INQUIRY INTO THE COLLAPSE OF TEXAS TOWER NO. 4 



THUHSDAY, MAY 4, 1961 



U.S. Senate, 

 Preparedness Investigating Subcommittee 



OF the Committee on Armed Services, 



Washington, D.G. 



The subcommittee (composed, of Senators Stennis (chairman), 

 Symington, Bartiett, Jackson, Bridges, Saltonstall, and Smith) met, 

 pursuant to recess, at 10 :35 a.m., in room 235, Old Senate Office Build- 

 ing, Senator John Stennis, presiding. 



Present: Senators Stennis (presiding), Symington, Bartiett, Jack- 

 son, Saltonstall, and Smith. 



Staff members, Preparedness Investigating Subcommittee: James 

 T. Kendall, chief counsel; Stuart P. French, professional staff 

 member. 



Senator Stennis. All right, the subcommittee will come to order. 



I know we will have the cooperation of everyone in being as quiet 

 as the circumstances permit, so that all can hear. 



>Tot by way of complete review to all members of the committee, 

 but I think we had some very important and very illuminating testi- 

 mony yesterday which, in very brief substance, showed some very 

 fine work by the Navy, I thought, and the manufacturer. But at the 

 same time, it showed that this most unfortu.nate tower, even though 

 it was not born with a defect, it nevertheless had a defect in it at the 

 time that it was erected. The broken structure started a series of 

 events that v^j-orsened rather than improved and finally led to its 

 destruction. 



Now, this morning we have Mr. DeLong and ]^Ir. Bauer — and you, 

 sir, are the counsel ? 



Mr. Ingoldsby. Mr. Chairman, I am John L. Ingoldsby. I am 

 counsel for the DeLong Corp. This is Mr. Rand, an associate counsel. 



Senator Stennis. All right. Let me say this, members of the com- 

 mittee. I have not talked to Mr. DeLong, who is going to testify first. 

 We are not requiring anyone to testify to matters that might impose 

 any legal liability on them in any way in connection with these hear- 

 ings. I have advised Mr. DeLong to that effect. We are not looking 

 for someone to punish nor for someone to blame. This committee is 

 solely interested in the strength of our military program. We are 

 interested in the dollars that we have authorized and appropriated for 

 these purposes. All else is incidental. All else falls by the wayside. 

 We do no^ expect to be deterred from following through on this point. 



Again, for e-^^phasis, we do not propose to go beyond January 12, 

 which was the day that things finally came to a head and when a cor - 

 ference was held with reference to this structure and its approximate 



95 



