S99: Neuropsychiatric Study

To determine the actual incidence in a cross-section population of behavior, attitudes and experiences frequently regarded by psychiatrists as indicative of neuroticism.

Questionnaire

Date

Jan '44

Original Size

1,120

Location

Alternate Title

Problems Relating to Psychoneurosis

Sample Description

a. A cross-section of 3,729 literate white enlisted men in the Continental United States selected randomly from alphabetical rosters of 87 outfits in 5 AAF and 11 AGF and ASF installations distributed throughout Continental United States.

One sample of 613 men from four AAF installations and one General Hospital.
A second sample of 507 men from Special Battalions at three camps.

b. The AGF includes Divisional and Non-Divisional troops in the proper ratio and the ASF contains Operating and Non-Operating personnel in the proper proportions.

c. Within AAF the sample includes men in the proper proportion under: Training Command (Students and others), not under Training Command (Housekeeping, Tactical Service, Combat Tactical and Replacement Crews), and in various branches (Medical, Engineers, Ordnance, Quartermaster, Signal, Coast Artillery and Chemical Warfare).

d. Within ASF the sample includes men in the proper proportions assigned to: Engineers, Ordnance, Quartermaster, Signal, Medical, Military Police, Transportation, Chemical Warfare, DEML, NBA and Station Complement.

e. Within AGF the sample includes men in the proper proportions in: Infantry Training Regiments, Reconnaissance Training, Infantry Divisions, Armored Infantry, Tank, Field Artillery, Ordnance, Signal, Medical, Combat Engineers, Military Police, Coast Artillery and Anti-aircraft Artillery.

f. Two samples of Neuropsychiatric Cases

Sample Method

See Planning Survey II for standard operating procedure.

Scales and Scores

a. Normals and Neuropsychiatrics - Card I and II Combined:

Sports (Qs 39a-39f) in Col. 15
Identification with War (Qs 29-33) in top half of Col. 16
Childhood Symptoms (Qs 58, 60, 96, 97a, 97b) in top half of Col. 17
Mobility (Qs 6, 19-21) in top half of Col. 18
Worry (Qs 28, 69, 71-72) in top half of Col. 19
Soldier Role (Qs 25, 34-36) in top half of Col. 20
Sociability (Qs 64-66) in Col. 21
Childhood Fighting (Qs 41-43) in Col. 22
Childhood School (Qs 61-63) in Col. 23
Emancipation (Qs 88- 93) in Col. 24
Relationship with Parents (Qs 83-87a& b) in Col. 25
Personal Adjustment (Qs 22-24, 26, 67-68) in Col. 26
Touchiness (Qs 27, 40, 73-80) in Col. 27
Psychosomatic Complaints (Qs 45-57, 95, 98) in Cols. 28-29
Combined Score of following scales listed above (#1, #3, #5, #6, #7, #12, #13, and #14) in Col. 79

b. Normals and Neuropsychiatrics - Card III

Guttman Short Inventory
a. Original Score based on Cols. 13, 14, 44, 47, 49, 73 and 80 of Card I and II Combined punched in to Col. 15 of Card III
b. Regression Weights punched in Cols. 31-32 of Card III
c. 2, 1, 0 weights punched in Cols. 34 and 36 of Card III
Psychosomatic Complaints
a. Regression Weights punched in Cols. 32 & 23 of Card III
b. 2,1,0 weights punched in Cols. 24 & 25 of Card III
c. 1,0 weights punched in Cols. 28 & 29 of Card III
Neurotic Diagnostic score based on Cols. 13, 14, 43, 45, 47, 75, 76, 80 of Card I & II combined punched in to Cols. 36 and 37 of Card III
Neurotic Prognostic Score based on Cols. 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 45, 47, 71 of Cards I & II Combined punched into Cols. 63 & 64 of Card III
B Score of NSA (6 items) punched in Col. 65 of Card III
A Score of NSA (5 items) punched in Col. 67 of Card III

Location Details

Truax Field, WI

Barksdale, LA

Gulfport, MS

Scott Field, IL

Eglin Field, FL

Lawson General Hospital, GA

Gordon, GA

Stewart, GA

McCoy, WI

Swift, TX

Gruber, OK

Wolters, TX

Van Dorn, MI

Beale, CA

Ord, CA

Cooke, CA

Gordon Johnson, FL

Study Analysts

Shirley Star

Louis Guttman

Origin

Surgeon General’s Office Research Branch Morale Service Division

Reports

B-104 The Screening of Neurotics

B-107 A Study of Psychoneurotics in the Army

B-116 A Further Study of Psychoneurotics in the Army (Supplemental to Report B-107)

ETO B-4 Preliminary Results from a Survey of Psycho-Neurotic's and Normal Soldiers

100

Suppose you had a kid brother who was about to be inducted. What are the most important things you would want to tell him about the Army? (Write what you want to say).

