PS3: Attitudes in Air Corps
To make a detailed analysis of air force men's reactions to technical school training and degree of satisfaction with their assignments; the analysis to be done separately for students in training and for men already assigned to tactical units.
a. The areas covered in the job analysis are:
- Army technical assignment (or courses of training)
- Branch considered most important in winning the war
- Choosing own assignment, importance of
- Civilian job history
- Combat duty, desire for
- Instructors, attitude toward (S form)
- Officer Candidate School, desire to go to
- Overseas duty, preference for
- Promotion, attitude toward (T form)
- Satisfaction with assignment
- Technical school training (Specific) (T forms)
- Training, opinion of
- Utilization of civilian skills in Army assignments (T forms)
- Utilization of Army technical training in post-war job (T forms)
b. Other areas included are:
Special Service items
Day room equipment
Drinking habits of soldiers
Library Service (T form)
Off-duty free time
Refreshments served at stations bet. trains
Sports and Athletics
USAFI courses
Yank
Other:
Employment of civilians on Post, attitude toward
Food, Army
Labor unions, membership in
Medical attention
Morale items
Segregation of white and Negro, attitude toward
Soldier or war-worker, prefer to be
War and Internationalism - isolationism attitudes
Questionnaire
Date
Aug '42
Original Size
5,739
Location
US
Sample Description
The study contains two samples:
a. Student Sample 3,168 white students from 3 Airfields. The students were drawn from the following types of Technical schools: Radio School (Scott Field), Airplane Mechanics School (Sheppard Field), and Armament School (Lowry Field).
b. Men Assigned to Tactical Units 2,751 white enlisted men from 6 Airfields. The sample includes men assigned to Air Depots, Heavy Bomber groups. Pursuit groups, and men in Air Depot pools who have not yet been assigned.
Sample Method
The T form was administered to men assigned to Tactical units; the S form to students still taking Technical School Training.
Scales and Scores
a. Job comparison gang punch on:
- Col. 67 of Occupation Card, S form (Job comparison Type)
- Col. 74 of Occupation Card, T form (Job comparison Types)
- Col. 76 of Occupation Card, T form (Army Jobs with Civilian Counterparts)
- Col. 77 of Occupation Card, T form (Job preferred & Job best fitted for – same or different)
- Col. 78 of Occupation Card, T form (Job best fitted for and civilian job – same or different)
b. Morale score gang punch on: (Qs 36, 39a, 50, 52, 59, 60, 61a, 63, 64, 65, 66)
- Col. 52 & 69 of General card, T form
- Col. 50 of General card, T form (By camps)
- Cols. 24 & 25 of Occupation card, T form
- Col. 62 of Recreation card, T form (By camps)
Location Details
Scott Field, IL
Sheppard Field, TX
Lowry Field, CO
Patterson Field, OH
Davis-Monthan Army Air Base, AZ
Brookley Field, AL
McDill Field, FL
Air Base, Orlando, FL
Drew Field, FL
Field Personnel
William McPeak
Felix Moore
John Clausen
Parker Mauldin
Leonard S. Cottrell, Jr.
Eugene J. McClellan
Samuel A. Stouffer
Tom Harrell
Frank Stanton
Ward H. Goodenough
Study Analysts
Jack Elinson
Louis Guttman
Marion Harper
Rita Hausknecht
Abram Jaffe
William McPeak
Dean Manheimer
Origin
Chief of the Air Forces
Reports
32 Soldier Attitude toward Army Medical Service
33 Manuscript for Film on Need for Orientation of Enlisted Men
37 Drinking Habits of Soldiers
41 Attitudes of Enlisted Men toward Training Conditions at Army Air Force School
43 Attitudes of Enlisted Men toward Negroes for Air Force Duty
46 What the Soldier Thinks (72 pages)
48 Leisure-time Activities in the Air Forces
50 Study of Job Assignment in Relation to Utilization of Skills and Job Satisfaction
52 Insurance and the Enlisted Men
54 Off-Duty Activities of Enlisted Men in England
B-6 A Comparison of Volunteers and Selectees with Respect to Rate of Promotion
Put words or phrases inside quotes to search for an exact match.
