Statistical Control in the Army Air Forces

141 Pages·1952·8.806 MB·English

by  Frances Acomb

AIR HISTORICAL STUDIES: NO. 57
STATISTICAL CONTROL
in the
ARMY AIR FORCES
SCAl\N.ED BY ISA
USAF HISTORICAL DIVISION
AIR UNIVERSITY
January 1952
AIR HISTORICAL STUDIES: NO. 57
STATISTICAL CONTROL
in the
ARMY AIR FORCES
USAF HISTORICAL DIVISION
AIR UNIVERSITY
January 1952

Foreword
This monograph tells of the establishment and de·
velopment of a stat:i stical control system in the Army's
air arm. The organization and function of the Statistl·
cal Control Division, problems of recruiting and
training, and methods of operating--all are described
in detail. The present study was written by Dr. Frances
Acomh.
Like other Historical Division studies, this history
is subject to revision, and additional information or
suggested corrections will be welcomed.

CONTENTS
Page
I. STATISTICAL ORGANIZATIONS IN THE ARMY AIR ARM
TO 9 MARCH 1942 •••••••••.•.•••.••••••••.•..•••• l
The Development Section, In-flpection D1vis1on..... l
Administrative Research and Statistics Section,
Adm1nistrative Division........................ 2
Materiel Division Statistical 0l"gan1zat1on....... 3
The Statistics Section,• Plans Division........... 4
Air Staff, Statutics and OCAC, Statistics .•..• ,. 6
Development 0£ Statistical Control, 7 Dece~ber
1941 to 9 Ma;rch 1942 ................ , •. . . ••• • • • 8
Machine Records Units Under The AdJutant
General •........•••.•.....•...••••........••••. ll
Statistical Control in the Reorgan~zat1on of 9
March 1942 ..........••....•........•.•.•.. ·• ·• · · · l~
II. INTERNAL DEVELOPMENTS IN ORGANIZ~TION AND
FUNCTIONS...................................... 14
Relation of the Statistical Control Division to
Other Headquarters Agencies ••.••••••..•..••••.• 16
III. ESTABLISHMENT AND OPERATION OF STATISTICAL
CONTllOL IN THE ZONE OF THE INTERIOR............ 23
Proble~s 0£ Technical Supervision in the
Statistical Control System.•••••••••••, ..•..• ,, 23
Position of the Statistical Control Un~ts as
Agenc1es oi r.he Commands .••••.••. , ••.... ,,..... 28
Opposit1on to the Establishment of Statistical
Control Units ••••. ,............................ 3]
Reporting in the Case of Commands Without
s..........................................
SCU' 36
Consolidation of Statistical Control Units and
Machine Records Units of the Adjutant General's
Office •...•.•••••. ,., •........•• ,,, •.• , ...••.. , 36
IV. ESTABLISHMENT AND OPERATION OF STATISTICAL
CONTROL IN OVERSEAS THEATERS •••••..•.....•.•••• 40
Technical Supervision in Overseas Theaters •.••••• 40
The Ad3utant General's Machine Records Units
and the Mech11n1zation oi the SCU's............. 44
Reports Control., •...•••..• ,,, ••• ,, •••. ,,.,,, •. ,, 46
The Integration of Theater Statistical Control
Organiaat1ons ..•..•.......••.................•. 47
Overseas SCU's as Agencies of their Comnands ••••• 48
Redeployment and Deir.ohiluation .•• ,,,............ 49
v. Page
TRAINrnG AND ASSIGNMENT OF STATISTICAL
PERSONNEL .••. ,, ••..•.•.••• , , , •. , ••••... , • , • . • • • 5 l
The AAF St11t1st1c.~l School., •• ,, .••••••. ,,,,.,... 51
The AAF St11t1st1cal School Course................ 56
On-the-Joh Training of Statistical Officers •••.•• 59
Indoctrination of Statistical Officers .. , •••• ,... 61
Tl"aining of Machine Officers ... ,................. 61
Training of Enh.sted Personnel................... 62
Assignment of Statistical .Personnel., ••• , •••.• ,,. 63
VI. THE STATISTICAL CONTROL "REPORTING SYSTEM......... 65
Proi::ure:nent of the Basic Data.................... 65
Pers onne 1 Re ports. . . . • . . . . • . . . . • . . . • • . . . . . . . • . . • • 6 5
Training lleports •••.•••.•..••••••.•••••.•.••••••• 74
Housing Reports, •• , •••• ,,.,., ••••••••••• , •••• ,.,, 76
Aircraft and Equipnent Reports •......•..•••.•..•• 77
Combat Operations Report ..••••.• , .•• ,, .•. , •••• ,., 84
Naval and Foreign Statistics ••••. ,,., ••• ,.,., •. ,. 87
Reports Control •••• , , • • • • . . • • • • • • • . • • • • . . • • • . • . . . 87
VII. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS.,........................ 91
GLOSSARY •• ,...................................... 96
NOTES •.••••.. ,., ••..••.•...• ,, •.•••.••• ,......... 97
BIBl.IOGRAPHY. . . • . • • . • • . . • . . • . • . • • . . . . • . . . • • • • • . . . 119
APPENDIX
I. Army Air Forces Statistical School as of
2 July 1942 .•••.••... ,, ••••.•••••. ,,, ••... 12'l1
2. AAF Statistical School: Ou~line 8-Week's
Course (ExpBnded) •.. ••••••• .••.••..•.•••.. 124
INDEX •••••••••••••..••• , •..••••••.•••••.•..••••. 128
STA.TISTICAL ORGANIZATIONS IN THE ARMY AIR ARM
TO 9 MARCH 1942
P
RIOR to 9 March 1942 there was no taken to initiate a statistical
centralized administrative con ~eform while the ~ountry was still
trol over s~atistical reporting and at peace. The origins of statistical
