OFFICE OF FIELD SERVICE I43 



in process for assignment. The formal requests that would have author- 

 ized dispatch of a large contingent were received in Washington in the 

 midst of the victory celebration. 



Procurement of Scientific Personnel 



By the close of the war nearly 500 persons had been engaged in the 

 work of OFS. During the two years of its active recruiting scientists were 

 dispatched to a foreign mission at the rate of one every two days. On 

 V-J Day seventy men were in various stages of preparation for departure. 

 When OFS began its operations, scientific manpower had been stretched 

 almost beyond its elastic limit. The senior staff of OFS had to turn to its 

 scientific associates for the names of promising men who might function 

 effectively in field service. The alumni placement bureaus of M.I.T., Yale 

 and Princeton were consulted. The staffs of many educational institu- 

 tions produced the names of a large number of scientists who might even- 

 tually be available for OFS work. But, for the most part, the personal 

 contacts of the OFS staff in their own specialties and in NDRC were the 

 most prolific sources of information. As the calls were increasingly for men 

 who knew NDRC equipment, acquaintance with the OSRD divisions be- 

 came even more significant to successful recruiting in OFS. The Scientific 

 Personnel Office of OSRD, which had extensive records of NDRC con- 

 tractors' employees, became at times a source of much information. 



There were calls for men from almost every scientific discipline. The 

 importance of new devices is nevertheless strongly reflected in the distri- 

 bution of OFS personnel according to their fields of special competence. 

 Thirty-seven per cent of them were trained as physicists, electrical en- 

 gineers and communications men. Twelve per cent came from chemistry 

 or chemical engineering backgrounds and an equivalent group from math- 

 ematics. The medical and biological fields contributed 10 per cent. Civil 

 engineers, architects and mechanical engineers, constituting 11 per cent of 

 the total, were utilized because of their suitability for work on bomb dam- 

 age assessment. Five per cent came from training in industrial engineer- 

 ing to aid in the expanding work simplification program of the Army 

 which OFS supported. Geophysics, seismology and geology were repre- 

 sented by 3 per cent of the field service and administrative personnel. The 

 balance of 10 per cent included such diverse training as economics, law, 

 fire protection engineering, camouflage, naval architecture and library 

 science. 



Ordinarily the special training of an individual was used directly in his 

 OFS assignment, but the versatility and adaptabiUty of scientists from the 

 various disciplines was rather cogently demonstrated. Many used their col- 

 lateral training rather than the specialties in which they may have made 