72A
Remarks
Would still rather be in Officers Training School
Dissatisfied because of the length of time before we will finish it and believe it is not one of my first three choices.
I'm sure I can make a good mechanic.
I hope I can learn as much as possible (I like it)
Would rather be a Pilot but I cant get in because I am a year over age
Prefer Officers Administrative School or Aircraft Engineering School.
not sent to department where my civilian training could be used.
I had planned to much on radio.
My course is just what I asked for
A lot more can be learned by contact with working equipment in my case.
Still want to get back in the Artillery
I would like to be in AM [aircraft maintenance] school where I could learn something i'm interested in.
Would be more satisfied if we could get rested once . I would like to give more to my course
I intend to do my best wherever the air force puts me with one main aim "to win this war"
Although school is very inefficiently run - it seems with the whole of the young men to choose from capable instructors & officers could be found
Have my knowledge and mind set at flying and will do my job good.
Have studied business administration and think the army lack it
My first choice is cadet, second gunner, then armour.
I want to do all I can - If the army figures I am a good Armorer (I hope) then I am going to do my best at it.
I have no machanical ablillity therefor it will take a lot of training for me.
74
If you have any further remarks to make on any subject, write them below as fully as you like:
When I was drafted I understood every man had a chance at Officer's Training School. Our Squadron Commander says if a man hasn't 2 yrs of College he won't accept his application. I made 134 on my General Intelligence test & have 3 yrs. previous service, made a high grade on every test I've taken and have an 85% average in school. Yet they won't accept my application because I don't have 2 yrs. of college. I am a high school graduate & also a graduate of Araughon's Business College. Is this fair?
319th Tech Sch. Sqdr. (Sp.)
319th Tech Sch. Sqdr. (Sp.)
I am opposed to civilians working on the post because the Unions seem to control everything in that line. I think the Union Bosses are worse than Dictators and that there should be a stop put to Unions indirectly trying to run the government.
Reading in papers about movie actors, politicians & college men being sent direct to Officers Training School is anything but a morale builder for men qualified but not given the opportunity.
I am buying bonds and have been for some time. I have always felt proud of the fact; but I don't like to see my money and other folks money go to pay off a woman truck driver. It's the most uncalled for thing in the army. A soldier has to ride with her to load & unload the truck. Can't he drive the truck just as well? Can't we spend that money in a more useful way?
The chance that there will be no furlough after graduating lowers the moral of some of the soldiers. I, also, believe that if soldiers are shipped anywhere in the U. S. an effort should be made to send them as close to the sections that they come from as possible. That is Californians should not be sent to New York while at the same time New Yorkers are being shipped to California. This would not only raise morale but also make a saving and allow transportation facilities to be used for other purposes.
I am quite satisfied although I feel I would be of much more service to my country by "keeping 'em rolling" in some large airplane factory. No, not because of the pay but because I know that work and there would be no need for this delay in training.
I have only been in the army a little over two months. Therefore I am no authority on Army ways of doing things. But believe you me. The morale of the army could and would be boosted 100% if the Enlisted, or Buck private was treated more as a human who is trying to do his bit for his Country. Instead of having to live in fear of the so called 2 and 3 stripped General, better none [known] as Corporals & Sergeants. The quickest booster would be an improvement of food. At times you don't get enough to feed a canary and if you ask for more all you get is a - go - on.
P.S. I am speaking in General not of my squadron especially.
P.S. I am speaking in General not of my squadron especially.
I think the men should be put at the job they are most suited for such as a bookkeeper or a man that has been a clerk or bank teller and has never done any mechanical work will require much more time to learn everything that has to do with mechanical work than one who has had jobs in civilian life that has given him this ability.
I know they have men in the infantry that have done mechanical work & have even worked on or around airplanes and they are not using this ability even a little bit where they have been put. If some of these men were exchanged for the men in the air corps who have no mechanical ability, I'm sure it would take less time to make an armorer or any of the other particular jobs pertaining to an airplane of them & it would surely speed up our war program and assure of us victory in a shorter time.
Keep em Flying.
