The first of three volumes which is based on an analysis of the Army and Selective Service records of the men who were rejected for service or had to be prematurely separated from the service during the Second World War because of inaptitude, personality defects, or psychoneurosis, treats the material statistically and in the mass. The principal manpower problems encountered by the United States Army (including the Air Corps) are set forth, and its methods of selection for service, assignment, training, and utilization are analyzed and evaluated. Dealing with the men who were prematurely discharged from the service, the book discusses the performance of these men, the factors contributing to their breakdown, and particularly the policies governing these separations. Screening procedures, educational and psychiatric, used on men from all 3,000 counties in the United States are analyzed and the concluding chapter contains summary generalizations on the more effective utilization of manpower. The presentation and analysis of the mass data collected for this first large-scale critical appraisal of our national manpower resources underscore the enormous significance of the subject, for there were two-and-a-half million American men rejected for service or prematurely released from the Armed Forces during the war. The meaning of this wasted manpower is the crucial point of this research study that has been eight years in the making.

Published by the Columbia University Conservation of Human Resources Project.

Foreword / Howard McC. Snyder -- Introduction: The study of performance -- The creation of a mass army -- Selection for service -- Assignment, training, and utilization -- The magnitude of separations -- Separation policy -- Performance records of ineffective soldiers -- Civilian background and military performance -- Situational stress - Screening: expectations and results -- The educational screen -- The psychiatric screen -- The more effective utilization of manpower -- The lesson -- Abbreviated titles used in tables.