OCR Text |
Show jMIll,l II II I 'jlill II II I I 11 . W , 1 . I II IIMW 111,1 I'l' " I "Tl'll 'II' MJ j, I I U. S. Office, of Air Safety Guards Cadets in Training Accident Statistics Prove Value of Regional Safety Officers' Work; Program Has Three Main Divisions. By BAUKHAGE News Analyst and Commentator. w ...... - "- f ' ; !''- J tVNU Service, Union Trust Building, Washington, D. C. The army air force has been around the world 134,078 times! That Is what air miles add up to three billion, three hundred and fifty-two million In the fiscal year 1943. Just how safe is the job of a pilot? Not the job where you have to count on the enemy fighters and the ack-ack, but the job of learning to be a pilot. "Ninety-five out of every hundred army air force cadets are going through their flight training program with no personal injury of any kind," says Col. Sam Harris, chief, army air force office of flying safety. The office of air safety is the institution in-stitution which has built safety into training programs as a highly emphasized em-phasized part of the whole regime. It has three main principles. Initial Phase The first is "prevention and investigation," in-vestigation," and the keynote here Is experience. The 54 officers who take care of this end of the work have a total air experience of 33 years, 318 days in the air. These men, known as regional safety officers of-ficers (RSOs) are assigned to each air force and command in the United Unit-ed States. Here is an example of how the RSO works. He goes to a certain field. He meets some cadets who say they haven't had any breakfast. He puts that down in his notes. He looks the place over, notes a ditch parallel to a runway. He orders the ditch filled, talks with the mess officer of-ficer and has breakfast served earlier. ear-lier. Then he tackles the boys themselves. He gives them a talk on the importance of instruments. Three separate moves and the accidents ac-cidents are cut down there. The second principle is "flight control." con-trol." Here is where the flight control con-trol officer, traffic cop of the air, comes in. For traffic control is as important in the air as o the street. The men of this force offer a Pilot's Advisory Counsel. This service serv-ice leads pilots through or around dangerous traffic or weather conditions. condi-tions. Suppose the flight control officer In the Seattle center knows Lieutenant Lieu-tenant Smith is headed in that direction. di-rection. He also knows that a "cold front" is moving across his path. So he radios Smith, tells him to make for an alternate airport. No. 3 on the list of safeties is "safety education." Safety Education Most of the accidents in training In the United States are due to personnel per-sonnel error the fault of the human being, not the weather or the machine. ma-chine. This education comes through Bpecial movies, through manuals, Virough cartoons and posters. Here are some of the slogans that help: "Hitler and Hirohito cheer . . . when you forget your maps . . . when you pay no attention to telephone tele-phone wires . . . when you jam on your brakes . . . when you don't check your gas . . ." Other points are driven home with a little sardonic humor such as "when a pilot thinks he's pretty hot, he's usually close to burning." "To grow old in the natural way, a pilot bas to use his luck sparingly . . ." The first six months of 1943 compared com-pared with all of 1942, show these percentages of reduction of acci-ients: acci-ients: In primary schools 2.3 In basic schools , 5.5 In advanced schaals 11 And just see the table for accidents acci-dents as miles flown go up! 1921-30 Miles flown, 155,818,000 accident rate, 2.11. 1943 Miles flown, 3.351,940,000 accident rate, .716. That's how America is learning safety in the skyways. War Brings Recognition To Psychiatry There will be so many changes after the war that a lot of words svill not even have the same meanings. mean-ings. New things and new thinking Kill appear and people will have to team the new words in order to think the new thoughts. Already the war has caused psychiatry psy-chiatry to be "adequately recognized." recog-nized." according to Dr. Richard Hutchings, who is the author ot "A psychiatric Word Book" published by the New York State Department of Mental Hygiene and now in its seventh edition. This is not a book for laymen but it is exceedingly interesting to scan its pages just to see how ordinary words can achieve new meanings as new thoughts about new things develop. de-velop. The word book is Invaluable to the doctor and many others who will be more and more concerned with this important study of interpersonal inter-personal relations psychiatry. Let's take a layman's look at the pages of the little pocket volume. Starting at the beginning with "a an." Not the simple articles they look! The definition is not new in this case but shows the special meaning the person who reads psychiatry psy-chiatry must know. The definition reads: "Prefixes derived from the Greek and having the same meaning as the prefix un- or the suffix -less. Without; absence of; not. Cf. amentia, amen-tia, anosmia." That takes us to amentia which means (1) absence of intellect; (2) a state of mind bordering on stupor; (3) feeblemindedness. You have heard of behavior but what is behaviorism? It is "the psychological theory which holds that correct conclusions in psychology psychol-ogy must rest upon objective study and interpretation of behavior." You have also heard of conversion. conver-sion. Here is the psychiatrist's meaning of it. "The process by which an emotional trauma (that is an emotional 'wound') after repression repres-sion becomes converted into a physical phys-ical symptom in hysteria." . . Practical Application If you think that sounds too highbrow, high-brow, just recall the remark: "He's had that squint ever since he saw that terrible accident." There are a lot more interesting new meanings clear over to the last word "zoopsia" which you know all about if you ever saw "Ten Nights in a Barroom," the great prohibition prohibi-tion play. "Zoopsia" is what we (incorrectly) (in-correctly) call "D.T.'s." The definition defini-tion is "a visual hallucination of animals ani-mals or insects." The little book also has an appendix appen-dix in which there are careful and more detailed descriptions of the emotions anxiety, fear, pride, vanity, van-ity, etc., which we now know are as dangerous to our mental health when they get out of control as a flock of flu germs are to our bodily welfare. I'll give you a definition of the one emotion which is highly important impor-tant because when it gets the upper hand in politics, it can do as much harm to a form of government as to an individual. '., "Egoism and egotism are not synonyms. Egoism is a self-seeking desire to gain advantages at the expense ex-pense of the rights, convenience or possessions of others. . .It is essentially essen-tially antisocial. Egotism is overvaluation over-valuation of self, one's opinions, ability abil-ity or cleverness and corresponding undervaluation of others." Now. just apply that definition of egoism to blocs, political parties, nations and you'll see why psychiatry psy-chiatry is important in the new world. The more people who understand under-stand it, the more people will understand under-stand each other. The words in "A Psychiatric Word Book" are important words. ($1 postpaid from the Hospitals Press, Mental Hygiene Department, State of New York, Utica, N. Y.) Popular Questions Here are answers to three questions ques-tions I was asked most frequently on a recent trip to the Middle West: (1) When will the war be over? I don't know. I wouldn't be surprised sur-prised if Germany cracked inside this winter. At least another year to clean up Japan. (2) What about international cooperation co-operation afterward? I don't know. The feeling I get in Washington is that there will be an honest attempt to form an international inter-national league, just as it is suggested suggest-ed in the Moscow conference. (3) Will President Roosevelt run for a Fourth Term? I doubt if even he knows that either. He probably will unless the war is done and over. |