of May 1969. In selecting the positions to be converted, the following criteria were used: No replacement of personnel higher than grade E-3 Lowest skill MOS were replaced Replacement personnel in labor-type positions were utilized Clearing companies and surgical hospitals, because of their mission requirements and possibility of deployment were not levied In April the Phase I Program was instituted involving a cut of two hundred spaces, followed in November by the Phase II reduction of two hundred additional spaces. The final development in this area was a loss of 493 spaces in a November MOS drawdown. The strength of the command as of l January 1968 was 8,860 assigned personnel. The end of the year assigned strength was 10,468. Personnel Status as of 31 December 1968 (Note 1) This represents an increase in authorizations of 775 Officers, 60 Warrant Officers and 1,761 Enlisted for a total increase of 2,496 military spaces during the year. A special emphasis area during 1968 was the hiring of Vietnamese civilians. As of 31 December, 1,280 civilians were being utilized throughout the brigade. Included in their tasks were such jobs as clerks, ambulance orderlies, kitchen police, mechanics' helpers, warehousemen, preventive medicine helpers and veterinary assistants. In furtherance of this program a medical training class was established on 21 October 1968 by the 68th Medical Group. Based on the Fort Sam Houston Medical Training Center's 91A program, this eight-week series of classes followed by two weeks on-the-job training prepared Vietnamese workers for jobs previously held exclusively by relatively low-skilled U.S. military personnel. The first class of thirty-three students graduated on 21 December 1968 and would be followed by a second group in early 1969. On 1 October 1968 a new system for Medical Corps officers was implemented. Previously, all medical corps officers had been assigned directly to brigade units by the USARV Surgeon's office. Transfers could not be made within the medical groups without approval from both the brigade and the surgeon's office. To correct the shortcomings of this situation, the brigade commander, General Neel, directed that all Medical Corps officers would be assigned only to group level and that each group commander would determine the specific unit of assignment. The authority to reassign officers between groups and to make initial group assignments was retained by the Commanding General, 44th Medical Brigade. This new policy greatly increased the flexibility of both the group and the