It was in The Army Air Corps, in 1941, at Ellington Field, TX. It was labeled "The Air Mechanics Examination for Weather Observers", a name which I must explain to explain the type of exam involved.

The Army had a "Table of Organizations", which allowed only so many corporals, sergeants, staff sergeants, technical sergeants, master sergeants, etc. But this created a problem in motivating men to work.

The problem became aggrevated after The Draft started in November, 1940, and became critical among Air Mechanics. Men with considerable experience in maintaining aircraft were drafted and put to work. But the Table of Organization of a particular outfit could not allow much advancement. So, often, a Private working for a Corporal or Sergeant might know a lot more and have greater skills than his non-commissioned boss.

This problem was partially solved by instituting "The Air Mechanics Examination" for Air Mechanics. I'll describe the basic type, but first note that it spread to Radio, Field Lighting, Weather Service, etc.

The exam was about half-technical and half-hands-on-accomplishment. A GI with good experience as a civilian mechanic might do so well on the "Applied" part that he scored higher than some one who had been through the Army Mechanics School and was proficient at taking written examinations. If he was above the "cut-off", he was awarded "Air Mechanics Second Class" -- nothing on his sleeve, but a certificate which was respected and taken into consideeration by the officers. It "paid off" so well, that (as noted above) other classifications adopted it.

In the Weather Service, you were tested on a number of applications:

• Time taken in plotting a Synoptic Weather Map reporting for a 6-hour period, entering many coded items (barometric pressure, temperature, wind speed and direction, cloudiness, visibility, etc.).

• Plotting a Winds Aloft Chart, for winds at every 1000 foot altitude up to 20,000 feet, measured by a ground theodolite fixed on an ascending weather balloon filled with hydrogen (later helium).

• Plotting Radiosonde charts describing conditions of temperature, humidity, etc., at conditions thousands of feet above the ground, from radiosonde balloons going high in the atmosphere (for example, in massive clouds, when the other balloons were out of sign of the theodolite manned by the observer on the ground).

• Taking an observation from the weather shelter (dry bulb temperature, wet bulb temperature, visibility, possible ceiling, cloud types at various levels, etc.

You had a choice of two other applied tests: servicing the teletypewriter that brought data from around the country; or servicing the weather instruments (barograph, hydrograph, anemometer, etc.)

And you took a written exam on useful meteorlogy.

I never attended Weather Observer School at Chanute Field, IL, but received my training in the Station at Kelly Field and at Ellington Field. I did well enough on both applied and technical exams in the fall of 1941 to receive my "Air Mechanics Rating Second Class". I was already a "Buck" Sergeant. But this added to my salary ($10 more?). And it gave me clout over sergeants without this Rating (almost as good as being a Staff Sergeant).

I expected to go on to an "Air Mechincs Rating First Class", with more money and clout comparable to a Technical Sergeant, but "Pearl Harbor" and World War II intervened.

Early in 1942, Congress (in its "infinite wisdom") passed a "Pay Raise Act". Result: A lot of us lost money! The Air Mechanics Ratings were cancelled. Forecasters had received "flight pay" for taking trips to understand better how to serve the pilots. This was now cancelled. And many other effective and fair motivations for GI's were cancelled in this "Pay Raise".

Years later, as a civilian, while visiting an Air Force Office, I tried to mention the value of this "Air Mechanics Examination". But a major interrupted me, saying, "Oh, there was some discussion after the War about re-instituting this Exam. But we were dissuaded by The Educational Testing Service at Princeton that their type of exam [without application!] was better."

I've taken exams at Columbia University in Physics, Mathematics, English, French, German, History, and such; exams at New York University in Mathematics and Statistics. Just to show I could -- after teaching many years -- I took The Graduate Record Examination (designed by ETS), scoring 99+% in Language, 97% in Mathematics. In my own case, I gave cheat-proof exams (everyone got different data) and person-and-problem-at-a-time mini-tests, as in my "Standard Tasks", given on this Website. So I know something examinations. And this was the best Exam I've taken in 60 years.

I've often said that, if The Educational Testing Service were overthrown in a "palace revolution", I would dance in the streets. Until then, we'll continue to have RUBBER TESTS with RUBBER GRADES.