page_title: Freeman Field mutiny
section_title: Base Regulation 85-2
hierarchical_section_title: Freeman Field mutiny / The protest at Freeman Field / Base Regulation 85-2
caption_attribution_description: English: This is an official United States Army Air Forces photo of Colonel Robert R. Selway, Jr., reviewing the 618th Bomber Squadron at the Atterbury Army Air Field in Indiana on June 24, 1944. The Tuskegee Airman that Colonel Selway is facing is Hubert L. Jones, Class P43H. In 1945, Colonel Selway segregated the black and white officers' clubs at Freeman Field near Seymour, leading to a protest by black officers of the 477th Bombardment Group (Medium) known as the Freeman Field Mutiny. The original of this image may be viewed at [1].
context_page_description: The Freeman Field mutiny was a series of incidents at Freeman Army Airfield, a United States Army Air Forces base near Seymour, Indiana, in 1945 in which African American members of the 477th Bombardment Group attempted to integrate an all-white officers' club. The mutiny resulted in 162 separate arrests of black officers, some of them twice. Three were court-martialed on relatively minor charges. One was convicted. In 1995, the Air Force officially vindicated the actions of the African-American officers, set aside the single court-martial conviction and removed letters of reprimand from the permanent files of 15 of the officers. The mutiny is generally regarded by historians of the Civil Rights Movement as an important step toward full integration of the armed forces and as a model for later efforts to integrate public facilities through civil disobedience.
context_section_description: After investigating the incidents of April 5 and 6, Colonel Torgils G. Wold, Air Inspector of the First Air Force, recommended dropping the charges against all of the officers except Lieutenant Terry and two others arrested with him.  After consulting General Hunter, Colonel Selway accepted the recommendation and released the 58.  Since the Air Inspector's recommendation was based on uncertainty about whether the order segregating the clubs had been properly drafted and published, Colonel Selway drafted a new order, Base Regulation 85-2, that he thought would meet all technical legal requirements.
  To make sure that none of the African-American officers could deny knowledge of the new regulation, Colonel Selway had his deputy commander, Lieutenant Colonel John B. Pattison, assemble the trainees on April 10 and read them the regulation.  After doing so, Colonel Pattison gave each officer a copy of the regulation and told them to sign a statement certifying that they had read it and fully understood it.  No one signed.  A subsequent effort by Captain Anthony A. Chiappe, commander of Squadron E, to coax 14 officers into signing produced only three signers. Finally, on the advice of Air Inspector Wold and a representative of the First Air Force Judge Advocate, Colonel Selway set up a board consisting of two black officers and two white officers to interview the non-signers individually and present them with the following options:
  sign the certification;
  write and sign their own individual certificates in which they did not have to acknowledge that they understood the regulation; or
  face arrest under the 64th Article of War for disobeying a direct order by a superior officer in time of war, an offense that technically could be punished by death. See Uniform Code of Military Justice, §890, Article 90, Assaulting or willfully disobeying superior commissioned officer.
  The Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ), is not applicable in this case, as the UCMJ was not adopted by the US Military until 07MAY1950
  The board carried out the interviews on April 11.  One hundred and one officers refused to sign and were placed under arrest in quarters.
caption: Colonel Robert Selway reviews members of the 618th Bombardment Squadron at Atterbury Air Field in Indiana in 1944.
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