Carra S Sims

To help the U.S. Air Force gain greater insight into the well-being of its members who have sustained mental or physical injuries in combat or combat-related situations, this report gauges the current status of the Air Force s wounded warriors, including their use of and satisfaction with Air Force programs designed to serve them. It presents the baseline findings from a longitudinal analysis of enrollees in the Air Force Wounded Warrior program who were receiving benefits or undergoing evaluation to receive benefits."

Since 1987, the Air Force has used the Strength Aptitude Test (SAT), a test of physical strength, to screen and classify enlisted personnel into career specialties. In this study, RAND evaluated the usefulness, validity, and fairness of the SAT, focusing on implementation of the SAT at military entrance processing stations and the process for setting strength requirements for career fields.

This report provides an overview of how standardized tests are used as part of a broader selection system for each of the services at different points in an officer's career, and a discussion of key issues that should be considered when using standardized tests, including the relationship between tests and racial and ethnic group differences, which could affect minority representation within the officer corps.

The Air Force relies on the Air Force Officer Qualifying Test (AFOQT) as part of its officer selection process. Despite concerns about the test, the authors conclude that it is a good selection test that predicts important Air Force outcomes and is not biased against minorities or women. The Air Force would not benefit by replacing the AFOQT with the SAT, although other valid selection tools could be used to complement the AFOQT.

RAND researchers developed a framework of 14 categories of cross-cultural behaviors and used it to design a survey of recently deployed airmen about the importance of such behaviors to their deployed performance and the helpfulness of training they had received. Analyses of the survey results are presented, along with recommendations for the design of a comprehensive training program and for next steps.