Case ID: us-ct-cl_61/html/0687-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "Hay, Judge,\n    ", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

CHARLES A. CRAIG v. THE UNITED STATES
    [No. D-11.
    Decided February 15, 1926]
    
      On the Proofs
    
    
      Marine Corps Pay; seo. 1612, JR. S.; Officers’ Trammg Camps. — Marine Corps officers’ training camps were put in operation for training members of the Marine Corps only and were not established under the act of August 29, 1916. An enlisted man of tlie Marine Corps in attending them in 1918, was not, under see. 1612, R. S., entitled to the same pay provided by the act of June 15, 1917, for enlisted men of the Army when in training for officers of the Reserve Corps.
    
      The Reporters statement of the case:
    
      Mr. George A. King for the plaintiff. Mr. Cornelius H. Bull and King & King were on the briefs.
    
      Mr. John G. Ewing, with whom was Mr. Assistant Attorney General Herman J. Galloway, for the defendant.
    The coui*t made special findings of fact, as follows:
    I. Charles Austin Craig* enlisted in the Marine Corps July 17, 1917, at Parris Island, S. C. He was transferred to Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, September 30, 1917, and joined the One hundred and fifteenth Company at that place October 12,1917. He was appointed a corporal on November 1, 1917. Pie was transferred April 19, 1918, to the United States and joined Company D, officers’ training camp, Quantico, Va., May 16, 1918, and was discharged from the Marine Corps and the officers’ training camp August 14, 1918, to accept an appointment as second lieutenant (provisional) in class 4, Marine Corps Reserve. He accepted this appointment August 15, 1918, and was immediately assigned to active duty at the Marine Barracks, Quantico, Ya. He was disenrolled from the Marine Corps Reserve September 12, 1918, to accept a temporary appointment in the Marine Corps as second lieutenant, and accepted the same September 13,1918. He was temporarily promoted a first lieutenant March 5, 1918, with rank from August 16, 1918, and was honorably discharged from the Marine Corps August 11, 1919, effective August 18, 1919.
    II. The Major General Commandant of the Marine Corps in a circular letter dated February 19, 1918, approved by the Secretary of the Navy, on the subject of Marine Corps officers’ training camps, required commanding officers at each post to appoint a board of three officers to select not more than 5 per cent of the enlisted strength at the posts for attendance at the training camps. Paragraph 3 of said circular letter is as follows:
    
      “ 3. The following requirements will obtain before a man is eligible for designation:
    
      “(a) He must be a citizen of the United States. Full directions as to the necessary proof of citizenship are given in inclosure (a).
    
      “(h) A careful investigation will be made in the cases of men who were born in enemy countries or who have-family connections in these countries. This class of men. will be recommended only in exceptional cases.
    
      “(g) While no scholastic examination will be required, it is undesirable to order a man to the school who manifestly has not the necessary mental qualifications to pass the prescribed course. An outline of the contemplated course is inclosed herewith — inclosure (b).
    
      “(d) The requirement of one year’s enlisted service is waived, but a man must have completed the prescribed course of recruit training or its equivalent.
    “ (e) Either privates or noncommissioned officers are eligible. A man will not be recommended simply on account of his rank or length of service. The special attention of commanding officers is invited to the fact that a great many of the men selected will eventually become junior company officers, and it is especially desirable that only active men of good education who have the necessary qualifications for an officer be selected.
    
      “ (f) The records of men under consideration will be most carefully scrutinized, particular attention being given to a man’s conduct both in current and former enlistments. Where a doubt exists as to conduct during previous enlistments, detailed information can be secured from these headquarters bjr telegraph.
    
      “ (g) The candidate must be over 20 and under 35 years of age on the date of appointment as a commissioned officer. This date will be approximately three months from the date of opening of the camp, to be decided upon later. No candidate will be selected who can not qualify under these requirements.
    “ (h) Members of the National Naval Volunteers (Marine Corps Branch) and Marine Corps Beserve (who have volunteered for general service) are eligible.
    “ (i) The physical requirements are the same as outlined in Paragraph III of inclosure (c). Before a man is transferred the commanding officer will have him examined by the medical officer of the post in order to determine his physical fitness.”
    
