Here is an interesting little story about colorblind people working for the army. This story was published in the Time magazine on the 5th of August in 1940—so quite a while ago.
One man in 20 is color-blind in greater or lesser degree and for that reason ineligible for training as an Army Air Corps pilot or observer. Last week the Air Corps’s School of Flight Medicine reported an interesting incident.
In a plane at Fort Sill, Okla. early this summer, an Air Corps observer was able to spot only ten of 40 camouflaged artillery fieldpieces on the ground. An observer of the Field Artillery in a plane spotted all 40 and accurately plotted their positions on his map. The explanation: the artilleryman, selected under less rigorous examination than the Air Corps man, was colorblind. Camouflage, designed to deceive the normal eye, fooled him not a whit.
Last week, at the School of Flight Medicine, clerks combed the files preparing a list of candidates rejected for color blindness. But the Air Corps still wants no color-blind pilots. A pilot must be able to distinguish between colors in Very signals, field lights, etc., where a mistake would be costly.
Found at National Defense: Color-Blind Observers.
Thanks to Vasile from Discromat for sending me the link.
Guess you might be interested.
http://www.sotos.com/writings/deutan_mission_specialists.pdf
Ps: Thanks Brett for sharing this article.
Chae, that’s a great article. Thanks for sharing it with us!
BTW. Daniel, Thanks a lot for running and maintaining such a wonderful website.
The explanation: the artilleryman, selected under less rigorous examination than the Air Corps man, was colorblind. Camouflage, designed to deceive the normal eye, fooled him not a whit.
Thank you for this excellent informative website. It’s been quite an education.
I’m currently trying to discover if the myth about colorblind snipers is true or not. Perusing the few related military discussion boards, opinions vary. Would you happen to know one way or the other? Thanks for any help you may provide.
I’d like to quote (once again) that some people has already pointed out that it might not be ability distinguish the shapes but the ability to distinguish particular range of colors.
–original article–
http://vision.psychol.cam.ac.uk/jdmollon/papers/Bostenetal05.pdf
–related matters–
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1504812/Colour-blind-No-you-are-just-a-shade-different.html
(I do paintings by the way.)
Am already familiar with these articles (just FYI) prior to posting here. Already have a computer file folder crammed with them. While suggestive, not one has the necessary specificity originally requested. I’d like to quote myself (once more):
“I’m currently trying to discover if the myth about colorblind snipers is true or not. Perusing the few related military discussion boards, opinions vary. Would you happen to know one way or the other?”
If someone can answer that question via a first-hand personal account I’d be interested. More studies or research like the previous, however, I would not.