Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/307242 
Authors: 
Year of Publication: 
2024
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 17418
Publisher: 
Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
The 1949 study The American Soldier: Combat and Its Aftermath, Volume II, by Stouffer et al. presents detailed accounts of the attitudes of American fighter pilots toward the stress experienced by them and of the policies and practices of the American Air Force command in addressing this stress during WWII. The 2022 study "Killer incentives" by Ager et al. documents an aspect and a repercussion of the stress of German fighter pilots and can be used to identify the response to that stress by the German Air Force command during WWII. Drawing on these two studies, in this paper I construct fighter pilot stress profiles in the two air forces. The picture that emerges is that there is a stark difference between the approaches of the two commands. This diversity leads me to conjecture that the American Air Force command explicitly sought to forestall and curtail fighter pilots' stress, whereas the German Air Force command implicitly cultivated and engineered fighter pilots' stress.
Subjects: 
WWII
fighter pilots
combat missions
fighter pilot stress
policies and practices of the American Air Force in curtailing stress
policies and practices of the German Air Force in cultivating stress
JEL: 
D01
D23
D9
E7
H56
I12
I38
J28
J38
J48
J58
N42
N44
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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