Do what your told. Don't ask silly questions. Stay out of trouble and offences.

Keep his eyes, ears open and his mouth shut. It doesn't do you any good to say anything anyway. Make as many friends as possible & be easy to get along with. be a good fellow but don't let them all run over you.

The Army explains itself as you go along; I have no advice except to obey orders.

Make sure you get a proper med [medical] exam & make sure your fitted for your chosen branch.

Do what he was told to do & don't buck the noncoms & officers. Do the job to the best of your abality.

1. Not to take reprimands too much to heart.

2. Don't let others run over you 3. Apple polishing will, as a rule, get you more than working conscientiously.

To join up and try not to be inducted, but if he is inducted get into the air corp if possible.

I would tell him to stick up for his rights and not to depend on the medics for any thing.

He would have a certain objective for his training. He would be prepared to go. To do what he is told to do & cooperate in every way possible. Never have to get a T.S. [tough shit] card from the chaplain.

Stay the fuck out if you can. The army ruins every one. The non-coms & officers are all chicken shit. Knock the hell out of them if you get a chance

Make up his mind he has to take orders & quite often from men who were his superior both mentally, physically & otherwise. To try to adapt himself to his new mode of living & make the best of it all. To sum up - be a good soldier at all times.

Carry out all orders he is given & to the best of his ability without an argument. Try and feel that everything he is told or required to do in the Army is for his benefit and the country as a whole.

Do what he was told & ask questions later. Respect his officers at all times and places. Be sure & stay in good with the other men.

Try your best first to get in the Navy or Marines if not then come in and wish for the best,

Keep his mouth shut, and so what he is told to do. Get into a branch where he can help his country most.

Not to try to be a big shot, for him to learn to take orders without "bitching" also to make friends with everyone.

About all I would say is to stay out of Mississippi. To obey all orders given to you and to be as neat & clean as you can be.

To stay out hifft he can

Do just as they tell you because the Army has no feeling whatsoever for a man except what it can get out of him. Try to get a chance to learn something that will do a man some good after the war. Hope & Pray that you dont get sent to an infantry division

Know first of all hes being inducted because hes important to Army. Try to do as he is told. For it pays in long run. Be careful with whom he associated with.

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101.1

Do you think that some of the Army drill or training you are getting is not needed to make men good soldiers?

101A

If yes, just what is not needed?

Repetition

Combining winter training with ordinary training.

Some - of the - more - strenuous exercises - which - prove - more - harmfull - then - benificial

Old men having to retake basic training.

Standing at attention and drilling all the time

hikes, lectures on Venereal Disease

25 mile hikes are not needed as one very seldom does it in combat.

A lot of this night troop schools, when you have been working all day.

Not to [too] much hiking.

so many training films it gets tiresome seeing them all day long.

The colim [column] lift & right you wont do that in combat.

So much military courtesy and too many night problems & bivouacs

(Continually) Drill Its important for time, but I had more than enough of it.

The training that creates more hate and prejudice for other peoples and races.

Some eyewash & silly rules & regulations they have on some posts

Dispense with the unnecessary details of which there are many.

drill, gas lectures, K.P. details, civilian bosses, etc.

Retreat formations, parades, half the inspections[\underline].

There is entirely to much double time in the outfit I'm with. It wasn't necessary in my last outfit and isn't necessary in this one

Yes hikes are needed but not in the quantity we get them I think they harm a man more than train him. I still say 6 hikes a week are too much especially 6 speed marches

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102

When your officers or noncoms give you something to do, do they tell you enough about it so that you can do a good job?

103

If you have any further remarks you would like to make on any subject please write them below as fully as you like.

Why can't what few War Bonds a soldier buys be tax exempt after the war and retain his soldiers deposits. Being able to borrow money

from the government at a reasonable rate of retirement. Also schooling and a chance for higher education I think would be more valuable in the long run than a higher bonus or big mustering out pay.

A soldier needs good books/magazines available to read, to keep posted on our industrial changes which will affect each individual in the post war.

