see, we cover it specifically in the justifications. CEMETERY AT GUAM Mr. ENGEL. Are you going to utilize the present cemetery at Guam for a national cemetery? General LARKIN. No, sir; because that place is not suitable. It is too low, and there is too much ground water in it. But we have selected a site there, in conjunction with the Navy and Air Forces, which has been entirely agreed to. VETERANS BURIED IN PRESENT CEMETERY AT GAUM Mr. ENGEL. How many men are buried in the present cemetery at Guam? General HORKAN. Approximately 11,000 are to be permanently buried in Guam. Mr. ALBEE. 12,930 are buried there now. Mr. ENGEL. Soldiers? Mr. ALBEE. Yes, sir. Mr. ENGEL. How many men do you expect to bury in the new cemetery? Mr. ALBEE. Approximately 11,000 Mr. ENGEL. Do you expect to move these 12,000 bodies to the new cemetery? Mr. ALBEE. They are in Guam now. They have been moved from Iwo Jima, and the ones who were killed at Saipan are already there. Mr. ENGEL. They are already in the new cemetery site? General LARKIN. No, sir; not in the new cemetery site. Mr. ENGEL. But you have moved them to the present cemetery site? Mr. ALBEE. At Guam. General LARKIN. They have been moved to Guam, but not to the new site. Mr. ENGEL. I mean they are buried in the present cemetery that we visited there? General LARKIN. They are stored above ground there now. Mr. ALBEE. Yes, sir. In addition to that, there will be some 10,000 moved from Okinawa to Guam, of which approximately 40 percent will be moved to the new site for permanent burial. Mr. ENGEL. I asked you how many veterans' bodies were buried at the present cemetery in Guam. General LARKIN. You mean actually buried? Mr. ENGEL. Actually buried. NUMBER TO BE BURIED AT GUAM General HORKAN. 11,000 is the figure, and there are 10,000 others over there in that area-approximately 22,000. Mr. ENGEL. There are approximately 22,000? |