S181: Morale Indices

4,233 White enlisted men from 37 ASF installations at nine camps. Always complete units were sampled.

a. In order to do this a morale questionnaire (S-181) was distributed to complete units of ASF White enlisted personnel. Sufficient cases were obtained from each detachment at a post so as to permit comparisons between detachments at the same post as well as between posts.

b. For the intra-post comparison Officers’ (including AWOL, VD, courts-martial), sickness rates, amount of edible waste, turnover, and frequency of furloughs) were obtained for comparison with the result obtained from the morale questionnaire. It was hoped that the various statistics would rank the detachments according to the state of their morale in the same manner as the results of the morale questionnaire. If the objective statistics will do this then they can be used in a current reporting system, since these statistics are all readily available.

c. For the inter-post comparisons, the objective statistics plus additional data on the efficiency with which the posts are being run were to be compared with the results from the morale questionnaires. Again, it was hoped that these currently collected statistics will be useful in differentiating installations with high and low morale.