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Appropriations Committee, Secretary of War Davis stated that:

"The final result of the five-year program, if the Air Corps men are taken from the 118,750 (the total number at which the Army is now maintained) would be a reduction of eight battalions of Infantry, four squadrons of Cavalry, eight batteries of Field Artillery, four batteries of Coast Artillery, two companies of Engineers, over five hundred men from the Quartermaster Corps, four Ordnance companies, and one detachment of a Chemical Warfare regiment."

This is very much like "robbing Peter to pay Paul", and certainly is not conducive to that cooperation necessary to carrying out most efficiently the wishes of Congress as expressed in the present law. In addition, we must face the fact that the cost of National Defense has increased in the same proportion as business operations or living costs and for the present, at least, that the provisions made for the auxiliary air needs for the Army and Navy and for the Army Air Force must be in addition to that required for the ground forces and the surface fleets which must be maintained at adequate strength.
Unfortunately, the country has become impregnated with the idea that the air programs contained in the Act of 1926 represent the present need and ultimate aim of the country for true aerial defense. This is undoubtedly due to a misconception of what air power means and through what system of organization it is to be attained.

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