News Letter 1941 Jul-Dec - Air Force Historical Studies Office

The Middletown Program
Training Craftsmen for the AIr Depot
By Corporal George Eekels
Seeo.d Tra.sport sq•• d....
EJ
comprehenSiVe four-fold program for specialized
training in the field of engineering,
A
supply, administration, and military science has
been developed and placed in operation by the
Middletown Air Depot.
Typical of the training programs is that developed
in the field of mechanics and engineering,
in which the need was most urge.nt. It is a continuing
program, based on a training course of
four months duration.
Executing the program,. under the supervision of
Captain Herbert A. Pelton, is a complete staff
geared to meet demands for speed - efficiently and
safely. The staff includes a personnel administrator
and a technical librarian who also supervises
compilat ion of texts and technical mater ials.
We have a civilian training director, two shop
coordinators, a specialist on job analysis, a director
of apprentice training, and about twenty
clerks.
TClIlm8hipInstructors Used
~~ ~~~!!!!.!!.!!!!.!!'!!!!!!!.!!.!!!
Key men on the staff are 188 part-time instructors.
There are twenty full-time instructors as-
~igned by the Derry Township School District,
(Hershey, t'ennsylvania is in Derry Townllhip)whiCh
pays their salaries.
The school district's expenses are subsidized by
the COIDIIOowealthof fennsylvania and, for national
defense training, ..subsidy was also allotted by
the United States Office of Education. Normal
salaries of instructors are paid by the State
while payr.._ntfor overt ime h made from federal
funds. Derry Township instructors also aided in
establishing engineering training courses and in
editing textbooks produced for the emergency program.
Key mechanics and foremen in Middletown Air
uepot's anopa outlined and wrote the .raining
courses.
The senior mechanic or foreman of each department
supervises training in his own sphere of
specialization. Under this plan every man in the
depot is being trained to be aome kind of specialiat.
Four-fifths of all. training at the depot is
in engineering. subjects. We use the pyramidal
system of instruction in each department. By that
we mean that aa an individual student progresses
toward a higher lev~l of experience, he teaches
what he haa already learned to the newer men behind
him. The values of this system are manifold.
It teac.hes teaDIIIJork.It helps the instructor. It
helps the experienced mechanic. It certainly aids
the newer men. It saves time for foremen and department
heads.
Training practical
Vocational training at Middletown is a practical
synthesis of instruction in working shops and adjoining
classrooms. This plan allows trainees to
gain "on-the-job" experience on material they will
work on after their period of basic instruction is
completed. Six portable classrooms have been
built adjacent to toe aepot's engineer ing shops.
Each classroom has its own d18intenance crew. Wide
windows and bright fluorescent ceiling lamps provide
adequate lighting for lectures, blackboard
discussions, meetings, and specialist training,
twice around the clock.
In intensified technical training, one of the
greatest needs is for practical instruction
methods. Wide usage is made of visual aids and
mock-up boards at the Middletown Training center.
These exce llent dev ices increase the II see ing
range" of students. For example, as many as fifty
students at one time may carefully examine a board
showing the complete scheme of the electrical
system for the B-18 Bomber. By pulling a switch,
cut into the circuit, course instructors may
short-circuit the board and then, as a test, designate
a trainee to find the trouble. Large numbers
of students may examine similar boards showing
a B.l8A hydraulic layout, instrument panels,
and so on.
An obsolete and surveyed plane hss been rebuilt
and used to train mechanics to taxi and start
enginei. Use is also made of training filOll,produced
by the Maintenance CODlll8ndat Wright Field.
These include titl~s on aircraft electrical
systems, propeller installation., and engine
.mechanics. The Middletown Air Depot serves as a
control center to distribute films to the fields
served.
writing Own
Texta
When defense training classrooms were first
opened at the depot, no textbooks containing the
required speci~lized information were available
anywhere. None l had been written that was suitable.
Textbook conpilers of the future may well
look to the original work done by the pioneers of
Middletown for guidance. Men there are writing
their own course.outlines and texts. The ~epot
NOVEMBER '94'
17