There
are very few meteorological texts in Spanish, and it has been a part
of our program to translate into Spanish and make available through
publication in that language a number of selected pamphlets and a
few books. These have met with a warm reception on the part of students
and workers in Latin American Meteorology and have supplied a much
needed addition to the literature.
It does
not appear desirable or necessary to maintain another Inter-American
school outside of the United States with funds provided wholly by
this government. The idea of a Western Hemisphere School located in
Latin America is quite within the realm of possibility. Visiting professors
could take part in the instruction which should be given in both Spanish
and Portuguese. It would be restricted to advanced training and, as
a consequence, classes would be relatively small. For schools at the
under graduate level we would have to look to the larger Spanish or
Portuguese speaking countries. It would seem possible that some arrangement
of this kind could be worked out through the Pan American Union.
The program
of granting of fellowships to Latin-American students will be conducted
in the future on a reduced scale, with the important variation that
contributions toward such fellowships will be encouraged and possibly
required on the part of the country from which the student comes.
Such contributions are already being made more and more. For example,
during the coming year Argentina plans to send three specialists or
students to this country and will pay all expenses. Further, exchanges
of specialists will in the future, no doubt, largely replace the student
training program, except in countries which cannot afford to pay for
their students and which have no specialists to interchange.
Personnel
Staffing Problems.-At the beginning of the war emergency, the
weather observer staff of the Bureau was composed of male employees
with the exception of two positions filled by women. This required
swift action to interest women to enter this field of work if the
observational program was to be continued without interruption . Steps
to do this were taken through various forms of publicity and women
were employed in increasing numbers as the service expanded and male
employees entered the military service. New employees were given a
short period of intensive training in regional training classes for
observers, followed by a period of on-station training. The course
was so organized and conducted that after a training period of three
months the new appointee could take the least arduous weather observing
assignments. By V-J Day the majority of observational positions were
held by women. They did a very creditable job and without them it
would have been impossible to have provided the armed forces with
meteorological information vital to their operations.
The fact
that these employees were required to work on rotating shifts covering
24 hours per day and seven days per week resulted in a large turnover
which averaged nearly 50% for each of the war years. This aggravated
the recruitment program since it made it necessary to train an excessive
amount of new personnel. Soon after the outbreak of actual hostilities
the matter of maintaining sufficient personnel to carry on the various
activities of the Bureau became difficult. Prior to the war the majority
of appointments, both in the field and Washington, were made by the
Bureau in Washington. However, the large expansion and great turnover
in personnel made it essential to decentralize much of the recruitment
work to the eight regional offices of the Bureau in 1943, and to delegate
appointing authority to the regional directors covering a majority
of lower-grade employees, particularly in connection with the observation
program. This decentralization was further extended later on as conditions
required to include higher-grade employees. This has made recruitment
much more rapid and has enabled the Bureau to meet numerous emergencies
which otherwise would have been impossible for satisfactory handling.
As meteorological
units of the Army and Navy were expanded it became more and more difficult
to maintain an adequate force of experienced professional meteorologists.
The Bureau cooperated with the various educational institutions engaged
in such training by resealing to them on leave without pay employees
qualified to teach meteorological subjects. A major portion of the
students who completed the courses were immediately commissioned by
the Army or Navy. Only a comparatively small number were made available
to the Weather Bureau.
Because
of the acute shortage of meteorologists available for civilian assignments
it was necessary for the Bureau to request deferment for many of its
employees who could not be replaced. Such requests were confined to
professional meteorologists in the United States and to professional
meteorologists and technicians outside the continental United States.
In this
connection, the Bureau expresses appreciation for the courteous and
cooperative treatment received from the Deferment Review Committee
of the War manpower Commission. This Committee was at all times most
considerate of the problems with which the Bureau was confronted.
Throughout the entire war period, the Bureau's employment problems
were made less difficult by the hearty cooperation of the Civil Service
Commission in aiding the Bureau to solve numerous unforeseen problems
that arose from time to time. This was particularly true in the field
service of the Bureau which comprises 3/4 of the Bureau's personnel
and activities. The personnel problems of the Bureau were alleviated
considerably by the action of the Commission in substituting war service
regulations early in 1942 for the permanent regulations theretofore
in force; also by promulgating temporary regulations during March
1946 to take care of reconversion personnel problems. Both of these
actions were in accord with authority contained in Executive Orders.
Procurement
Difficulties.-Difficulty is securing equipment and supplies was
experienced by the Bureau shortly after war was declared. This was
especially true of meteorological instrumental equipment which contained
critical materials that were required in large quantity by the military
forces. Next in order of difficulty of procurement were automotive
equipment, balloons, hardware, metal filing cases, and office machines.
The priorities
provisions originally set up by the Office of Production Management
were unsatisfactory and hampering. It required a number of personal
contacts with representatives of O.P.M. by the Bureau contract officer
to work out satisfactory procedures and to obtain necessary blanket
authorities. This was time consuming and caused serious delays in
obtaining urgently needed equipment.
In order
to conserve as much as possible critical materials required in large
quantity by the military, the Bureau wherever possible resorted to
repairing equipment already on hand, thereby prolonging its life;
obtaining surplus supplies when practicable; and substituting non-critical
materials, such as wood instead of metal office furnishings, when
the substitute were more easily obtainable. However, it soon developed
that substitutes also became scarce because of the large demand caused
by expansion of war activities of all kinds. An example of this was
balloons. This was an item vital to our needs in obtaining upper-air
information for military flying. The Bureau substituted synthetic
balloons for those made of rubber. Soon thereafter the procurement
of synthetic balloons became acute because of the limited stockpile
available, and the large demand for balloons and other items made
of this material. It then became necessary to work out plans with
the military agencies to release a certain quantity of balloons to
the Bureau to meet its immediate requirements.
