150 ORGANIZING SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH FOR WAR 



which in turn distributed any necessary information or requests to NDRC, 

 CMR or other agencies. In the theater, the civiUan was usually accorded 

 membership in the officer's club and liquor locker, received social invita- 

 tions, and participated in the various ways of relieving the tedium of work- 

 ing under war conditions. 



Demobilization 



Immediately after V-J Day, Bush formulated a demobilization policy 

 for OFS. The field men overseas were to be recalled as soon as their 

 missions could be completed. No new ones were to depart without specific 

 individual approval of the Director, and this would be given only for prob- 

 lems in which OSRD could properly maintain a continuing responsibility. 

 Projects that lost their significance when war ended were to be terminated; 

 others which the Services wished to continue temporarily or to take over 

 as more permanent peacetime undertakings of the military or naval arms, 

 were to be carried by OFS only until suitable arrangements for transfer 

 to the Services could be completed. None of this liquidation was to be 

 accomplished with such haste that values of the scientific work would be 

 destroyed, the amicable relations of OSRD with the Services jeopardized 

 or the individual workers concerned left in awkward positions with re- 

 gard to employment, but a spirit of positive action for demobilization was 

 to prevail. 



Although some delays were anticipated because of the probable scarcity 

 of transportation, the overseas travelers managed to get plane transportation 

 quickly. By the middle of October, 1945, all OFS men in Europe had 

 returned; by November i only a handful were left in the Pacific. In Janu- 

 ary 1946, the personal-services contract employees could be counted on one's 

 fingers and the Washington staff had been reduced to a skeleton force 

 engaged primarily in following up fiscal details, straightening out the records 

 for the archives, disposing of classified documents and writing the OFS 

 history. Despite its speed, this demobilization was entirely orderly, with 

 most of the personnel returning to posts from which they had been on leave. 



The Office of Field Service represented a concerted effort to obtain the 

 closest possible relation between the civilian scientist and combat troops on 

 terms which would enable the scientist to make his greatest contribution in 

 a critical area. The detailed report contained in Combat Scientists shows that 

 the effort produced highly significant results which lay the foundation for 

 even more effective operations should the need unfortunately arise at some 

 future date. 



