One Command?

Congressmen who favor unifying the Army and Navy under a single command suddenly found themselves with all the ammunition they needed.

Warming up last week, proponents waited only for Congress to reconvene. Then they will roar. They have some good backing: Harry Truman and the Army are for it.

In the House, Andrew J. May and Clifton A. Woodrum, chairmen respectively of the Military Affairs Committee and the Select Committee on Post-War Military Policy, announced that they would begin studying the problem before the snow flies. In the Senate. Elbert D. Thomas' Military Affairs Committee already had before it a bill, sponsored by Alabama's Lister Hill, which provided the mechanics for merger. It calls for:

A civilian "Secretary of Armed Forces," who would have under him three civilian Under Secretaries for Army, Navy and Air Force; a body of Chiefs of Staff--one each from the three branches and one to represent the White House, who would be charged with strategic planning, supply and operational direction. Implicit in such a plan: airmen would be out from under the domination of Army and Navy, in a separate Air Force.

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