(a) An officer whose home is at Houston, Texas, and whose commission is addressed to him at that place, is located at San Diego, California, when he receives orders addressed to him at that place assigning him to active duty at the Marine Corps Base, San Diego, California, subject to physical qualification. He was examined and found physically qualified at San Diego and reported for active duty in accordance with his orders. Is transportation authorized for dependents from Houston, Texas, where they were located on receipt of orders, to San Diego, California, notwithstanding that the officer was not placed in an active status until after his arrival at his station of duty?

(b) A Class IV reservist whose home is at St. Petersburg, Florida, enlists at Orlando, Florida, and is ordered to active duty at the Marine Barracks, Naval Air Station, Jacksonville, Florida. Is transportation for dependents authorized from the home in St. Petersburg, Florida, to Jacksonville, Florida, or is the right to transportation limited to the cost from Orlando, Florida, the place of enlistment to Jacksonville, Florida, the station of duty?

(c) A Class IV reservist whose permanent home is in Baltimore, Maryland, but who is temporarily residing in Deland, Florida, enlists at Orlando, Florida, and is ordered to active duty at the Marine Barracks, Naval Air Station, Jacksonville, Florida. Is transportation for dependents authorized from the permanent home in Baltimore, Maryland, or from the temporary residence in Deland, Florida, or only from Orlando, the place of enlistment, to Jacksonville, the station of duty?

2. It is accordingly requested that the matter be presented to the Comptroller General of the United States for decision as to what transportation may be furnished at Government expense under the above conditions.

Public Law 247, approved August 25, 1941 (First Supplemental National Defense Appropriation Act, 1942), makes additional appropriations for the fiscal year 1942, and under the heading "General Expenses, Marine Corps" contains a provision as follows (55 Stat. 680):

transportation of dependents of retired and Reserve officers and of retired and Reserve enlisted men (of the grades entitled to transportation of dependents in the Regular Marine Corps) when ordered to active duty (other than training) and upon release therefrom.

Public Law 408, approved January 20, 1942, 56 Stat. 10, creates and establishes as a part of the Marine Corps Reserve a class to be known as the Limited Service Marine Corps Reserve (Class IV) for duty as guards at naval shore activities within the continental United States, and contains a proviso as follows:

That all enlisted men of the Limited Service Marine Corps Reserve shall be entitled to allowances for quarters and subsistence and to transportation of dependents and of household effects in the same manner and under like conditions as are now or may hereafter be authorized for enlisted men of the first three pay grades of the Marine Corps Reserve.

When an officer or enlisted man of the Naval Reserve or Marine Corps Reserve is ordered to active duty he is entitled to mileage or transportation in connection with his personal travel from his home of record to his active-duty station, provided he is at his home when he receives his active-duty orders and reports for active duty under the orders. But upon his entry into the Naval or Marine Corps Reserve the place designated as his home is based on his representations. Where he is not at the place designated as his home when appointed or enlisted in the Reserve and he is immediately placed on active duty, the place where he was when accepted for appointment or enlistment

is the place from which he is entitled to transportation. It would not appear that the statutory provisions for transportation of the dependents of reserve personnel to the active duty stations of such personnel were intended as authorizing transportation for dependents from any greater distance than the distance from which the officer or man is entitled to mileage or transportation on account of his own travel in reporting to active duty. The rule is that on separation from the service, officers of the Army are entitled to travel allowance under the act of March 2, 1901, 31 Stat. 902, to the place of residence at the time of appointment, and the place of acceptance of commission is the place of residence. 25 Comp. Dec. 860. An enlisted man is entitled to travel allowance to the place of acceptance for enlistment.

Accordingly, the officer in example (a) is not entitled to transportation for his dependents from Houston, Tex., to San Diego, Calif.

Assuming that the Class IV reservist referred to in example (b) was at Orlando, Fla., when he received the orders assigning him to active duty at the Marine Barracks, Naval Air Station, Jacksonville, Fla., transportation for his dependents is limited to the cost from Orlando to Jacksonville.

The Commandant's letter does not show the location of the dependents of the Class IV reservist referred to in example (c) at the time the said reservist enlisted and was ordered to active duty, but irrespective of the fact when he enlisted and received the active-duty orders at Orlando, Fla., transportation for the dependents is authorized from where the dependents are not exceeding the cost from Orlando to Jacksonville.

