410 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1945 



mathematics and logical, precise habits of thinking suggest assignment 

 as a navigator. 



That the psychological examining stations are referred to as "re- 

 search units," indicates the exploratory and experimental nature of 

 this program. Criteria for acceptance into air-crew training and for 

 assignment to specialized duties are frequently reviewed, so that the 

 predictions shall be as accurate as possible. To accomplish this, the 

 tests are constructed so as to meet the needs of the operations for which 

 men are being selected. And the predictive accuracy of the tests is, 

 from time to time, checked against subsequent performance, by assign- 

 ing groups of men to duties without taking into consideration the psy- 

 chological evaluation of their aptitudes. 



The evidence gained from one large, typical group demonstrates the 

 extraordinary value of this program of selection and classification. 

 From among those of this group who had been judged by the psychol- 

 ogists to be best qualified for the duties of a pilot, only 4 percent were 

 eliminated by the flight instructors during primary pilot training, 

 whereas 78 percent of those who had been considered unsuitable by 

 the psychologists were "washed out" by the instructor. There was a 

 similar accuracy of prediction for the subsequent performance of navi- 

 gators and bombardiers. Also of medical significance is the value of 

 this selection in the reduction of flying accidents. The 15 percent 

 considered least qualified for pilot duty, on the basis of the psycho- 

 logical tests, had three times as many accidents during pilot training 

 as had those cadets who had been judged to be the 30 percent best 

 fitted for their duties. 



I have dwelt at length on the human problems created by modern 

 combat aviation. To these I might add certain others which arise from 

 the wide-flung system of the Air Transport and Troop Carrier Com- 

 mands. Quick movement from the Arctic to the Tropics subjects men 

 to sudden changes of climate ; forced landings in remote places taxes 

 man's capacity to survive in strange and isolated environments ; swift 

 transportation of many troops favors the spread of geographically 

 restricted diseases. But each problem has been met by the application 

 of medical and physiological knowledge, and from this swift trans- 

 portation has come a new advance in the practice of military medicine. 



The same planes that carry weapons of destruction and personnel 

 to the battlefields bring back the sick and wounded, quickly and safely. 

 Within a few hours after injury, a man may be hundreds of miles 

 behind the lines in the security of a well-established hospital, where he 

 is able to receive the best of modern medical and surgical treatment. 

 The improvised surgery of the field station and the slow agony of 

 hospital trains that tortured the body of the wounded and the patience 

 of the tactician, concerned with his supply lines, may soon be only 



