20 ORGANIZING SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH FOR WAR 



contractors, is treated at some length in the chapter on maintaining security. 



It was also troublesome in connection with the building of the original 

 staff of NDRC. A brief biographical sketch of each individual whom 

 NDRC desired to appoint was submitted to the Army and Navy as the 

 basis for a ruling by the Services as to whether they were willing that 

 classified information be given to the individuals named. As similar re- 

 quests were being submitted by other organizations engaged in war work, 

 the investigating agencies soon found themselves overloaded; and the length 

 of time required to obtain a report became longer and longer. On the one 

 hand, the NDRC was being urged to proceed rapidly and on the other it 

 became increasingly difficult to get reports upon which to base the release 

 to the individuals whose services were needed of information bearing a 

 security classification. In view of the outstanding character of the men 

 brought into the organization, clearance could be counted upon to be 

 forthcoming eventually, but many a headache was occasioned by the neces- 

 sity of excluding certain individuals from particular meetings because 

 clearance reports had not yet been received. One particular source of an- 

 noyance arose from cases of mistaken identity in which the person wanted 

 by the NDRC happened to bear the same name as some other person 

 whose record was not such as to endear him either to the military serv- 

 ices or to any other organization interested in honest operations. 



At the second meeting on August 29, 1940, members of the Committee 

 had already begun to report that the work of their divisions had been 

 seriously handicapped by the delay in obtaining Army and Navy clearance 

 of key personnel. The Committee continued in its opinion, however, that, 

 in spite of the unfortunate delays, it was desirable to have all key person- 

 nel cleared by the Services. 



The following table gives an indication of the extent and persistence 



of the problem: 



Total number of Total number of names reported by 



Date names submitted Army Navy Both 



Sept. 26, 1940 443 253 336 238 



Oct. 24,1940 550 331 410 324 



Jan. 15,1941 1087 633 851 627 



Mar. 5,1941 1218 978 1 134 953 



April 15,1941 1391 "31 1303 1121 



June 10,1941 1567 1329 1433 1225 



Discussions were continually going on in an endeavor to improve the 

 situation, and it never again became as bad as it was in January 1941. The 

 whole story is not revealed by the totals. Thus, as of June 10, 1941, reports 

 were still outstanding from the Army, the Navy or both on 2 names sub- 

 mitted in July, 5 in September, 23 in October and 16 in November 1940. 

 Delay in clearance did not prevent progress in the preliminary assess- 

 ment of faciHties. Division and Section Chairmen discussed faciliues and 



