An Assessment of Assessment : Is Selective Manning Right for USAF Special Operations Aircrew?

Lessons The United States Army, Navy, and Air Force all provide special operations forces to United States Special Operations Command (USSOCOM). Two of these three services, the Army and the Navy, conduct rigorous assessment programs in their selection of special operations force (SOF) personnel. The US Air Force conducts no special assessment program, neither psychological nor physical, in selection of SOF aircrew personnel. Both the Army and Navy stress a psychological assessment phase. This paper examines several psychological assessment vehicles, such as the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory and the Sixteen Personality Factor test, which could be integrated into a program that would select Air Force SOF aircrew based on, among other things, an individuals psychological predisposition. Historically, psychological assessment has proven effective since the days of World War II, and today both the Army and Navy continue to successfully man their SOF forces with personnel who are motivated, disciplined, focused and unrelenting in pursuit of mission accomplishment. The US Air Force needs to give the same effort to selecting personnel for SOF as does the Army and Navy. Only when all three services impose the same demanding requirements for SOF personnel will SOCOM have a special operations force capable of succeeding anytime, anyplace.