A certain Colonel Choquette that just made his eagle made it at the expense of his men. I recall the day his honor took charge of our regiment. He said and I quote "I am going to see to it that the 304th will be a hiking outfit." He has certainly did just that. He pulled 2-25 mile rat races and just

recently pulled a 15 mile hike with what should have been ordinary full field equipment but instead used ruck sacks & shoepacs for foot wear. Winter equipment. The other two regiments shuttle moved into position as we were promised. We carry a full pack, don't know the exact weight but around 60 pound in a boot that was never made for hiking. Poor leadership in my opinion. The food situation is generally terrible. Agreed that when the time arises to necessitate eating dehydrated foods it can be done but while in garrison and after problems give the men a break. Conditioning they call it. At the pace they are going the men will be burned out by the time they hit combat. The passes are few & far between. Furloughs have been frozen a half a dozen times. A furlough isn't asked for now; it is given at their disgression [discretion]. My furlough could have been given and over with but by simply "horsing around" since November and this is February. Theat men aren't learning any thing from the "problems" that are given and they are usually given on a weekend. There are too many all at once. It interferred [interfered] with our pay day this month. That possibly can't be helped at times but at this particularly time it wasn't necessary.

I have noticed that the teeth of too many men go bad after they have been in the Army from 6 months to a year. Army dental care

seems to be fairly good, and as the men take as good, or better, care of their teeth in the Army as they did in civilian life; the fault appears to be with the food. A check should be made to see if there is some deficiency in the food we get.

The following is a morale builder - Tamy - Mauriello - champion prize fighter.

Making - $100,000 yearly is rejected for a foot condition. Frank Sinatra has a punctured ear drum so has Pvt Schlofsky in my bks [barracks] along with 4 children.) They both regret they cant make the big fight - !FLASK!

21 BKLN [Brooklyn] Dodgers in 4F. [unsuitable for military service] the cream of a strenuous sport. A madman can see thru this, untill such nonsence is stopped morale will remain low. Latrines should be private & quiet individual stalls

*37. The German people as a whole should be punished & made to realize they are not super men & there are other people beside them &

that they have as much right to live the way they want to. The German people have given much to the world as a whole & they are not a backward people such as Japanese

*38 The Japanese have done nothing but cause trouble. In my opinion they have done nothing to further world unity. These people have always been babarestic in their ways & have always taugth their children to kill or be killed. In the U.S. a child of 5 is bought toys to play with. In Japan a child of 5 is given a knife & taught how to use it on his neighbor.

I was accepted for O.C.S by the examining board but was not allowed to go because of a reduction

of quota that was unexpectedly received by this station because of a reduction in classes.

Technically I can go to O.C.S. without further formality although actually such is not the case. I do not understand why the reduction could not have been foreseen and why I was ever accepted if I was not to be sent. I do not feel that I have been treated rightly in the matter. There were others in the same situation as myself.

Why can't a soldier get into a combat servise if he desires to?

the army dont care how you feel it is keep going till you drop. I would better bee kiled here than go across the way I am

for I know that I never would come back alive the way that my anckle [ankle] is it bothers me all the time and the army will not do any thing about it.

Morale could be improved by better means other than quarantine in cases of any disease.

There could be more entertainment for Armed Forces in the South.

The Army should give P.A.C.'s [Pre-Aviation Cadets] a chance to go to college before classification. There should be better means of heating an army camp besides coal. Period

Why don't you take the Non-Cons & officers & put them on fatigue duty, like us poor guys.

When the 18 yrs old was drafted they said we would have a years tng.[training] We got our basic - went over.

That is one reason I hate this fuckin Army. No use telling you people. No one can help us. If you want to help us let the fellows who come back from overseas get out & make money. After the war all we can be are men who helped this war & got a fuckin. It happened before & will again. I hate this set-up. It is killing us not curing us Come back for hospitalization. All they

gave me was sleeping pills. Let me get out, I have my own Drs to take care of me. Thats the way most of us feel. Why not come down & talk to us in person We'll tell you anything you want to know

The Army system of promoting men is very poor. I have seen men who were qualified in every which way to become

officers not even holding a P. F. C. rating. This is due to the fact that Officers have a tendency to favor some men. I have also known of cases where stripes were bought. I suggest that promotions be given on a merit basis & thru competitive exams, thus taking it out of the hands of Officers & leaving it strictly up to the abilities of the soldier.

Why can't a married man who is fortunate enough to have his wife near his station be allowed to live off the post? This keep up ones moral and he also is more contented and so a better soldier, more willing to work harder & do a better job. Some posts allow only those of the

first three grades to live off the Past which seems quite unfair.

