OFFICE OF FIELD SERVICE I3I 



draftees with technical background; (6) informal assistance to NDRC divi- 

 sions in promoting field missions. 



The services rendered by OFS field men included many kinds of consul- 

 tation: analysis and outlining of problems in which civilian aid could prove 

 helpful; analysis of military and naval operations, resulting in recommen- 

 dations for revision of tactics; assistance with installation and maintenance 

 of equipment or with training of military personnel in its proper use; analy- 

 sis of the performance of new weapons and devices under field combat 

 conditions, which might result in modifications back at the laboratories; 

 assistance in promoting the flow of technical information between labora- 

 tories and production plants and the field users; assistance in the procurement 

 of scientific intelligence; counsel on improving the utilization of personnel 

 within the armed forces. 



Nature of Requests 



A "project" of OFS was essentially a job for which it procured and 

 assigned personnel. The request might be for a single man or a group of 

 ment to be sent out for a few weeks to survey scientific aspects of a military 

 problem in order to advise specific directions in which further help might 

 be needed. On the other hand, it might involve the formation of a more 

 or less permanent group at field headquarters, either for operational analy- 

 sis or for consistent and continuous attack on problems that developed from 

 day to day. Or it might be for the loan of an operations analyst or an 

 equipment specialist to a group of civilians already established in one of 

 the Services, such as an Operational Research Section of the Air Forces. 



Ordinarily requests for OFS assistance began with informal negotiations. 

 When OFS had determined that a request lay within its province and that 

 there was some hope for securing the personnel necessary, the originating 

 office initiated a formal request. Usually this was merely a paper confirma- 

 tion of a request for services that had already been arranged. In this sense, 

 OFS operated to a great extent "on the cuff," because its fundamental 

 philosophy was to get the requisite manpower on the job at the earliest 

 possible moment. 



Promotion of Field Missions for NDRC Dwisions 



Divisions of NDRC found themselves repeatedly blocked in efforts to get 

 their representatives into combat areas in order to improve their own tech- 

 nical liaison with the using forces. They commonly felt that if their repre- 

 sentatives could only demonstrate new devices to the officers in the combat 

 areas where the need for them was most acute, this would result in pressure 

 from the theaters upon the planning groups in this country and might 