      When the boards of officers had made their selections and the selections had been approved by the commanding officers at the respective posts, transfers of the assigned quota were made from the. top of the lists to the officers’ training camps.
    III. During the period from May 16 to August 14, 1918, the plaintiff received the pay of a corporal, United States Marine Corps, namely, $36 per month, increased by $3 per month on account of sharpshooter qualifications, or $39 per month. Should the plaintiff be found entitled to the difference between $100 per month from May 16, 1918, to June 30, 1918, and the pay of his grade, $36 per month, received by him, there would be due him $96. Should he be found •entitled to the difference between $100 per month from May 16, 1918, to June 30, 1918, and the pay of his grade plus $3 per month, or $39 per month, received by him, there would be due him $91.50.
    The court decided that plaintiff was not entitled to recover.
   Hay, Judge,

delivered the opinion of the court:

The plaintiff, an enlisted man in the United States Marine Corps, attended a Marine Corps officers’ training camp at ■Quantico, Va., from May 16, 1918, to August 14, 1918, during which time he received $36 per month, the pay of his grade as corporal, and $3 a month as a sharpshooter. He claims the difference between $100 a month appropriated by the act of June 15, 1911, 40 Stat. 188, for enlisted men of the Army during the fiscal year 1918, when in training for officers of the Reserve Corps and the $36 received by him. He bases his claim on section 1612, Revised Statutes, which provides as follows: The officers of the Marine ■Corps shall be entitled to receive the same pay and allowances, and the enlisted men shall be entitled to receive the same pay and bounty for reenlisting, as are or may be provided by or in pursuance of law for the officers and enlisted men of like grades in the Infantry of the Army.”

The plaintiff also cites the act of August 29, 1916, 39 Stat. 614. This act authorizes the Secretary of the Navy to establish and maintain at such places as he may designate Marine Corps training camps for the instruction of citizens of the United States who make application and are designated for such training. As a matter of fact no such training camps for citizens of the United States were ever established by the Secretary of the Navy; and no citizens were ever trained for officers of the Reserve Corps. There was no officers’ reserve corps in the Marine Corps, and the enlisted men of the Marine Corps who were trained at Marine Corps officers’ training camps were trained for commissions in the Marine Corps itself. These Marine Corps officers’ training camps were not established by virtue of the act of August 29, 1916, but were put in operation by a circular letter issued by the Major General Commandant of the Marine Corps and approved by the Secretary of the Navy. Those who were trained in these camps were all enlisted men of the Marine Corps, selected from the Marine Corps under the provisions of the letter above mentioned. They were detailed from the posts and ships to which they were attached and sent to these camps; the training which they received was in effect a part of their duty as enlisted men and was not the result of any specific ■statute, but was a part of the discipline and training which their officers had a right to impose upon them.

By the act of June 3, 1916, 39 Stat. 189, there was established an Officers’ Reserve Corps of the Regular Army, and the Secretary of War was authorized to maintain camps for the practical instruction of the members of the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps, 39 Stat. 193. By the act of May 12, 1917, 40 Stat. *69, money was appropriated to pay such persons as should be designated by the Secretary of War for training as officers in the Army during the period of their training, said persons to be paid a sum not exceeding $100 per month, with the provision that such persons shall .agree to accept appointment in the Officers’ Reserve Corps in such grade as may be tendered by the Secretary of War. By the act of June 15, 1917, 40 Stat. 188, it was provided that enlisted men in training for officers of the Reserve -Corps should receive pay at $100 per month.

The Marine Corps officers’ training camps were authorized by the Secretary of the Navy without the authority of specific law, but were established for the purpose of training the enlisted men of the Marine Corps to fit them, for the exercise of duties which would devolve upon them if they were found to be equal to the duties of commissioned officers. No appropriation was made for their pay- or allowances; it was not necessary to require them to enlist, and no agreement was imposed upon them to accept a commission. The members of these Marine Corps training-camps were all enlisted men of the Marine Corps, there was no difference in their pay, and there could be no discrimination as to pay such as led to the passage of the act of June 15, 1917, in the case of enlisted men of the Army in training for officers of the Reserve Corps in the camps established under the provisions of the acts of June 3, 1916, and May 12, 1917.

It is true that the pay of enlisted men of the Marine Corps is regulated by the laws which govern the pay of the Infantry of the Army. Sec. 1612, Rev. Stat. But this section does not govern when Congress has made a specific-provision for the pay of the Infantry of the Army based on particular circumstances, which applied to enlisted men of the Army, but did not apply to enlisted men of the Marine Corps, and particularly is this true when the pay provided is only for a limited time. In providing pay for-enlisted men in training for officers of the Reserve Corps Congress was not fixing base pay, but only pay for men who were performing a temporary duty in a temporary camp; and Congress could and did increase the pay of enlisted men of the Infantry of the Army under these special circumstances without intending that the increase should apply to enlisted men of the Marine Corps. The act of June 15, 1917, was passed long before the circular letter of February 19, 1918, was issued establishing the Marine Corps camps. United States v. Thomas, 195 U. S. 418, 420; Bris-tow v. United States, 47 C. Cls. 46.

We are of opinion that the petition of the plaintiff must be dismissed, and it is so ordered.

Grai-iam, Judge; DowNet, Judge; Booth, Judge; and Campbell, Chief Justice, concur.