(B-24472)

PAY AND ALLOWANCES-TEMPORARILY PROMOTED NAVY, COAST GUARD AND MARINE CORPS PERSONNEL

Under section 7 of the act of July 24, 1941, providing that Navy, Coast Guard and Marine Corps personnel temporarily promoted pursuant to the act shall suffer no reduction in the pay and allowances to which they would have beet entitled had they not been so temporarily promoted, money allowances for quarters and subsistence applicable to the appointees' permanent and tenporary grades under similar conditions are for inclusion in the allowances contemplated by the said section to be used for comparison purposes in determining which of the grades carry the higher total pay and allowances. Assistant Comptroller General Elliott to the Secretary of the Navy, May 15, 1942: There has been considered your letter of March 7, 1942, in part, as follows:

Your decision is requested as to the proper rate of pay and allowances of an ensign temporarily appointed under the act of July 24, 1941, who, immediately prior to such appointment, was a chief petty officer, permanent appointment, with dependents, on shore duty, whose rate of pay immediately prior to appointment

was $126 per month and who was in receipt of quarters allowance in the amount of $1.15 per day and subsistence allowance in the amount of $1.20 per day—

(a) If assigned as ensign to duty ashore, (b) If assigned as ensign to duty at sea.

The U. S. Coast Guard also has under consideration the proposed temporary appointment as ensign of a chief petty officer without dependents, who is now stationed on shore and in receipt of pay at the rate of $126 per month, quarters allowance at the rate of $1.15 per day, and subsistence allowance at the rate of $1.20 per day. Your further decision is requested as to what rate of pay and to what allowances will this chief petty officer, upon acceptance of temporary appointment as ensign, be entitled if assigned

(a) To duty ashore, (b) To duty at sea.

The act of July 24, 1941, Public No. 188, 55 Stat. 603, 604, 605, 34 U. S. C. 350, et seq., provides, in part:

SEC. 2.

(b) The following personnel may be temporarily appointed to ranks or grades in the Regular Navy or Marine Corps, not above lieutenant in the Navy and captain in the Marine Corps:

(3) First-class petty officers and above in the Regular Navy and platoon or staff sergeants and above in the Regular Marine Corps, including enlisted men of those grades on the retired list on active duty.

SEC. 7. (a) The permanent, probationary, or acting appointments of those persons temporarily appointed in accordance with the provisions of this act shall not be vacated by reason of such temporary appointments, such persons shall not be prejudiced thereby in regard to promotion, advancement, or appointment in accordance with laws relating to the Regular Navy or Marine Corps, and their rights, benefits, privileges, and gratuities shall not be lost or abridged in any respect whatever by their acceptance of commissions or warrants hereunder: Provided, That except as otherwise provided herein no person who shall accept a commission or warrant under sections 2 and 3 of this act shall, while serving thereunder, be entitled to pay or allowances except as provided by law for the position temporarily occupied: Provided further, That no person temporarily appointed under the authority of this act shall suffer any reduction in pay and allowances to which he would have been entitled had he not been so temporarily appointed.

SEC. 11. The provisions of this act, except as may be necessary to adopt the same thereto shall apply to

(b) Personnel of the Coast Guard in relationship to the Coast Guard in the same manner and to the same extent as they apply to personnel of the Navy in relationship to the Navy: Provided, That temporary appointments may be made to such rank and grade in the Coast Guard, not above captain, as correspond to the rank and grade that may be attained, either permanently or temporarily, by line officers of the Regular Navy of the same length of total commissioned service. In the examples given, the pay and allowances of the enlisted man on shore duty in the United States, whether with or without dependents, would be the same in view of Executive Order No. 8688, dated February 19, 1941, issued pursuant to the act of October 17, 1940, 54 Stat. 1205, which prohibits payment of the money allowance for quarters for dependents if the enlisted man is receiving the nontravel money allowance for quarters in his own right. In both cases, therefore, the pay and allowances of the enlisted man under the given circumstances would amount to $196.50 for a 30-day month on the basis that public quarters and messing facilities were not available. Under the first

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proviso of section 7 (a) of the act of July 24, 1941, and the act of June 10, 1922, 42 Stat. 625, as amended, the pay and allowances of a temporary ensign with dependents while on shore duty in the United States would amount to $183 per 30-day month if public quarters were not available for himself and his dependents; the amount would be the same if he had no dependents and no public quarters were available for his occupancy. On sea duty with dependents the pay and allowances of the temporary ensign would be $195.50 per month, consisting of $125 pay, plus $18 subsistence allowance, plus $40 rental allowance, plus $12.50 sea pay, representing 10 percent of the first item under section 18 of the act of March 7, 1942, Public No. 490, 56 Stat. 148, and if the same officer had no dependents as defined in section 4 of the act of June 10, 1922, as amended, the above total would be reduced by $40 per month or to $155.50.

