When the Army Air Force recruited the college students in 1942 as Aviation Cadets from the colleges and universities across the land, they they told the students that they were needed as officers in the rapidly expanding Army Air Force and would become pilots, navigators, or bombardiers. Furthermore, those that did not choose to fly and had two years of college would become an Aviation Cadet Ground Crew and commissioned in armaments, communication, ,meteorology, photography, or engineering. But, when the AAF discovered at the end of 1943 that their over zealous recruiting and over estimation of loss rate had created a large surplus of pilots, they ignored all of the promises made to the college students and began transfering them to technical schools. This did not create a pleasAnt situation for the schools or the ex-cadets.
WE NEED YOU.
.The following are exerpts from The History of Scott Field
on file in the Air Force Research Center, Maxwell Field, AL
When the cadets arrived at Scott Field and the other tech schools, they did so with a lot of resentment and for good reason. The Army Air Force had lied to them to induce their volunteering , was reneging on the promises made to them and was violating their own regulations and procedures for the "exigencies of the service."
When the cadets arrived at Scott Field, they ran into a wall of resentment from the administrative officers who resented the higher educated college men in the ranks and set out to put them in their place. Most of the officers were former Infantry officers, well schooled in chicken-s--t. The cadets came from a program where they were treated with respect into one where they were treated as low-grade scum. .
The education and training of the cadets qualified them for various duty that was more commensurate with their background than radio school. Many of the fellows had more flight training than that required for a liaison or glider pilot and applied for a transfer to that duty but were turned down. Since they were not permitted to fly, they applied for reassignment to schools or positions that would use their talents. A Doctor of Optometry for example, wanted to go into the medical field. But, they all were turned down. IIt just didn't matter what their talents were, they were going to radio school.
Quotas "outweighed abilities and aptitude in the matter of assignement." As a result, all "the careful work of the classification settions" was wasted. (The AAF in WW II, Vol VI, p. 544.).
The cadets fought back in various ways, often to their detriment. One resented not being able to get off base to visit his new wife. In the cadets, he had privileges akin to officers and was allowed off the field when not on duty. He told the squadron commander as much. They sent him to China. Others fought back in other ways..
