Selecting The Best

World War II Army Air Forces Aviation Psychology

by A. Jack Jernigan


Formats

Softcover
$21.95
$13.25
Softcover
$13.25

Book Details

Language : English
Publication Date : 11/20/2003

Format : Softcover
Dimensions : 6x9
Page Count : 472
ISBN : 9781410785510

About the Book

Seven months before Pearl Harbor the Chief of the US Army Air Corps foresaw the need for a large air force, and approved establishment of a Psychological Research Agency to select pilots, navigators, and bombardiers.  Psychologists from leading University Psychology Departments were commissioned, ordered to active duty, and began developing an aircrew classification program.

On enlistment in the US Army Air Corps, the author was assigned to Psychological Research Unit #2, San Antonio, Texas, and quickly trained as a psychomotor examiner, a part of the two-day testing program to select the finest aircrew candidates.  Between July 1942 and the end of World War II, 600,000 men were examined to select the best pilots, navigators and bombardiers the world had ever seen.     

Selecting The Best gives the reader a view of tests, officers and enlisted men at two of ten examination sites and the School of Aviation Medicine, Randolph Field, Texas.   After three days at PRU #2 in 1942, John Steinbeck reputedly called the program, “America’s Secret Weapon.”  Excerpts from letters, diary, official reports, and a reminiscent symposium tell the story of how, by selecting the best, psychologists saved lives and training time, and contributed toward winning World War II. 


About the Author

The author first became interested in letters when searching for a doctoral dissertation subject at the University of Kentucky in 1950.  Letters and related personal documents enable readers to discover a story, one medium used by the former AAF Sergeant to tell World War II Aviation Psychology’s story of selecting the world’s best pilots, navigators, and bombardiers. 

This 82 year-old psychologist, and his wife retired to rural Texas roots and enjoy a lakeside 17 acres - gardening, mowing, photography, writing, and worshipping at a local Baptist church.  Recipient of hundreds of old family documents, he has published one other book, “Albert’s Hidden Treasure” based on personal documents and is co-authoring a third book with his oldest son.