ed to drop, the Division of Plans and
Policies was forced to justify the existence of black units by a
series of reorganizations and redistributions. When, for example, the
reorganization of the Fleet Marine Force caused the inactivation of
two black depot units, the division designated a 108-man truck company
as a black unit to take up the slack. At the same time the division
found yet another "suitable" occupation for black marines by laying
down a policy that all security detachments at inactive naval
facilities were to be manned by Negroes. It also decided to assign
small black units to the service battalions of the Marine divisions,
maintaining that such assignments would not run counter to the
commandant's policy of restricting Negroes to noncombat
organizations.[13-76]

[Footnote 13-76: Memo, Dir, Div of Plans and Policies,
for CMC, 28 Jul 49, sub: Re-assignment of Negro
Marines to Existing units (DP&P Study 88-49), MC
files.]

The Marine Corps, in short, had no intention of relaxing its policy of
separating the races. The timing of the integration of recruit
training and the breakup of some large black units perhaps suggested a
general concession to the Truman order, but these administrative
changes were actually made in response to the manpower restrictions of
the Truman defense budget. In fact, the position of black marines
in small black units became even more isolated in the months (p. 338)
following the Truman order as the Division of Plans and Policies began
devising racially separate assignments. Like the stewards before them,
the security guards at closed naval installations and ammunition
depots found themselves in assignments increasingly viewed as
"colored" jobs. That the number of Negroes in the Marine Corps was so
small aided and abetted these arrangements, which promised to continue
despite the presidential order until some dramatic need for change
arose.

_The Air Force Plans for Limited Integration_

Of all the services, the Air Force was in the best position to respond
promptly to President Truman's call for equal treatment and
opportunity. For some time a group of Air staff officers had been
engaged in devising a new approach to the use of black manpower.
Indeed their study, much of which antedated the Truman order,
represented the solution of the Air Force's manpower experts to a
pressing problem in milit