Can't some law be made to draft "Strikers" in our war plants into the Service where they have to work the same as those of us who are in the Service. Certainly their jobs in the plants are as vital as ours as a soldier. If we did have such a law not many people would go on "strikes." It is very demoralizing to us soldiers when we read of thousands of people in the war plants stopping production by just sitting down at their jobs. The soldiers can't do it and get away with it and its the peoples war as well as soldiers.

Why should the 8th service command have a curfew when none of the others have it.

They should take some of these older men out of the units because they are nervouse [nervous] & grouchy & make it hard for the rest of us.

Why do some C.O.s hold back ratings for men who have worked for them. Some officers treat an enlisted man as dirt. I guess they forget they could have been an enlisted man. They should check on this. When an E.M. comes in late of pass he is either busted or restricted to the post. But not an officer. When they renew a division such as the 42 Inf. Div. why should they be so strict as to what a soldier can wear when off duty. Such as this Div. ruling - no billed hats or leather belts on dress uniforms. We think we should be allowed to wear what we please as long as we stay with in a certain limit. An enlisted man likes to be dressed nice to [too]. Not only officers. Why do some train conductors & R.R. officials cater to civilians. And the way the papers keep saying how good we eat. Well they ought to know the truth[/insertion. Then they wouldn't talk so much I would rather go to the Girl Scouts as stay in this Div..

There are to many men unfit in this Infantry outfit which should be out, can't see how the officers expect them to keep on working like the healthy men.

Officers of low rank are scared of higher ranking officers and so down, so that leaves most of the men like taking to much unnecessary dirty work which they should not getunnecessary dirty work which they should not get punishment for. Officers get ratings to fast (some officers) Officers pull their rank to many times on EM.

I think if an enlisted man can't go any place with a non com after working hours,I figure one man with bars or stripes is no better than anyone else so why should he go to combat with him or any other place? Officers don't trust most of their men. All in all most of the men I talk to would like to go accross get this war over then go home. I'm right with them.

Why can't men over seas be able to be closer to home when they get back to USA? That is one way of having morale on a high standard

The morale in Camp Stewart is very low. Due to poor judgement That should be looked into, to many men are going AWOL. Food not enough To strict on passes soldiers are not trusted enough

The morale in USA is not up to standard. Every where soldiers, are not satisfied. There should be more sports to build up the morale. They should be compelled to attend or participate. in sports. Each battery or company should have time for sports each week

I should think that outfits shouldn't hang around doing the same training over and over again, they get discouraged

and go A.W.O.L., they also would rather go on hikes than set in a theatre seeing the same films over and over again, we have seen the same films at least 5 times in the last 8 months, a lot of them are outdated and should be declared obsolete.

I don't think much of the dentistry they do in the Army. It seems to me they don't care whether they do a good job

or not. I've had about five fillings. In one of them the filling fell out after about a week. In the other filling broke up. In all others the filling wasn't smoothed down enough. They should call you back within a week to check over the work they have done.

Too many restrictions on this side. Probably needed in battle areas but I don't think they are needed here. Should have a furlough of about fifteen days, at least every six months. Don't think much of the food. Should have better trained cooks. After eating what I eat, I wonder where all the good food goes to. Man will have sexual relations with woman not no matter what army does, so why doesn't army try to control instead of restrict.

Why do they keep a person in the Army when he has trouble with his breathing and has a herner starting.

I have been in this hosiptal 7 weeks & 3 days and only get asprins for pains and head aches. Thats all the treatment i have ever had ecept 2 Xrays.

Could a person be sent nerrer home if he was or had to have an operation. Thats all Thank you.

I don't like the army because all the officers filde the job they have

got over you

As you know it take a man to mke a officers not a fold.

I do believe that all married women whose husband makes $35.00 a week should not be allowed to work also. This would create enough jobs to take

care of every family in the USA. Also I believe service men should be allowed to go home as soon as the war ends as they can get jobs before they are grabbed by 4F's & men who are deferred now. I wish I were out of the Infantry but I think every infantryman should be paid more money & should have a 3 day pass at least once a month because he works twice a hard as any other branch of service. I believe every soldier is entitled to get a furlough at the very least every six months, & in this Rainbow Division we have been here 6 months, & at the rate we are getting furloughs it will be 14 months before we all get one, & we will probably be dead long before then. They should use common sense in training & not bring men out on bivouacs in zero weather which I just came in from. They should give the soldiers enough food. The food is good in quality but not in quantity. I believe every man should have something to say about what branch of service he is to go into in the Army. Every camp should have adequate transportation to a town because a soldier needs to get to town & forget about army life. I believe all officers should not be fed & housed & treated better than enlisted men.

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