analysis in the Army's air arm. In control are to be found in the period
the Air Corps there were a n11r.1.ber of 1939-1942. 1
statistical offices ca~h of which
had acquired more or less general i:i:ed The Development Section,
stat1stical £unctions wi~hout being Inspection Dtvision
able to achieve status even approxi
mating that of the statistical agency The first important precursor of
of the air arm. Each kept its own the statistical control organization
records, with little reference to of World War II was the Development
the Air Corps as a whole. So great Section of the Air Corps' Inspection
•as the variety of the forms in Division, created on 1 April 1927.2
which information was obta1ned, that The compilation of statistical
for the purposes of correlation and studies of accidents and forced
analysis whatever data were availa landings comprised the principal
ble usually had a very narrow range activity of the Section, 3 which
of utility. under Earl Ritzert did pioneering
Until 1939 this lack of intcgra tion work in methodology, particularly
in statistical reporting occasioned in devising new forms and standards
little concern, for there we~e few for the recordinff of aircraft and
persons in the Air Corps who pos engine time and 1ndividual flying
sessed a very broad concept of the time. 4
utility of statist~cs. Where it The De~clopment Section was con
existed, it was associ~ted with the sidered to have a kind of mono?oly
concept of administrative management of the field o! accident and forced
control. But beginning in 1939 and landing reporting, and was therefore
continuing at an ever-accelerating permitted to absorb a duplicate
rate, the air arm underwent a tre activity for life insurance which
mendous expansion which raised it to had been carried on in the Infor
a position coordinate with the ground mation Division.a The directives
and service arms. This development, which defined the function~ 0£ the
as well as responsibility for planning Development Section had gone even
the air war program impressed Head farther, however, for they had con
1
quarters of the air arm with the templated the operation oft.he section
necessity of having reliable data as a research and planning agency
and sign1ficant correlations thereof for the Office of the Chief of the
for all phases of Air Corps activity, Air Corps (OCAC) as a whole with
1
Although a reporting system really respect to both technical inspection
capable of producing the requisite and m~nagement control, 6 Actually,
data was not worked out and installed however, the Development Section
until after Pearl Harbor, steps were was able to do very little about
1
2 STATISTICAL CONTROL IN THE ARMY AIR FORCES
management control., Nor was the in the exercise of which the Develop
statistical work it performed for ment Section had felt 1 tse l f thwarted,
other divisions of the OCAC very while its statistical services would
extensive. The section made a number be correspondingly nore extensive
of special statistical studies at than had been those of the Develop
the request of the Plans Division ment Section. It would conduct an
and the Executive of the OCAC in inter-office record and report
connection with the defense of legis survey with a view to establishing
lation pending before Congress; and centralized records for the compi
some of its personnel worked on loan lation of data which were commonly
in other offices, chiefly Plans, used by two or more o££iecs, prepare
during periods when specialists with routine compilations on reports
training in the mathematical treat periodically required by two or more
ment of statistical data were re offices, offer statistical services
quired, but that was virtually all. T whenever and wherever needed, and
In 1939, when the problems of conduct studies pertaining to systems,
expansion awakened an interest in records, and reports for th~ Air
statistics in the Air Corps, Head Corps at large, 9
quarters officers increasing! y looked No action was taken on this pro
to the Development Section as the posal for nearly a year. Meantime,
principal statistical service agency the Inspection Division kept pointing
within the OCAC. In July of that out to the Chief of the Air Corps
year the Chief of the Air Corps that "the work of the Developnent
directed it to make a detailed study Section is extremely valuable and is
of the routines of each division becoming of increasing importance,"
of the OCA.C w1th a view to coordi including '"up-to-date observations
nating and simplifying the compi of the many effects o! the expansion
lation of statistical data. 8 program." 10 In August 1940 the Chief
The Development Section seized of the Development Section again
its opportunity, The study it pre suggested that the Development
sented pointed out the difficulties Section he transfer~ed to another
it was encountering in operating as division, tlus time to a proposed new
