WWII: Navy Training Bulletins – The Tradiv Letter

Description

Naval Training Bulletin: 1942-1945 Evolution

• December 1942: The U.S. Navy’s “Tradiv Letter” is first published.
• Purpose: To collect and distribute information regarding naval training, with the ultimate aim of improving training methods.
• Scope: To share solutions to problems encountered in organizing new schools and training new recruits, including new teaching gadgets or approaches that reduce teaching time or failure rates.
• Method: It solicits information and photographs from all training activities and is prepared to answer questions on training.
• December 1942 – December 1945: The “Tradiv Letter” (later renamed the “Bureau of Naval Personnel Bulletin”) is produced by the training division of the Bureau of Naval Personnel.
• Goal: To aid the Navy’s training program by promoting “maximum learning in minimum time.”
• Sometime between December 1942 and December 1945: The “Tradiv Letter” is renamed the “Bureau of Naval Personnel Bulletin.”

Cast of Characters

• Training Division, Bureau of Naval Personnel:Bio: The U.S. Navy division responsible for producing the “Tradiv Letter” (and later the “Bureau of Naval Personnel Bulletin”) from December 1942 to December 1945. Its primary objective was to improve naval training methods by sharing information and solutions to common training problems across various Navy training activities. They actively solicited input from the field to achieve “maximum learning in minimum time.”

World War II: Naval Training Publications – The Tradiv Letter

Spanning 1,797 pages, these U.S. Navy training bulletins cover the period from December 1942 through December 1945. Initially known as the Tradiv Letter, this publication originated from the Bureau of Naval Personnel’s training division. Its stated objective was to furnish information and resources for enhanced training. Subsequently, it was rebranded as the Bureau of Naval Personnel Bulletin.

The inaugural edition, released in December 1942, stated: “While the immediate goal of the Tradiv LETTER is to gather and disseminate data on naval training, its ultimate ambition is to refine training methodologies.”

Numerous challenges have emerged and been overcome during the process of establishing new schools and instructing and preparing new recruits. Some obstacles persist, while others will undoubtedly surface for resolution.

The TraDiv LETTER intends to inform other training initiatives about how your instructional and organizational challenges were resolved, allowing others to learn from your experiences.

Have you devised an innovative teaching tool that reduces instructional duration by one-third? Has a novel teaching strategy halved the number of trainees failing at the range finders’ school? If so, the Tradiv LETTER will circulate this information, ensuring the new method benefits the largest possible audience. As an article on visual aids in this edition highlights, our collective challenge is “achieving maximum learning in the shortest possible time.”

Consequently, the Tradiv LETTER actively seeks contributions of information and images from all training activities. It also stands prepared to accept, publish, and endeavor to respond to any inquiries concerning training that could be of broad or even specific interest. In essence, it is ready to support the Training Division in any capacity, with the hope that the Navy’s training curriculum will be improved as a result.