CHAPTER IX 



OFFICE OF FIELD SERVICE 



Establishment of the Office of Field Service 



N 



DRC early found that the most effective use of the equip- 

 ment it developed required close and continuing collaboration with the 

 using service. British branches of the M.I.T. radar laboratory and of the 

 Harvard radar countermeasures laboratory were established in the fall of 

 1943, in order that scientists could closely follow the use of the laboratory- 

 developed equipment by the Eighth Air Force and could adapt that equip- 

 ment to meet tactical situations without delay. NDRC contracts with Colum- 

 bia University and with the University of California brought similar close 

 relations in the United States between the NDRC group working on anti- 

 submarine warfare and Navy activities. 



As more and more NDRC-developed equipment appeared in production 

 quantities, an expansion of these field activities was clearly indicated. The 

 Army and Navy training programs could not turn out enough technicians 

 familiar with the equipment and then keep them abreast of the latest models. 

 Military dissatisfaction with the performance of new weapons in combat, 

 although it might result from improper use in the hands of personnel with- 

 out technical knowledge, could delay an entire program of research and 

 development. It was a matter of greatest importance that OSRD transfer a 

 substantial segment of its scientific brainpower to improving the effective 

 use of new weapons already developed. 



In response to urgent calls from the armed forces themselves, some steps 

 in this direction had already been taken. Increasingly, OSRD contractors 

 were asked to send representatives from their laboratories to military sta- 

 tions at home and abroad to help with the introduction, installation and 

 maintenance of the equipment they had developed or to aid in training the 

 troops in its proper use. Such detailing of personnel to field activity was 

 commonly within the subject work of contracts or was added in order to 

 make such service available. As the number of men thus dispatched over- 

 seas increased, the need for co-ordination of their efforts became evident. 



In addition to the expert help required for introducing new weapons and 

 teaching people to operate and maintain them, there was a growing need 

 for aid in the broader problem of finding out how they could best be em- 

 ployed in actual military or naval operations. This is a part of what is called 



