A study determined whether chemical operations specialists at skill level 1 differ in terms of aptitude, job knowledge, job confidence, and perceptions of task difficulty, task importance, task frequency, and task training, depending on whether the specialists are active U.S. Army soldiers or are in the Army Reserve. The subjects for whom complete data were obtained were 151 active soldiers selected from 6 units and 152 reserve soldiers selected from 9 reserve units at 12 different locations. Data collection involved obtaining scores on the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery as recorded in each subjects' personnel file and the administration of the following instruments: (1) Chemical Operations Specialist Skill Level 1 Job Knowledge Test with a demographic cover sheet; (2) Chemical Operations Specialist Skill Level 1 Job Confidence Survey; and (3) Chemical Operations Specialist Skill Level 1 Task Survey. Discriminant analysis was the statistical technique used. The following results were reported: (1) the active Army soldiers had significantly higher composite scores than the Army reservists in all aptitude areas assessed; (2) the two groups did not differ significantly on the variables job confidence and perceptions of task training; (3) the active Army specialists had significantly higher scores on the measures of job knowledge and perceptions of task frequency than did the reservists; and (4) the reservists had significantly higher scores on perceptions of task difficulty and task importance. (A 12-item bibliography is included.) (CML)