Development Of Combat Aptitude Areas

"To develop for use in classifying enlisted men to the combat arms new aptitude areas incorporating measures of what the combat man will do as well as what he can do ... A long term program of research involved the experimental testing of approximately 5000 enlisted combat arms personnel-- about 2000 in actual combat, 1000 in Arctic maneuvers, and 2000 in both a training and a later overseas garrison-maneuvers situation"--Preliminary page.

One objective of the FUTURE COMBAT Task, USAPRO is to develop a system of enlisted personnel allocation to maximize individual skills and preferences and at the same time meet Army staffing requirements. After determination that quality of manpower in the combat arms was perceptibly below that in the rest of the Army, computer based plans for allocating basic combat trainees to advanced training were developed and implemented experimentally on a trainee sample. The selection and testing of different allocation techniques, the mathematical bases for selected computerized systems, and results of comparison of three systems are reported. Two alternate plans, one of which takes into account individual training preference, proved more effective than the current procedure and were provided the Data Services and Administrative Systems Command.