ABSTRACT
The selection of a military career, like the selection of any career, represents the interplay of opportunity plus a complex of social and personality factors. The military career had overtones of a "calling," with a sense of mission. It represented a deliberate rejection of what was believed to be the prosaic and limited horizons of the business world. In the urban commercial centers the selection of a military career was frowned upon. The military career offered the strong-willed an opportunity to achieve these values; and, in turn, such career motivation made it possible for the armed services to perpetuate the martial spirit. But when, as in the case of General "Billy" Mitchell, missionary zeal oversteps ultimate organization forms, the individual runs the risk of expulsion or internal exile. The events of the depression of the 1930's marked a transformation of American social structure, and among these changes was the recruitment pattern of the military.
