Origins of the physical profile.
This article examines how the U.S. Army came to adopt the physical profile. In 1945, the Army adopted the physical profile system that has, with some changes, survived to this day. Although the profile system does not always work smoothly, it replaced a system that was failing completely to deliver physically fit men to combat units. The World War II problems were the outgrowth of two World War I systems that had been adopted to speed mobilization by (1) accepting physically substandard men and (2) matching men to a noncombat job by their skills. By simply identifying a soldier as "General Service" or "Limited Service" it did not provide enough information about his limitations. In addition, the Army used an intelligence test to grade manpower, but because it lacked information on a man's physical abilities/limitations, that data were misused to allot manpower. These policies interacted with a societal disdain for the "handicapped" and "substandard" and made it hard to use Limited Service men. Adding detail to the information on physical abilities was the Army's solution.
Office of Medical History, U.S. Army, HQ MEDCOM, MCMH-HO, Fort Sam Houston, TX 78234-6028, USA.
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