200 FUTURE SELECTION OF AQUANAUTS 



Letters of recommendation are requested of three persons for all Peace Corps volunteers. 

 The recommenders are informed in detail of the type of qualifications necessary and of the 

 importance to himself and others of the applicant's possessing these qualifications. In addition, 

 the persons making recommendations are informed that no single negative or lukewarm en- 

 dorsement will be definitive in assessing an applicant's fitness. This provision lets the rater 

 know that he alone cannot disqualify an applicant. Similarly it protects the applicant from the 

 biased viewpoint of a single person rating him. Peace Corps selection officials feel that this 

 assurance has resulted in unusually candid appraisals of volunteers. Some variant of this 

 technique might increase the validity of ratings for man-in-the-sea volunteers. 



Ratings by Peers 



For a diver, confidence in his buddy is of great importance. It would seem that the most 

 valid source of information bearing on his qualifications as a diving partner would be a man's 

 diving buddies. Care will be required to develop a useful measure of buddies' reactions, but 

 the information provided by such a measure is of sufficient potential to warrant an expenditure 

 of time and effort in its development. 



Sealab II Criteria 



The above types of information can be combined with the predictive data available from 

 research on Sealab 11, and hopefully from similar ventures. All applicants should be asked to 

 complete a battery of background information similar to that collected on Sealab II aquanauts. 

 This background data can then be compared and combined with the other information available 

 on a man. Details of the method of combining this information are beyond the scope of the 

 present discussion, but it can be stated with confidence that an overall assessment of candi- 

 dates will be possible. Ideally each man would be assigned a score placing him somewhere 

 along a continuum of acceptability. According to the number of men needed, a cutting point is 

 selected on the continuum, and those with scores above the cutting point are chosen as candi- 

 dates. A physical examination can be the final step in this phase of the process. 



Selection During Training 



If the selection criteria are valid and the group of applicants is large enough so that mar- 

 ginal candidates do not have to be accepted, it is possible that no further selection will be nec- 

 essary. However, no selection system will guarantee that every applicant will be completely 

 successful. Thus selection should continue through the training period. For economic reasons, 

 and to spare volunteers embarrassment and disappointment, elimination during training should 

 be used infrequently. A good pretraining selection program is the best method of insuring low 

 rejection rates during training. 



In summary, valuable selection criteria have been developed from this study of the Sealab 

 II aquanauts. An attempt has been made to identify other selection criteria which may have 

 been used to select the Sealab team from the available manpower pool and to indicate how the 

 use of this information can be formalized and standardized so that future selection will not 

 have to depend on personal acquaintance. Whatever selection criteria are used should be 

 checked against experience by methods similar to those used in the Sealab II study. The goal 

 should be to predict future behavior, performance, and adaptation in undersea dwellings, from 

 past behavior. 



The process of selection should be conceived of as being open ended. That is, it is a proc- 

 ess in which new information, based on research and experience, is combined with previously 

 acquired knowledge in a developing program. The program should be open ended for at least 

 two reasons. First, the science of selection is so young there is always room for improvement. 

 Second, requirements may change in any of a number of ways. If man is to invade and inhabit 

 the continental shelf for increasingly diverse reasons and in increasing numbers, different 

 skills will be required of team members. As he learns more of the economic, scientific, and 

 military potential of undersea habitation, new ways of organizing teams may prove necessary 

 or desirable. Continued observation and study of men and teams will help to make operations 

 safer and more rewarding personally, and will increase economic efficiency. 



