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I heartily endorse Don Gill's carefully reasoned statement,
regarding this thread. I have followed, as nearly as possible, every word in
every msg. I found the subject matter to be of great interest, since it
answered, for me, some long-standing questions pertaining to the official
policies of the US military, on integration, during the Korean War period.
I entered the Army, in May, 51. I received Basic Trng at Ft Riley, Ks,
in the 87th Regt, 10th Div. It was alleged that my particular trng company was
the first "fully integrated" trng co, at Ft Riley. Ah! The military mind!.
There was 1 blk soldier/plt & 1 Chinese-Amer & 1 Japanese-Amer
soldier/Co. The personnel clks had done a fantastic job of screening &
provided Northern blk soldiers w/the highest possible level of education. These
individuals apparently received heavy motivational instruction regarding the
fact that the entire "integration" program rested on their shoulders. My plt's
token blk was Brad, from Chicago, w/a law degree from the U of Chicago. Whatever
we did in trng, Brad always made certain that he did twice as much. When we went
the range, on foot. Brad always carried the heaviest item twice as long as
anyone else. So, naturally, he was liked & respected by all. From BT, I went
across the Post to the OCS Bde. Again, the same mix, except that religion was
injected into the "bowl". We had at least 1 Mormon/Plt + Prot-Cath-Jew. My Plt's
Blk was a NG M/Sgt on active duty to attend OCS [Someone had told him that he
couldn't hack it!] Percy was unquestionably the sharpest soldier, whom I saw, in
20 yrs of active duty. Upon commissioning, I was assigned to Aberdeen PG, MD.
Ordnance traditionally receives the "bottom of the barrel" in AFQT scores,
since these warm bodies can be trained to drive trucks or be mechanics. As such,
APG was one of the last Army installations to become "integrated". And I finally
learned what the "fuss" was about. Sorry that I have become so long-winded! Best
regards, J Baker
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