s mental standards to
the Navy and Air Force levels, but neither service wanted to lower its
own entrance standards to match the level necessity had imposed on the
Army. The Air Force eventually agreed to enlist Negroes at a 10
percent ratio to whites, but the Navy held out for higher standards
and no allocation by race. It contended that setting the same
standards for all services would improve the quality of the Army's
black enlistees only imperceptibly while it would do great damage to
the Navy. The Navy admitted that the other services should help the
Army, but not "up to the point of _unnecessarily_ reducing their own
effectiveness.... The modern Navy cannot operate its ships and
aircraft with personnel of G.C.T. 70."[13-38] General Bradley cut to the
point: if the Navy carried the day it would receive substantially
fewer Negroes than the other two services and a larger portion of the
best qualified.[13-39] Secretary Forrestal first referred the
interservice controversy to the Munitions Board in May 1948 and later
that summer to a special interservice committee. After both groups
failed to reach an agreement,[13-40] Forrestal decided not to force a
parity in mental standards upon the services. On 12 October he
explained to the secretaries that parity could be imposed only during
time of full mobilization, and since conditions in the period between
October 1948 and June 1949 could not be considered comparable to those
of full mobilization, parity was impossible. He promised, however, to
study the qualitative needs of each service. Meanwhile, he had found
no evidence that any service was discriminating in the selection
of enlistees and settled for a warning that any serious (p. 326)
discrimination by any two of the services would place "an intolerable
burden" on the third.[13-41]

[Footnote 13-38: Memo, SecNav for SecDef, 27 May 48,
sub: Liaison With the Selective Service System and
Determination of Parity Standards, P14-6; Memo,
Actg SecNav for SecDef, 17 Aug 48; sub: Items in
Disagreement Between the Services as Listed in
SecDef's Memo of 15 Jul 48, P 14-4; both in
GenRecsNav. The quotation is from an inclosure to
the latter memo.]

[Footnote 13-39: CofSA, Rpt of War Council Min, 3 Aug
48, copy in OSD Historical Off