Viewing page 89 of 200

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

August 26, 1948

Captain A.F. Foster
703 Terrace Boulevard
New Hyde Park, Long Island
New York

Dear Red:

Mrs. Foster sent me for consideration a letter from Captain Richard Thornton of U.A.L.

In the original draft of the bill we terminated creditable military service with December 31, 1947. If this provision were to remain as it originally was, the answer to Captain Thornton's second question would be that unless the bill were amended, any pilot who serves in the armed forces from now on must be considered as out of service, so far as the pilots' retirement system is concerned. 
    
In view of the enactment of the Selective Service Act of 1948 and the fact that a number of reserve officers have been called up and more may be, it may be desirable not to terminate creditable military service as originally contemplated. I have just finished a revision of the draft bill incorporating the various changes already agreed upon and in that process I have taken it upon myself to modify the military service provisions in the following ways.

(1) Creditable military service would be continued after the end of 1947 for any person who, pursuant to voluntary enlistment before V-J Day or to the operation of selective service, was required to continue in service.

(2) A person serving pursuant to the Selective Service Act of 1948 would have a creditable military service.

(3) Service, of course, during any war period would be creditable in the future as well as in the past.

The original draft limited creditable military service to World War II. The new language would include World War I, though that probably will have very little, if any, effect. Military service for anyone who has twelve months of service as a pilot before 1952 would be creditable, whether rendered before or during the service as a pilot. Thereafter military service