OPTOMETRY CORPS HEARINGS BEFORE A SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE UNITED STATES SENATE SEVENTY-NINTH CONGRESS SECOND SESSION ON H. R. 3755 AN ACT TO ESTABLISH AN OPTOMETRY CORPS 81985 JANUARY 24 AND 25, 1946 Printed for the use of the Committee on Military Affairs UNITED STATES WASHINGTON: 1946 "AR 6 '46 OPTOMETRY CORPS THURSDAY, JANUARY 24, 1946 UNITED STATES SENATE, SUBCOMMITTEE ON MILITARY AFFAIRS, Washington, D. C. The subcommittee met, pursuant to call at 10 a. m., in the committee room, United States Capitol, Senator George A. Wilson presiding. Present: Senator Wilson (presiding). Also Present: Col. Mason Ladd, Judge Advocate General's Department, Legal Division, Surgeon General's Office, War Department. Senator WILSON. The committee will come to order. There have also been appointed on this subcommittee the Senator from Montana, Mr. Murray, and the Senator from Wyoming, Mr. O'Mahoney, as well as myself. They were, unfortunately, detained this morning on public business. The hearings here will be on H. R. 3755, a bill to establish an Optometry Corps in the Medical Department of the United States Army. I have a copy of the bill and it will be made a part of the record. (H. R. 3755 is as follows:) [H. R. 3755, 79th Cong., 1st sess.1 AN ACT To establish an Optometry Corps in the Medical Department of the United States Army Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the first sentence of section 10 of the National Defense Act of June 3, 1916, as amended (U. S. C., 1940 edition, title 10, sec. 81), is amended to read as follows: "The Medical Department shall consist of one Surgeon General with the rank of major general, four assistants with the rank of brigadier general (one of whom shall be an officer in the Dental Corps), the Medical Corps, the Dental Corps, the Veterinary Corps, the Medical Administrative Corps, the Pharmacy Corps, the Optometry Corps, a number of enlisted men the authorized maximum of which shall be in each fiscal year such number as shall equal 7 per centum of the average annual pay strength of the active list of the Regular Army and the average strength of all other military personnel on extended active duty with the Regular Army during such fiscal year, the Army Nurse Corps as constituted by law, and such contract surgeons as are authorized by law: Provided, That in event of actual or threatened hostilities involving the United States the President may, within the limit of the total authorized strength of the Regular Army, authorize additional enlistments in the Medical Department to such number as he may deem necessary." SEC. 2. There is hereby established in the Medical Department of the Army a corps to be known as the "Optometry Corps". The Optometry Corps shall consist of sixty commissioned officers in grades from colonel to second lieutenant, inclusive. SEC. 3. To be eligible for appointment in the Optometry Corps, a candidate must be a graduate of an accredited optometry school or college, approved by the Council on Education and Professional Guidance of the American Optometric Association, and have been engaged in the practice of his profession for at least two years subsequent to graduation. |