I__. - International Military Testing Association

The Air Force Medical Evaluat ion Test, Basic
Military Training, and Character of Separation
Edna R. Fiedler’
Wilford Hall Medical Center
Lackland Air Force Base, Texas
Selection procedures and rapid early intervention are two strategies used
by the United States Air Force to reduce the human and monetary costs of
attrition in the enlisted force. Cognitive measures such as the Armed Services
Vocational Aptitude Battery and the Armed Forces Qualification Test have long
been used effectively for academically based screening. Self reported
biographical data (biodatal and personality measures have been used for
screening noncognitive adaptability.
Armed Services biodata techniques have included the Navy’s Recruit
Background Questionnaire (RBQl and the Army’s Military Applicant Profile (MAP)
and Assessment of Background and Life Experiences (ABLE!. Currently, the Navy,
as Executive Agent, designed the Armed Service Applicant Profile, a combination
of the best items from MAP and RBQ (Trent, Quenette, 6 Laabs, 1990; Laabs,
Trent, 81 Quenette, 1989).
Other studies have used a variety of personality measures to predict basic
military training attrition. While Spielberger and Barker (1979) studied the
relationships of trait and state naxiety on attrition from basic military
training for both Navy and Air Force recruits, Butters, Retzlaff and Gibertini
(lp861 used the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory (MCMI) to predict 80% of
mental health clinic recommended discharge versus return-to-duty dispositions.
McCraw and Bearden (19881 have focused on motivational demographic, and
personality test scores to technical training school students referred to a
mental health clinic.
Since the 1970’s, the Air Force has used The Air Force Medical Evaluation
Test (AFMET 1 to screen out those basic recruits likely to attrite from Basic
Military Training. Early work on the development and initial validation of the
instrument included the studies by Lachar (19741, and Guinn, Johnson, and Kenton
(19751. Bloom (1977, 1980, 19831 reported on the ongoing operational aspects of
the program. The interested reader is referred to Crawford ‘8 (19901 review of
the history of AFMET. This study reports on the efficacy of the instrument used
in the first phase, the History Opinion Inventory (HOI), for predicting 9MT
performance and Character of Separation. In addition, the Gordon Personal
Profile (Gordon) and the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality (MMPI) are discussed
in relationship to BMl’ performance and character of separation.
METHOD
Subjects.
The total sample consisted of all USAF enlisted personnel whose total
Active Military Service Date was calendar year 1985 through 1988 and who were
also identified by Wilford Hall USAF Medical Center for testing on the AFMET,
or 171,707 subjects (males = 158,601, females = 33,106). The number of
-------s.------------
1 Disclaimer: The views expressed in this paper are thoae cf the author and do
MJt neceSsarily repreaent thoee of the United States Air Force or the Departffient
Of Defenee. Acknowledgments: The author thanks Melody Darby and Doris Black for
their assistance in statistical analyses, Calvin Fresne for his assistance ln
data management, and Malcolm Ree, PH.D. for his assistance throughout the study.
392