ARMED FORCES: Ammunition Shortage

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"Endangered." The U.S. ammunition shortage was almost three years old, yet no Pentagon heads had rolled because of it. Army men were inclined to put the blame on the U.S. public. Ordnance Colonel John Medaris reminded the Senators that the nation's ammunition industry was "almost completely shut down" after World War II, and observed that the post-Korea step-up in ammunition production "has had to be achieved on top of a civilian economy operating at an alltime high level."

Army brass admitted, however, that Congress had met almost every Army demand for funds for ammunition. Neither Collins nor Joint Chieftain Omar Bradley had ever told Congress about the shortage and asked for enough money to end it. The fact is that the money needed for ammunition was hardly more than peanuts compared to the total defense budget. The shortage was caused not by lack of money but by poor planning.

Last week, after all the testimony was in, the members of the Armed Services Committee unanimously agreed that General Van Fleet's charges had been borne out. The committee's most disturbing conclusion: "The shortages of ammunition substantially restricted the action of our troops [in Korea] and endangered our defense lines."

Maine's Senator Margaret Chase Smith was named to head a five-man subcommittee which will try to pinpoint "the officials and conditions responsible" for the shortage. Mrs. Smith promptly announced that the subcommittee would investigate ammunition supplies in Europe as well as Korea. Said she: "We have no intention of getting caught out in left field when the next batter may swing from the other side of the plate."