Equality and Inequity in WWII--the Bomber War

 Interesting--in WWII the RAF bomber crews were self-selected with no divisions of rank or class--they stuck the men who had finished training as pilots, navigators, gunners, etc.  in a big room and let them choose each other to form a bomber crew.  Lots of diversity, at least by country (different parts of the British Empire, plus Poles, Free French, Americans, etc.)   

In contrast America was very authoritarian, as the military tends to be, and strikingly was class-based.  College men who were officers were the pilots and navigators; the rest of the crew were enlisted men. A new crew was formed by order from Washington; preferences had nothing to do with it.