The authority
exercised by the Bureau as a war agency to negotiate contracts for
critical equipment for war purposes instead of resorting to the usual
bid procedure was of considerable help. This permitted of negotiating
contracts direct with sources of known supply and insured the Bureau
of the best available deliveries. This procedure is highly recommended
for all future procurement during National emergencies.
As the
war progressed and the O.P.M. was reorganized as the W.P.B., the Army
and navy Munitions Board and other technical equipment procurement
committees were established, simplifications and improvements were
made in the distribution of scarce materials. The Weather Bureau was
assigned a priority rating of AA1, which was second only to the AAA
rating assigned the military service. Under this procedure necessary
items were furnished to the Bureau after the needs of the military
services were met. Arrangements were also made among the parties concerned
whereby some articles of short supply, available to the military,
were consigned to the Weather Bureau.
In addition
to engaging in considerable research in meteorological instrumental
problems, and aiding in the designing and improving of suitable instrumental
equipment adapted to war purposes, such as radiosondes, ceilometers,
etc., the Bureau, through its representation on the Subcommittee on
Equipment of the Joint Meteorological Committee, assisted the military
services in the preparation of specifications for the purchase of
such equipment. Satisfactory solutions were reached on technical matters
through coordination with the military services in standardizing technical
specifications to simplify the manufacture and procurement of meteorological
equipment, but, as indicated before, the Bureau found itself handicapped
in its own procurement programs by the operation of certain limitation
orders issued by the War Production Board. The military agencies cooperated
when necessary in the extension of adequate priority ratings to Weather
Bureau procurements but such ratings did not remove the restrictions
of the limitation orders applying to the Weather Bureau.
The following
is therefore recommended as one solution to the problem of production,
distribution and procurement of meteorological equipment during a
war period:
Set up
an action committee consisting of one representative of the meteorological
office of the various departments. This committee also should constitute
a panel on the War Production Board with authority to allocate available
production among the various services as required. Such a panel would
constitute the final authority for coordinating requirements of the
several meteorological services in the procurement or technical equipment.
Printing
and Issuing Publications.-The Printing Section of the Weather
Bureau was practically the only governmental agency engaged in the
printing of weather maps and meteorological information at the time
of the outbreak of hostilities in 1941. The demands for reproduction
of weather information immediately became so great and exacting that
prewar printing facilities were found to be inadequate. To relieve
this situation priorities for the acquisition of additional offset
presses and related equipment were obtained from the War Production
Board. The purchase and installation of a large camera to photograph
maps 40"x40" was an outstanding procurement. This camera was operated
for 24 hours a day and was of strategic importance in the photographic
reproduction of world-wide meteorological data for military operations.
In order to operate the additional equipment during regular and irregular
hours the staff of the Printing Section was greatly increased.
Instructional
weather maps both analyzed and unanalyzed, were supplied in enormous
quantities by the Weather Bureau to support the several personnel
training programs. One series of maps alone totaled 300,000 copies.
Printing of the Washington Daily Weather Map was restricted and issued
seven days late as a precautionary wartime measure. No maps were issued
by field stations. A Civilian Pilot Training map with a daily issue
of 6000 copies was provided for the duration of the course. To supplement
these instructional maps there were printed and made available to
interested services and organizations special weather guides, graphs,
charts and visual presentations of the world with special emphasis
on climatic conditions of strategic areas.
The photographic
laboratory of the Printing Section successfully photographed the original
maps and prepared the negatives for reproduction of the series of
historical weather maps that were published in book form for a period
of 40 ½ years. Because of the magnitude of the project the facilities
of the Weather Bureau and the Government Printing Office were not
adequate to handle it so that contracts were negotiated through the
Public Printer for commercial printing, at a cost of approximately
a quarter of a million dollars. This cost shared proportionately by
the Army, Navy, and Weather Bureau.
Emergency
demands of the Army required a reproduction service for the duplication
and preservation of a large quantity of tabulated meteorological data,
maps and graphs. A unit was therefore set up with additional enlarging
and printing facilities. This unit averaged 15,000 photographic prints
from microfilm each month during the emergency. A wide range of subjects
was filmed, such as meteorological data, foreign-language books, radiosonde
records, bomb-run data and special scientific papers.
The educational
and training programs also required the making of special lantern
slides, photographic enlargements, reductions and additional prints.
The program of Latin-American cooperation also necessitated the production
of meteorological data in various forms. Weather codes were photographed
and processed under the strictest security provisions for the use
of the armed forces.
Administrative
functions were greatly enlarged and accelerated by the emergency.
This involved the writing of specifications, the purchasing of new
equipment, procuring of ink, photographic and lithographic supplies,
enormous quantities of paper, and the processing of meteorological
data from the raw material to the finished product. Mailing lists
of publications were purged and controlled. Some were discontinued
for the duration.
Should
another emergency arise additional equipment of the latest type will
be required for offset and photographic work to add to that now in
use. The new equipment should provide especially for the prompt and
efficient printing of multi-colored maps and colored photographs.
Such new equipment would also have much present value and permit of
meeting more easily future emergency needs should it be necessary.
Air conditioning and temperature-control units are also required to
accelerate reproduction by eliminating guess work as to the condition
of paper and composition of chemicals affected by humidity and temperature.
Since
the time element is so vitally essential in wartime, the ability to
produce weather information and maps for strategic and other operations
necessitates accurate high-speed equipment, lack of which resulted
in handicaps that were experienced during the present war.
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