The Ninety Day Wonders: OCS and the Modern American Army (review)

According to the prologue, "The purpose of this book is to explain briefly the system of procuring and training Army officers prior to World War I and the origin and evolution of the OCS concept during and after the war." This is potentially an interesting and important topic, particularly given the significant percentage of Army officers who during the twentieth century have been commissioned from officer candidate programs.

The book consists of eight chapters, but in effect is organized in four unequal (in size and quality) sections—Army officer procurement prior to 1917, officer training in World War I, the development and evolution of OCS during World War II, and OCS during the Cold War (including Korea and Vietnam). The pre-1917 and World War I segments are a jumble of information about officer procurement and more general American and military history, presumably to provide context. The constantly shifting context and some of the dubious history provided make these easy to skip; readers familiar with the works of William Skelton, Edward M. Coffman, and John Garry Clifford will learn nothing new. The final section on the Cold War is too brief, only 25 of the 220 pages of text, to adequately cover the subject.

The bulk of the book, five chapters totaling 140 pages, covers World War II. There is some useful information here describing the genesis of officer procurement during the war, showing how the effort of the U.S. Army differed from other armies, and particularly highlighting the experience of some of those candidates undergoing the process of transition from civilian to junior officer. The sections on female and African-American officer candidates are among the most interesting. The nearly fifty photographs and cartoons also enhance interest in the presentation, although one wishes the pictures from the Vietnam-era appeared in the last chapter and not interspersed throughout the World War II chapters.

The research is based entirely on published sources, with much of the information for the largest section on World War II coming from the Army official histories, "the Green Books," on the Army Ground Forces, the Women's Army Corps, and Negro troops. In conclusion, this is a book for graduates of Army OCS, not for scholars.