Arizona sun., 1951-08-17

ABOUT lInpreSnaLlnS eacn unlC
on the Fort with the idea that
new baby was to be born there.
And he stressed the fact that
neither he, nor the general would
tolerate any interference which
might affect the new baby's birth.
To aid in the birth, Col. Walker
called in 1t. Col. Elmer P. Gibson,
colored chaplain and veteran of
five years service at Ft. Lee who
had seen segregation at it's forst at
the Fort. AS one of the first steps
in showing that he meant what
he said, Col. Walker had Chaplain
Gibson placed in complete charge
of the % other colored and white
chaplains on the Fort and named
him Post Chaplain, marking the
first time that a colored chaplain
has held such a post as large at Dix
in the United States Army.
Then they rolled up their sleeves
and went to work. All units on
the base were broken up and
mixed up with colored and white
troops. Assignments were made
on military specialties and where
colored mans abilities were
greater than that of a white he
was placed in position of COM
mand. When the troops were in
tegrated, Col. Walker and Col.
Gibson insisted that it be done
at the squad level. In other words,
if ten colored men were sent to
Company b. they were not all
placed in the first platoon or in
the second squad. Three or four
went to the first, one or two to
the second platoons, and others to
the third so that it was not pos
sible to bunch any of them up in
any one place.
AS the men were assigned to
their companies, they were as
signed to their living quarters. If
a man was the only colored. man
in the first platoon he slept in
the section set aside in his bar
racks for the first platoon. Under
this plan, the integration was soon
complete.
Then came the recreational ac-
tivities. Here again they followed
the plan. Everything on the post,
including the service clubs, SWIM
ming facilities, etc., was opened
up to all the men at the Fort.
At the churches on Sunday,
Chaplain Gibson found himself
preaching to audiences 85 per cent
white and Is per cent colored. He
set up a two week Bible School
at the Fort which attendance
turned out to be about SO per cent
white, and before each session of
the school the commanding gen.
eral of the Fort, Maj. Gen. William
S. Harrison, called in the principal
participants in the session to his
quarters and together, he and
members of his family, got down
on their knees and prayed for it's
success.
With such a plan the results
were inevitable. Integration at
Fort Dix today is "fiat accmopli"
and everyone at the Fort is tickled
pink at it's success. There has been
no single incident to mar the sue
cess of the program.
1 talked with Colonel Walker
about the success of the program.
Colonel Walker feels that what
has happened at Dix can happen
anywhere and he is a native south
erner. He takes the position that
it is not the iberalness of the New
Jersey community which has
helped the plan to work, half so
much as it is the fact that there
was first a plan, and the propon-
ents of the plan stood by it and
saw that it worked. He frankly
remarked that the integration of
colored and white troops at FIT.
Dix has materially increased the
efficiency of the command and
said integration in the army makes
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