COLLAPSE OF TEXAS TOWER NO. 4 159 



Captain White. "Well 



Mr. Kendall. Captain, excuse me. You stated on March 15, 1960, 

 that the motion difficulty appeared to be related to the original de- 

 sign. You just told me that you thought that was a correct statement. 



Captain White. That is correct, to the original design of this 

 bracing system that was used in the repairs. Because at the time that 

 I made this statement, I had no knowledge of anything else that 

 could be contributing to this motion. 



Mr. Kendall. We are including that field repair as part of the 

 original desigTi, and you say this difficulty appeared to be related to 

 the original design, did you not ? 



Captain White. That is correct. 



Mr. Kendall. You stated that that was a correct statement. Now, 

 has anything happened since then to cause you to change your mind ? 



Captain White. No, I do not believe so. 



Mr. Kendall. So that statement is just as true today as it was in 

 March of 1960, is that right ? 



Captain White. That is correct. 



Mr. Kendall. But is it not true, Captain, that the motion difficulty 

 at that point in time that you were talking about was not due to the 

 collar movement, but was due to deteriorated pin connections ? 



Captain White. That could have been, because the information that 

 I had available to me indicated that there was some wear in the pin 

 connections in this top level of bracing here, and over in these pin 

 connections on either side, so that the motion could very definitely 

 have been related to the wear in those pin connections. 



deterioration of pin connections 



Mr. Kendall. As a matter of fact, your information showed that 

 the pin connections had deteriorated to such an extent that, in some 

 cases, the tolerance was as much as an inch ? 



Captain White. Oh, generally. I would not like to be pinned down 

 to the last 16th, but in that range, yes. 



Mr. Kendall. So when you were writing this letter as late as 

 March 1960, it would be a true statement to say that the motion diffi- 

 culty at that time was related to the deteriorated pin connections, 

 rather than to your collar difficulty ? 



Captain White. That is right. 



Mr. Kendall. Now, Captain, on January 24 of this year, I believe 

 that you held a conference in response to a dispatch from the 26th Air 

 Division relative to an inspection of towers 2 and 3, is that right ? 



Captain White. That is correct. 



Mr. Kendall. Did you have occasion to pass upon the award of the 

 contract for that inspection ? 



Captain White. I did. 



contract inspection and evaluation or TOWERS NO. 2 and no. 3 



awarded TO DESIGN ENGINEERS 



Mr. Kendall. Was that a negotiated contract ? 



Captain White. It was. 



Mr. Kendall. To whom was it awarded? 



