View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by K-State Research Exchange EARNING THEIR WINGS: ACCIDENTS AND FATALITIES IN THE UNITED STATES ARMY AIR FORCES DURING FLIGHT TRAINING IN WORLD WAR TWO by MARLYN R. PIERCE B.A., University of Houston, 1983 M.A., University of Louisville, 1994 MMAS, US Army Command and General Staff College, 1998 AN ABSTRACT OF A DISSERTATION submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Department of History College of Arts and Sciences KANSAS STATE UNIVERSITY Manhattan, Kansas 2013 Abstract This study analyzes the effect of the Army Air Forces’ wartime experience on the selection and training of aviation cadets and the steps taken by the Army Air Forces to reduce the number of accidents and fatalities. Over the course of the war, the US Army Air Forces suffered over 54,000 accidents in the continental United States. These accidents accounted for over 15,000 fatalities, the equivalent of a World War Two infantry division. As a result of this wartime experience the Army Air Forces began instituting and enforcing stricter safety measures and emphasizing safety in all phases of training. By the end of the war, the Army Air Forces had transitioned from an organization with loose standards for selection, training, and safety to one with formal procedures for all three. In the process, the Army Air Forces established a new culture of professionalism for the US Air Force. EARNING THEIR WINGS: ACCIDENTS AND FATALITIES IN THE UNITED STATES ARMY AIR FORCE DURING FLIGHT TRAINING WORLD WAR TWO by MARLYN R. PIERCE B.A. University of Houston, 1983 M.A. University of Louisville, 1994 MMAS, US Army Command and General Staff College, 1998 A DISSERTATION submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Department of History College of Arts and Sciences KANSAS STATE UNIVERSITY Manhattan, Kansas 2013 Approved by: Major Professor Donald J. Mrozek Copyright MARLYN R. PIERCE 2013 Abstract This study analyzes the effect of the Army Air Forces’ wartime experience on the selection and training of aviation cadets and the steps taken by the Army Air Forces to reduce the number of accidents and fatalities. Over the course of the war, the US Army Air Forces suffered over 54,000 accidents in the continental United States. These accidents accounted for over 15,000 fatalities, the equivalent of a World War Two infantry division. As a result of this wartime experience the Army Air Forces began instituting and enforcing stricter safety measures and emphasizing safety in all phases of training. By the end of the war, the Army Air Forces had transitioned from an organization with loose standards for selection, training, and safety to one with formal procedures for all three. In the process, the Army Air Forces established a new culture of professionalism for the US Air Force. Table of Contents List of Tables ................................................................................................................................ vii Acknowledgements ...................................................................................................................... viii Dedication ...................................................................................................................................... ix Preface............................................................................................................................................. x Chapter 1 - Introduction .................................................................................................................. 1 Chapter 2 - Culture of Risk ........................................................................................................... 14 Chapter 3 - Selecting the Aircrews ............................................................................................... 48 Chapter 4 - Training the Aircrews ................................................................................................ 78 Chapter 5 - The Accidents: Causes and Prevention .................................................................... 140 Chapter 6 - Conclusion ............................................................................................................... 198 Bibliography ............................................................................................................................... 211 Appendix A - Tables ................................................................................................................... 228 vi List of Tables Table 1. Aircraft Production by Type and Year………………………………………………..228 Table 2. US Army Air Forces Personnel — Number and Percent of US Army Strength: 1930 – 1945……………………………………………………….229 Table 3. US Army Air Forces Training Facilities by Function and Year……………………....230 Table 4. Aircraft Accidents — Number and Rate: Fiscal Year 1936 – 1945……………….….231 Table 5. Airplane Accidents in Flight Training……………………………………………...…232 Table 6. Airplane Accidents in Transition Flight Training: 1942 – 1945 (primary models only)…………………………………..232 vii Acknowledgements I want to thank the members of my committee: Dr. Donald Mrozek, Dr. Sue Zschoche, Dr. Dale Herspring, and Dr. Jane Fishback, all of Kansas State University and Dr. Chris Gabel of the US Army Command and General Staff College (CGSC), for their diligence and patience in guiding me through this process. I would also like to thank the many archivists and librarians for their assisted me in my research. In particular, Ms. Lynn Gamma from the US Air Force Historical Research Agency, Maxwell AFB, Alabama, and Mr. Mike Browne from the Combined Arms Research Library, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Special thanks go to the Director of the Department of Military History at CGSC, Dr. James Willbanks, for providing me the opportunity to write and research and the department’s editor, Ms. Sue Rosell for answering my myriad of editorial questions. My most heartfelt appreciation goes to my wife Gwynn and my children, Heather, Matthew, and Phillip, for their patience, support and understanding whenever I had “work” to do. viii Dedication To the 15,530. ix Preface On 7 May 1945, Victory in Europe (VE) Day, the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) lost five airmen and two aircraft in two fatal accidents. While the country celebrated the defeat of Nazi Germany, the need for qualified aircrew, while declining, did not cease. It should also be noted that VE Day, when it came to accidents, was not an average day for the Army Air Forces: it was below average. Throughout the war, the Army Air Forces suffered over 6,500 fatal accidents in the continental United States resulting in the loss of 7,114 airplanes and the death of 15,530 personnel.1 This was an average of ten deaths and nearly 40 accidents, fatal and non-fatal, a day. The Army Air Forces reached its peak for both training and accidents in 1943. That year the Army Air Forces suffered 2,268 fatal accidents that resulted in over 5,600 fatalities and over 2,500 aircraft damaged or destroyed.2 The situation was better in 1944 with a 14 percent drop in accidents compared with 1943.3 However, there were still nearly 2,000 fatal accidents and the death of 5,000 pilots and crew.4 Some of these accidents were due to pilot error, such as poor navigation and piloting skills, or even, to be blunt, stupidity, such as showing off for sweethearts or family, who were forced to watch in horror as their loved ones died in horrible accidents. Numerous accidents were the result of inattention by the ground crew in performing their maintenance tasks. In addition, 1 Anthony J. Mireles, Fatal Army Air Forces Aviation Accidents in the United States, 1941-1945 (Jefferson NC: McFarland, 2006), xi. 2 Ibid., xi. 3 Ibid., xi. 4 Ibid., xi. x the blame for other accidents could be laid upon poor decisions in aircraft design that made some airplanes difficult to fly, especially for the rapidly-trained wartime pilots. Whatever the cause of these accidents, once the United States entered World War Two, the USAAF had to produce an ever-increasing number of pilots in the first half of the war. Nonetheless, the Army Air Forces, rather counterintuitively, began to place more emphasis on safety during this period of rapid expansion. In 1938, President Roosevelt had called for the production of 10,000 aircraft annually; by 1940, with an eye on events in Europe, he had increased that number to 50,000 — a difficult task to be sure, but it could be accomplished by increasing the budget of the Air Corps for procurement and training. On the other hand, Roosevelt’s mandate would also require an expansion of the industrial base. This task was made easier by the fact that aircraft technology, at the time, was not so advanced as to be beyond the capability of the general manufacturing base of the United States. The more daunting task facing Major General Henry H. Arnold, Chief of the Air Corps and the General Headquarters Air Force Staff, would be to produce the aircrews to operate those planes. The Air Corps had always been selective in admitting cadets into the flight program and the pace of the prewar Air Corps had made flight training highly individualistic. However, the proposed expansion forced Arnold and his staff to evaluate both selection and training. Throughout the interwar period the Army Air Service, later Army Air Corps, and finally, in June 1941, Army Air Forces, adopted some “leisurely practices” in light