a statistical office when the modes Administrative Divis£on.11 Under the
of securing data were not standard new organization the section would
ized and the administrative super also include a machine-tabulating
vision 0£ the process was not unit, the creation of which had been
centralized. Attributing to its approved about this time. The unit
subordinate position under the was expected to design master punch
Inspection Division the limitations cards listing data on flying time,
on both the amount and kind of ~ork which would serve the requirements
which it could undertake and the not only of the Inspection Division,
influence it could exert, it asked but of all the other divisions of
for itself a more advantageous the OC\C as well. 12
position within the organization of
the OCAC. It suggested specifically
Administrative Research and Statistics
that a new Administrative Research
Section, Administrative Division
and Statistics Section be set up in
the Executive Division, and that the The plans JUSt described were
personnel of the Development Section carried into effect, in essence,
be used as a nucleus for it. The by the reorganization of the OCAC
new section would actually have the in November 1940. At that time the
administ~ative research functions Development Section disappeaTed from
STATI3TICAL CONTROL IN THE AR/.fY AIR FORCES 3
the Inspection Division to appear had been already indicated, to receive
as the Administrative Research and and analyze the accident data formerly
Stat1 sties Section of the new Miscel collected by the Development Sec
laneous Di~ision. On 25 Februa~y tion. s8 The Materiel Division had
1941 the Miscellaneous Division was its own statistical organization,
renamed the Administrative Division; producing periodic reports relative
Capt. James M. Farrar was chief of to the production, status, and flying
the new Section. 19 The section was time of aircraft and engines.
described, in the directive which The Materiel Division organization
es~ablished it, as an agency1• had been built up over more than a
decade. When it was created in 1926,
opera ting for the purpose of develop1.ng
its principal part was the Statistics
lDproved administrative procedure sys
tems, !orms, reports and standa:i:d Unit of the Field Services Section,
practices, And for the comp1lat1on of which maintained the ccnsolidated
such stat1st1cal matter as 1s required records of all airplanes, engines,
by all divisions of the Office, Chief and lighter-than·air craft, showing
o! the A1.r Corps, to include statistical
the number, location, condition,
analysis service as required.
status, and flying time of each. 20
The Inspection Division, through a Under the direction of the Field
newly organized Safety Section, was Service Section, business-machine
to continue the handling of accident equipment was installed at Wright
statistics, which had previously Field between 1929 and 1932, at
been the Development Section's fi~st primarily for cost-accounting
major activity, 15 A machine tabu purposes, but soon for other sta
lating unit was included.is By March tistical uses, including the record
1941 the new section was handling ing of ~ircraft and engine time. 21
fl~ght records, medical examination Though statistical data and reports
records, and emergency tabulations emanatP.d from other sections as well,
for the various divisions of the the Field Service Section operated
OCAC. In addition it was authorized the principal statistical agency in
to undertake the processing of Air the Materiel Division until 1936,
Corps military pe~sonnel data; ulti when its Statistics Unit was incorpo
mately, it was expected, civilian rated into the Budget Office. 22
personnel records would also be
entrusted to it. 17 An OCAC memo A reorganization of the Materiel
randum of 23 April called attention Division in 1939 re"'oved the chief
of the division from Wright Field
to the type of work being done by
to Washington, leaviiig the f ac iht ics
the Research and Statistics Section,
at Wright Field under the direction
which was BaJ.d to be "now equipped
to handle some of the administ~ative of the astiistant chie£. In the
problems of the Air Corps. " 18 Washington offices a new stati~tical
ageney was organized--the Materiel
Planning Section. Besides coordi
Mate~iel Diviston Stattstical
nating the industrial planning done
Organ ua t ion
by the Materiel Division and other
The establishment of the Research divisions of the OCAC, the Materiel
and Statistics Section did not mean Planning Section maintained sta
that statistical control in the OCAC tistical records and reports, and
had be~n centrali~ed. Two other made studies for the use of the
autonomous statistical units still Chief of the Materiel Division and
existed, The Safety Section of the the Chief of the Air Corps. 23 The
Inspection Division continued, as Materiel Planning Section became the