I know they have men in the infantry that have done mechanical work & have even worked on or around airplanes and they are not using this ability even a little bit where they have been put. If some of these men were exchanged for the men in the air corps who have no mechanical ability, I'm sure it would take less time to make an armorer or any of the other particular jobs pertaining to an airplane of them & it would surely speed up our war program and assure of us victory in a shorter time.
Keep em Flying.
I think the age for Pilots in the Air Force should be raised to at least 30 years instead of 26 yrs 10 mos, also not so strict on the requirement such as being short a couple of teeth etc. After all it is the stamina a man has and ability to fly that should count more than a tooth being out or some other small thing. I feel that there is a lot of good pilots that could be had between the ages of 26 to 30 or even 35 if the Army would only use them.
If men could get the jobs they are best qualified for as near as possible and get decent cooked food and all the fruit they want to eat the morale would be much higher and this camp would not be referred to as a concentration camp.
Personally, I believed that a man's wife should be given the money rightfully due her, and not make her go with out things she needs, until some bookkeeper, being paid a huge salary decides to get the books straightened out. If anything will ruin the moral of our army, the fact that our love ones are going without things we could easily provide, if we were allowed to work at our civilian job, that will.
I think the results to be gotten from an army depend entirely upon the leaders or commissioned officers. In other words, the army should be run like any business. The leader should work their way up, not buying themselves the big bin jobs. It doesn't help the morale of the enlisted man, like myself, to see actors, boxers etc. join the army and , immediately upon entering, become leaders or officers, a service in which they know nothing about. An example "Private" Clark Gable. To me this shows poor judgement n the part of the higher officers.
Enlisted men should be allowed to serve in Combat crews in bomber, if they have only small minor physical setbacks and are otherwise qualified.
More practical work in Aircraft Mechanic School. Produce a highly skilled and trained mechanic instead of trying to make half a mechanic and half a soldier at the same time. We need skilled mechanics in a hurry. Men who are capable and are trained to do one job well and in a hurry so we can "keep em' flying" to victory in the shortest possible time.
The Air Force is run by the biggest bunch of pin headed men I have ever seen in any organization in my life and if they were in civilian business the mistakes they make would have them in bankruptcy in less than a year.
Also read an article about the army getting all the steaks so that the civilians cannot buy them any more, have been in nearly four months and never seen one yet, guess the mess officers are taking them all home with them. Mess hall conditions are a very bad when they give the cooksretuity[/unclear[ pay to see how far they can (over)
Also read an article about the army getting all the steaks so that the civilians cannot buy them any more, have been in nearly four months and never seen one yet, guess the mess officers are taking them all home with them. Mess hall conditions are a very bad when they give the cooks
Cut our service. Build up the morale of our Instructor - first I realize it is hard to feed an Army but let us eat well while we can a little better. Stop N.C.O. from cursing. Respect. Chaplain. Lets All get going full speed ahead. (Union) will win this war for us.
Thanks
Thanks
I volunteered in the army with an idea of doing my best. They even sent me a letter telling me I was going to radio school. I planned on it for four weeks and then be put in aircraft armour. I lost all heart and don't care much about the army. It seems that I'm messed up on everything that happens. There is to much red tape in the whole outfit.
Let Roscoe Turner pick men to fly. - G. Washington didn't reject men because their eyes were not 20/20. - Also, tell the Socialists to give the army laundry back to private Industry so we can send laundry every week.
Uncle Sam is all right, but some times some of his helper arn't as good, for example he buys the best food but once in a while a cook spoils it. It is the same in these schools. We all learn though and will do our best.
All the soldiers and near soldiers (like myself) have a pet gripe. Why should these foolish wemon take good cloth from soldiers and money and parade around like a four star general. We don't like them. We have twice the respect for the girls in overall who work in the factorys, they are the girls we are fighting for, not the uniform crazy dress horses.
All the soldiers and near soldiers (like myself) have a pet gripe. Why should these foolish wemon take good cloth from soldiers and money and parade around like a four star general. We don't like them. We have twice the respect for the girls in overall who work in the factorys, they are the girls we are fighting for, not the uniform crazy dress horses.
I fully object to having civilian instructors of any kind on the army post. Also wouldn't mind working with the Negro, but couldn't go to school or bunk with him.