perhaps on the maintenance of an adequate Protective Force during the conversion period. Initially it had been agreed that such application of job evaluation to the Protective Force jobs might be justifiably delayed and handled on an entirely special basis. It was considered by the Fall of 1952, that examination of the duties and responsibilities and relative values of this position would have to be considered in relation to similar positions elsewhere in the AEC and in the Federal service as a whole, due to the fact that there was considerable question whether the difference in grade between other Federal guard positions and that estab- lished for the LAFO Protective Force was really warranted. There had been considerable pressure on the Civil Service Commission to upgrade other guard positions throughout the Federal service because of comparisons with the LAFO job, particularly at military installations such as Inyokern. This situation indicated a need for a very careful and extensive study of all related positions in the Federal service. However, the Los Alamos Field Office recommended that, rather than delay the special study of the guard position, the SFOO would be better situated if it made any adjustments indicated at the same time other indicated adjustments for other SFO jobs and other AEC jobs were accomplished. Consequently, a special study was initiated by the AEC Washington headquarters in October 1952. In addi- tion, in order to do everything possible to offset the evident impact of such a downward revision, a very carefully devised program of orientation and participation by members of the Protective Force was initiated early in October 1952. The entire approach was explained through supervisory channels to members of the Protective Force, and the redefinition of the duties and responsibilities of the basic inspec- tor position at LASL wasthe subject of rather thoroughgoing participation by all elements of the Protective Force. The final description of the duties and responsibilities, it is believed, reflected every possible consideration that was a matter of knowledge and experi- ence on the part of the membersof the Force engaged in carrying out the assigned duties and responsibilities. This redefinition was accomplished prior to the time that the special committee appointed by the General Manager to make the guard survey initiated its schedule of auditing various positions throughout the AEC and in other government installations by visits and investigation at the various locations. It was further recognized that a reasonable period of time should be allowed to ad~ minister this changeover in the manner best calculated to insure an orderly adjustment and replacement, bearing constantly in mind the stringent security requirements necessitated by the weapons program, and secondarily, giving consideration to the personal situations of the inspectors seriously affected economically so as to preclude hasty or premature resignations. It was considered that assurance must be given that pay cuts would not take place until the pay period nearest October 31, 1953, and that in the interim every effort would be made through in-service placement to such vacancies as SFO or the AEC might have and through out-placement services to accomplish necessary adjustments on the work force in anorderly manner and to insure maintenance of all security requirements while replacements were being trained. Recognizing‘these problems, two precautions were undertaken. The first of these was to insure as indicated above that approximately a six-months period of time would elapse after the initiation of the outplacement program during which every possible effort could be made onthe initiative of the affected members of the Force and on the initiative of the AEC, particularly SFOO personnel staff, to insure possible relocation of personnel, rather than adjust to the new downgrading and loss of income. fit a9 , ba Announcement of the new lower grade, GS-5, was made and the outplacement program was initiated in May 1953. Every possible assistance was provided. One of the most significant problems relating to this effort had been that of insuring continuity of the minimum bile —nnny Jo 17