The pay and allowances to which an enlisted man is entitled had he not been temporarily appointed an ensign and in which he shall suffer no reduction, are the direct and fixed amounts of money provided by law in consideration of and as compensation for his personal services. In decision of this office to the Secretary of the Navy, B-24219, dated May 7, 1942, 21 Comp. Gen. 991, it was said with reference to the effect of the saving clause contained in section 7 (a) of the act of July 24, 1941, on the pay of enlisted men in the regular establishment holding temporary commissions that:

It would include the pay and allowances to which entitled in his permanent status at the time of temporary appointment and additional pay for length of service when and if an additional period of service authorized to be counted is completed. It would include, also, any and all pay, and allowances payable in money, which would have accrued by virtue of his station and duty in the status occupied when first temporarily appointed.

*

The payment of money allowances being dependent upon the duty status of the enlisted man, they are for including as part of the allowances contemplated by the last proviso of section 7 (a) of the act of July 24, 1941, to be used as a basis for comparison during periods when performing the duties of a temporary commissioned officer under similar conditions. Therefore, when the enlisted man is entitled to receive the money allowance for quarters, that item represents part of his pay and allowances within contemplation of the last proviso of section 7 (a) of the act of July 24, 1941, supra.

Giving application to the above rule, the monthly pay and allowances of the enlisted man ashore, with dependents, $196.50, being greater than the monthly pay and allowances of the ensign on shore duty in the United States, $183, the provisions of the last proviso of section 7 (a) would apply. If the temporary ensign with dependents were on sea duty his total pay and allowances would be increased by $12.50 per month under section 18 of the act of March 7, 1942, making his total pay and allowances $195.50, while the pay and allowances

of the enlisted man with dependents in a sea duty status, omitting the money item for subsistence, would be increased 20 percent, $25.20, making the total $185.70. The pay and allowances as temporary ensign being greater, he would be entitled to be paid as such.

Where the person has no dependents the pay and allowances of the enlisted man would amount to $196.50 per month on shore duty when entitled to the money allowance for subsistence and quarters, while the pay and allowances of the temporary ensign without dependents would be $183 per month ashore (if public quarters were not available), and $155.50 per month while on sea duty. The pay of the enlisted man, without dependents, on sea duty would be $126 plus $25.20 sea pay, or $151.20, which would be less than the total pay and allowances payable in his status as temporary ensign; hence he would be entitled under the last proviso of section 7 (a) to the higher pay and allowances applicable to his permanent enlisted status held immediately prior to his temporary appointment while on shore duty in the circumstances stated, and to the pay of an ensign, temporary, while on sea duty. It should be stated that if the duty ashore is at a place where an enlisted man without dependents of the grade held immediately prior to acceptance of commission would be quartered, the quarters allowance payable to an enlisted man should not be included. in the computation of his pay and allowances as an enlisted man for comparison with his pay as an ensign, temporary.

(B-25735)

PAY AND ALLOWANCES-TEMPORARILY PROMOTED MARINE CORPS PERSONNEL

A Marine Corps enlisted man temporarily appointed to the grade of warrant officer pursuant to the act of July 24, 1941, is entitled to receive, in accordance with the saving provisions in section 7 (a) of the act, the money allowance. for quarters and subsistence applicable to his permanent grade, so long as he remains at a duty station which would have entitled him in his permanent status to such allowances, and so long as the pay and allowances of his permanent grade exceed those of his temporary grade. Where a Marine Corps enlisted man temporarily appointed to the grade of warrant officer under authority of the act of July 24, 1941, was receiving the saved pay and allowances of his permanent grade pursuant to the saving provisions of the act, but, by reason of a decrease in the authorized quarters and subsistence allowances which resulted from his transfer to another station, the pay and allowances which would have been payable in his permanent grade became less than those for his temporary grade, he is required by section 7 (a) of the said act to be paid the higher pay and allowances of his temporary grade.

Where the total pay and allowances of the permanent grade of a Marine Corps commissioned warrant officer temporarily appointed to the grade of first lieutenant under authority of the act of July 24, 1941, would have been the same as the total pay and allowances of the temporary grade, the appointee should be paid under his temporary commission as required by section 7 (a) of the said act which provides for payment of the pay and allowances of the grades temporarily occupied by such appointees unless the pay and allowances of their permanent grades are higher.

470350m 42-66