The Wilmington morning star. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1909-1990, 1944-05-27
When Rules Don't Fit

What is it that makes members of the Aneri-
can Air Forces SO efficient in action? Accord
bat as an observer, they are cool under fire,
obey orders implicitly and have pefected
their team work.
The Medical Society of the County Of New
York recently heard Col. Walter S. Jensen,
deputy air surgeon, present report of the
psychiatrist, Capt David G. Wright, who was
aboard a Flying Fortress on mission dur
ing which the plane and the crew received
such severe damage that survival seemed i'm
possible" Captain Wright's analysis of the
mental as well as the physical processes Of
an American plane crew is so interesting and
During the violent combat and IN the acute
emergencies that arose during it, the report
said, 1.-The crew were all quietly precise on the
inter-phone and decisive in action. The tail
gunner, right waist gunner and navigator were
severely wounded early in the fight but all
three kept at their duties efficiently and with
out cessation until the combat was over, their
guns were destroyed, or, in the case of the
navigator, the home station was in sight.
1.-THE burden of emergency work with the
controls, oxygen, wounded men and reparable
battle damage fell on the pilot engineer and
ball turret gunner, and all functioned with
rapidty, skillful effectiveness and with no lost
motion.
h,rSo If fhe I,,,4
particularly after the combat, rested essential
ly on the pilot and, in secondary details, on
the co-pilot and bombardier The decisions,
arrived at with care and speed, were unques-
toned once they were made, and proved ex-
cellent
In the period when disaster was momen-
tarily expected the alternative plans of action
were made clearly and with no thought other
than for the safety of the entire crew. All at
this point were quiet unobtrusively cheerful
and ready for anything There was at no time
paralysis, panic, unclear thinking faulty or
confused judgment or self-seeking in any one
of them.
1T appeared strikingly that the emergency
did not tend to increase the difference in the
reaction pattern of the differing personalities;
rather they came to act in much more similar
fashion than usual.
-"One could not possibly have inferred from
behavior that this one was man of unstable
moods and that that one was a shy. quiet
wardly calm, precise in thought and rapid
in action.
1t is not revealed where this particular &C.
ton took place, whether in Europe or the
Orient. But it serves, in either case, to illus
trate what it is that has given the American
nese and accounts in part for the six-to-one
odds our airnen hold in planes destroyed in
the Pacific war theater It has been notable
condition Of all air engagements in the far
East that whereas japanese filters are well
trained in the routine Of their business they
have consistently failed to meet any situation
not covered by the rule book; thew have no
ingenuity and lose their heads when called
upon to make instant decisions. They learn
their lessons well but cannot deviate from
them.
We recall kitchen incident years ago in
San Francisco which establishes this point as
conclusively anything that has TRANSFERRED
In the air over the Pacific. A housewife was
teaching Japanese cook to make a cake re-
curing six eggs When she borke the fifth egg
and found it bad she threw it away and broke
two more to get the necessary half dozen for
the cake. To her amazement, when she watch
ed the Japanese cook make the same kind of
cake at later date, he broke a fifth egg and
threw it away though it was perfectly good
When she inquired why, the cook replied: IT
do what you do
When it comes to combat flying the Japa-
nese aviator does what the rule book says
and can't do anything else.
V
Ac IT, Woc Rnforo