The Omaha guide., 1943-02-06

tiOilo iCLoliiCu W thCAh VIII lHC
information that the Air Forces
need no more Negro weatehr Of
ficers. The Air Forces, however,
do need large numbers Of addit-
ional weather officers SO badly
that white volunteers are being
solicited and accepted, despite a
general policy against voluntary
enlistments in the Army. Yet. it
is unthinkable to those in author
ity that a Negro officer can fill
such a position except at Tuskegee
The same situation exists in arm
ament and engineering, both
ground specialities for which the
Air Forces have been accepting
cadets generally, but refusing Ne
groeS.
To date. all Negro applicants, 4
number of them well and fully
qualified, for appointment as All
my service pilots have been re-
jected. Two applicants were act
ually instructed to report for
trainin9 They did so but We're
sent home as soon as it was dis
covered that they were Negroes.
I am advised that this matter is
receiving further study. The sim
pie fact is that the Air. Command
does not want Negro pilots flying
in and out of various fields, eat
ing, sleeping and mingling with
other personnel, as a service pilot
must do in carrying out his var
ious missions.
Negro medical officers in the
Air Forces are getting only part
of the special training in aviation
medicine which is available. They
are not admitted to the principal
school of aviation medicine at
Randolph Field. Even the branch
school program in which it is rep
resented that Negro officers share
without discrimination is in fact,
discriminatory. Many white offic-
ers enrolled at branch schools Of
aviation medicine have the oppor-
tunity Of full time resident study.
The Negro officer is permitted TO
commute periodically from his
home station at Tuskegee for work
at the Maxwell Field branch
school. Such grudging partial ten
der of makeshift schemes may be
expected to continue unless a gen.
uine change of racial attitude ana
policy occurs in the Air Command.
While Negro trainees and cad
cts at the T~uskegee Air Base have
done well from a strictly techn-
zeal point of view, they have suf-
fered such demoralizing discrim-
nation and segregation that, in
judgement, the entire future Of
the Negro in combat aviation is
in danger. Men cannot be hu1nil-
lated over a long period Of time
without a loss of combat efficiency
Specifically, Negro and white
0tf1RnHC CnHUfnor ~ n C1-0-N0 -
the common enterprise of train
ing Negroes for air combat have
separate messes. They are not
to have quarters in the
same building. Separate toilet
facilities have been provided. If
the group of white officers at
Tuskegee insist upon this and 1
no evidence that they do
they are psychologically unsuited /
to train Negroes for combat. If
they do not insist, the racial atti- |
tude of the local commander or Of
authority is all the more |
apparent.
Despite original design to ad-
vance Negro officers and to place.
them in posts of administrative !
responsibility at Tuskegee as rap
as they should qualify, that
is not being carried out in
the post administration, except in
the station hospital.
Early in the history of the Tus-
kegee project, a Negro soldier
guarding a warehouse was dis
armed and arrested by civilian
authorities because he had chall-
enged a white civilian. From then
on friction continued. A new com
mander was appointed. He dis
armed Negro military policemen
assigned to patrol duty in the
town of Tuskegee. A recent mem