144 ORGANIZING SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH FOR WAR 



their prewar records. Biologists studied the behavior of submarines, con- 

 voys and patroUing aircraft. Geologists became administrative officers, 

 went out to counsel on countermeasures to enemy land mines, or helped 

 Army officers in developing a guide manual for jungle warfare. Although 

 generally the field service scientist had to know more about his special 

 subject than any officer with whom he might be associated in the theater, 

 breadth of training was quite as likely to win him respect and co-opera- 

 tion as was intensity. Even more important was the practicality of his 

 Gudook. 



More than half of the Field Service Consultants had had graduate train- 

 ing in science. Forty-two per cent held Doctor of Philosophy or Science, 

 Doctor of Medicine, or equivalent degrees. Yet 32 per cent had not gone 

 beyond undergraduate college training. This figure may be misleading 

 because most of these men either had years of practical experience fully 

 as significant as and often more pertinent than the more advanced educa- 

 tion, or they had received an intensive indoctrination through work with 

 OSRD which would be fully equivalent to graduate study in its intel- 

 lectual challenge. 



Length of Affiliation with OFS 



A high percentage of the OFS assignments were renewed at the end 

 of the initial six months maximum that was a standard specification. The 

 average length of affiliation of the Field Service Consultants was eight and 

 one half months. Many assignments were, of course, much shorter, a few 

 as brief as a single month, while in the Operational Research Group, 

 which had a stable program, the average tenure was eighteen months. 

 Experience showed that the usefulness of scientific consultants to a theater 

 headquarters was greatly impaired by shifting personnel through replace- 

 ment of men sent for short periods. Consequently, without committing 

 the man to the military in writing for more than six months at a time, 

 OFS began the practice of having a verbal understanding with him and 

 with his employer that he would remain in the combat area beyond the 

 initial interval if he were still needed. 



Methods of Obtaining Personnel 



OSRD obtained statutory authority to hire technical and professional 

 personnel for OFS under personal-services contract without regard to 

 Civil Service regulations; the rate of compensation provided was not to 

 exceed $25 per day. On a forty-eight hour week this meant that the max- 

 imum salary payable under such contracts was $700 per month or $8400 

 per year. 



