250 Altitude chambers were located within the Army Air Forces Flying Training Command at all preflight and flexible gunnery schools instead of at basic flying schools, as originally planned. This left a long period of time between indoctrination and combat, so it was thought advisable to review the physiological effects of high altitude and the use of oxygen equipment during an advanced phase of training in which the student actually began its use. There was need for a group of flight surgeons who would be specially assigned to advanced flying schools where it would be their duty to lecture to students on the physiological effects of high altitude, and to cooperate in every way with unit oxygen officers in the fitting of oxygen masks and instruction in the use of this and other allied equipment. As Col. Charles R. Glenn (MC), Surgeon of the Training Command, stated: 251 Their duties are definitely not to be those of Unit Oxygen Officers. They will lecture only when called upon to do so by training directives or upon request of the Commanding Officer of the station. If formal lectures are not given, these officers should, by close association with flying officers and students on the flying line and elsewhere, attempt to arouse interest in, and disseminate knowledge concerning the necessity for oxygen and how to use it. The Army Air Forces Training Command sent the first group of flight surgeons to the School of Aviation Medicine on 7 December 1942.” The course was given every 2 weeks and each session lasted 10 days. 232 Indoctrination of the flight surgeon in the problems of the air crewmen was stressed. Every effort was made to bring the flight surgeon and the unit oxygen officer into contact. In order to accomplish this, the medical officers took the Unit Oxygen Officer's Course the first week. During the second week, additional lectures were given on the physiological aspects of highaltitude flying, the use of emergency equipment, the special problems of the flight surgeon in combat areas, and upon the preparation of the lectures which the flight surgeons were to give on return to their proper stations. Additional contact with students was obtained by having small groups of flight surgeons take part in the experimental cadet runs which were being conducted evenings. in the altitude chambers. During the period 7 December 1942 to 2 October 1943 a total of 378 medical officers completed the course. The special course in High Altitude Physiology and Oxygen Equipment was discontinued on 2 October 1943 when all designated officers had completed the training. Since the inception of the Altitude Training Program, the problems of acceleration were an essential part of instruction. Aviation physiologists in altitude training units dealt with the physical principles of acceleration, the dangers to pilots and aircrews who were exposed to excessive centrifugal forces, the methods for minimizing deleterious effects of the various types of accelera tion, and the various devices which had been developed for the protection of the pilot and aircrew against excessive ground forces. Such instruction was allotted approximately one hour in the didactic lectures given as introductory material prior to the flights in altitude chambers. Review of the principles of flight for fighter pilots was conducted in the advanced single-engine, transition, and advanced twin-engine transition schools (pilot), since T. C. Memorandum 50-0-3 was first published in 1942. Special instruction was conducted at the fighter gunnery schools, such as Foster Army Air Field, where some of the first anti-G suits were tested and used in the demonstration of fighter tactics for pilots undergoing training there. Such instruction was particularly effective and important in dive bombing tactics, rocket firing maneuvers and other fighter tactics requiring abrupt pull-outs and moderately persistent exposure to the effects of acceleration. Although such anti-G training had been conducted during the preceding few years, it was considered necessary, in view of the changing tactics of fighters and fighter bombers utilizing new type missiles, rockets and other such modern ordnance, to develop a well-wrought, progressive training program dealing with anti-G problems. Therefore, in mid-1945, a War Department directive 253 was published stipulating the training requirements concerning the problems of acceleration. This directive proposed to give the fighter pilot a clear understanding of the physical forces involved in acceleration during flight; to instruct trainees in the subjective symptoms and the physiological changes produced by mild to excessive G forces on the human body; and, finally, to familiarize AAF fighter pilots with the operation and the use of most of the types of AAF type G-suits. Instruction in anti-G problems was conducted and supervised by aviation physiologists assigned to the various altitude training units in the AAF Training Command. The introductory didactic instruction was accomplished at the preflight and the flexible gunnery schools. A special training and research program was instituted at Foster Army Air Field, inasmuch as graduate pilots who had been selected to instruct other fighter pilots were assigned to Foster Field for an advanced course in fighter gunnery tactics. It was at Foster Field that such highly selected fighter pilots were trained in the principles and use of newest type G-suits in order that they might, in turn, transmit such instruction to their future students. One of the most important phases of the Anti-G Training Program in the Training Command was conducted by aviation physiologists and altitude chamber technicians of the Altitude Training Unit at the AAF Combat Crew |