The Daily Express

Integration In Armed Forces Almost Complete

WASHINGTON, March 21 (Special)--The three branches of the Armed Forces today reported "great progress" toward racial integration within the Army, Navy, Marines and other military services. Spokesmen indicated that the war in Korea might have had much to do with speeding a program that the Military Establishment had expected to accomplish over a long period.

A number of all-Negro units up to battalion size--1,000 men for infantry and 500 for armored or artillery units--had been sent to Korea, a spokesman said. As casualties occurred and units needed filling. white troops were brought in to fill the gaps in many cases, he added. He doubted if any all-Negro battalions still existed in Korea, although many mixed battalions would be predominately either white or Negro.

The Army, which has the highest percentage of Negro personnel, said it now had complete integration in its training centers although racial integrity had been maintained in some combat units.

The current situation in the combat forces, a spokesman said, results from a World War II decision to keep Negroes in battalion units and to put one Negro battalion with two white battalions in some regiments. He said these men were primarily World War II veterans who had elected to remain in the service as a career.

The Army said 11.7 percent of its enlisted personnel and 2.1 percent of its officer personnel were Negroes.

THE OTHER SERVICES all denied there was segregation in their branches. "We have no segregation, but we haven't hit the millennium yet," a Navy spokesman said.

On June 23, 1949, the Navy issued a regulation to all ships and stations saying there would be "no special or unusual provisions for accommodations of any minority race." This- included "housing, messing and berthing."

The Navy, however, has only 19 Negro officers and about three per cent Negro enlisted personnel.

Negroes comprise about 5.1 per cent of the Air Force. That is broken down to about .6 per cent officers and 5.6 per cent enlisted men.

The Marine Corps said it had no segregation in units or otherwise, but it could not produce an immediate percentage figure on Negroes. "We cannot get an answer from the records here," a spokesman said, "because we don't make race distinctions on service records."