The number of students sent to Yuma for gunnery training varied just as it did in other air crew training schools. During World War II, 287,000 officers and enlisted men graduated from all gunnery schools. Normally, students for gunnery school came from those classified for technical training in basic training. However, things began to change by the end of 1943. Because of a surplus of Aviation Cadets and pilots, cadets were washed out and sent to the tech schools. Some of the former cadets were sent directly to gunnery school but most were sent to a tech school and then to gunnery school. The middle of 1944 was the peak time for the number of students in tech schools and this was largely due to the number of Aviation Cadets being washed out of pilot training because of the lack of need and sent to the schools. In the middle of October 1942, General Hap Arnold directed the Flying Training Command to increase pilot production to 102,000 per year. He hoped to graduate no less than 93,600 pilots each year. In the middle of 1943, he directed the Flying Training Command to go "all out" to graduate the maximum number of pilots. But, by the end of 1943 everything had changed. The Army Air Force decided that they had a surplus of pilots. The AAF had made a big miscalculation in its recruiting. They tried to explain the surplus of pilots as a result of unexpected combat successes and a loss rate much less than expected. This may be true to some extent, but the real cause of the surplus was overzealous recruiting and a lack of coordination between those doing the recruiting and the Flying Training Command. The AAF recruited more men than the training facilities could handle. [ Vol. V, The Army Air Forces In WW II , pps. 441,437-438; Vol. VI, pps. 32, 57, 562, 566] Before the end of the war the the number of pilots graduating had been reduced from 93,600 to 5,000 per year. The surplus of Aviation Cadets was a real problem for the Army Air Force. They had to find a way to get rid of the surplus. The AAF solved the problem by washing out the cadets. [Vol. V., The Army Air Forces In WW II, p. 441; History of Eastern Flying Training Command, p. 98-99, 120-121.] About the same time, Major General Walter R. Weaver, head of the Technical Training Command was complaining about the level of education of the men being sent to the technical training schools. He wanted the college students and the creme of the crop high school graduates in the Aviation Cadet program. Furthermore, the AAF in it's preparation for D-Day concluded discovered that they did not have sufficient service personel in Europe for the big day. It was necessary to start shipping them overseas by the end of 1943 in order to avoid clogging up the shipping of Infantry later one. To obtain the required personnel, the Technical Training Command , in lieu of sending men from basic training to technical schools, classified them as basics (without a specialty) and shipped them overseas planning to train them in England. The AAF also raided the technical schools of personnel for this purpose. Then, the Training Command began a wholesale washing out of Aviation Cadets, from basic training to advanced flight training, and sending them to tech schools. By doing so, they accomplished two goals. They reduced the surplus of pilot trainees and gave General Weaver the higher educated personnel that he demanded. The AAF, in transferring the cadets to technical schools, perpetrated a serious breach of faith upon the college men recruited as Aviation Cadets in the great recruitment drives of 1942. Furthermore, they covered up the true reason for eliminating the cadets and lead them to believe that they washed out because of flying deficiencies and the failure to meet other qualifications. It was even worse for the Aviation Cadets that had not commenced cadet training and those in the Ground Forces that qualified for the Aviation Cadets and transferred from the Ground Forces. Most of them ended up as privates in the Infantry. "General Arnold decided that with air superiority won over Europe, the Air Force wasn't going to need anywhere near as many pilots as it had thought. He released 71,000 aviation cadets for the ground forces. [Ambrose, Stephen E., Citizen Soldiers, Simon & Schuster, p. 274] 
