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HELICOPTER AIR SERVICE PROGRAM     23

Mr. McKINNON. No objection.

Mr. OLIVER.  No objection. 

Examiner DONAHUE. Being none, these may be received in evidence.

(The Written direct testimony of Mr. Hubert A. Schon and Mr. Elmer J. Bannick was received in evidence.)

Mr. OLIVER. Mr. Examiner, I believe Colonel Woick is here at this time and would like to be heard if that is satisfactory?

Examiner DONAHUE. We would be happy to hear from him.

Whereupon, Fred H. Woick took the stand as a witness and, after being first duly sworn, testified as follows:

Examiner DONAHUE. Do you have a prepared statement?

The WITNESS. Yes, I have a prepared statement. Examiner DONAHUE. We will adopt this prepared statement as your direct testimony in this proceeding, Mr. Woick.

The WITNESS. Yes. I do.

Senator CANNON. Do you have any suggestions as to any other way of providing subsidy to these operators, other than the method that you are presently carrying out at this time?

Mr. BOYD. Of course from the statutory standpoint, Senator, this is the only method available to the Board. As I am sure will be brought out in testimony later, the trunk carriers are to some extent subsidizing these operators already. 

Senator CANNON. That didn't quite answer my question. You say that under the law this is the only way you can do it. 

Mr. BOYD. Yes, sir.

Senator CANNON. I am asking if you have any suggestions. You have already indicated we need to change the law for your benefit. 

Mr. BOYD. No, I am not indicating that it needs to be changed for our benefit. 

Senator CANNON. To clarify it-

Mr. BOYD. What I mean is that we are sitting on the horns of a dilemma and we are being ground to dust here by the Appropriations Committee.

Senator LAUSCHE. You look pretty healthy though. [Laughter.]

Mr. BOYD. Well, there are marvelous powers of rejuvenation in weekends, Senator. That is all I can tell you. [Laughter.]

I want to make it very clear, we are not seeking to have the law amended or clarified except to the extent that we would like very much if you gentlemen would get us out of the box we are in with the Appropriations Committee, or else get the Appropriations Committee of our back, because we are doing what we think is our job, and we are sworn to uphold the law, and this is the law that you gentlemen gave us to administer. 

We just want to know what the Congress wants done. 

Saying that, I say we believe that section 406, which provides for the payment of subsidy for the helicopter operators who are certificated, is a very fine piece of legislation. We believe that the helicopter operations we have certificated are very definitely in the public interest and that they are not limited to the public interest of New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles. We think the public interest involved here is the total public interest, that it involves the citizens of communities throughout the country, the metropolitan areas particularly. We believes it involves the Post Office Department. We believe that it involves the military, our national defense. So we are not trying to dump these felows [[fellows]] at all. We believe in them. We are interested in getting out of this conflict if that is possible.