ercent of the courses offered by the Army were closed to
Negroes. The Army denied that discrimination was involved. Since (p. 355)
existing black units could not use the full range of the Army's
military occupational specialties, went the official line of
reasoning, it would be wasteful and inefficient to train men for
nonexistent jobs in those units. It followed that the Organization and
Training Division must exclude many Negroes from being classified in
specialties for which they were qualified and from Army schools that
would train others for such unneeded specialties.

[Illustration: ROY DAVENPORT.]

This reasoning was in the interest of segregation, not efficiency, and
Davenport and others were able to prove to the committee's
satisfaction that the Army's segregation policy could be defended
neither in terms of manpower efficiency nor common fairness. With
Davenport and Fowler's testimony, Charles Fahy later explained, he
began to "see light for a solution."[14-49] He began to see how he would
probably be able to gain the committee's double objective: the
announcement of an integration policy for the Army and the
establishment of a practical program that would immediately begin
moving the Army from segregation to integration.

[Footnote 14-49: Interv, Nichols with Fahy, in Nichols
Collection, CMH.]

In fact, military efficiency was a potent weapon which, if skillfully
handled, might well force the Army into important concessions leading
to integration. Taking its cue from Davenport and Fowler, the
committee would contend that, as the increasing complexity of war had
created a demand for skilled manpower, the country could ill-afford to
use any of its soldiers below their full capacity or fail to train
them adequately. With a logic understandable to President and public
alike, the committee could later state that since maximum military
efficiency demanded that all servicemen be given an equal opportunity
to discover and exploit their talents, an indivisible link existed
between military efficiency and equal opportunity.[14-50] Thus equal
opportunity in the name of military efficiency became one of the
committee's basic premises; until the end of its existence the
committee hammered away at this premise.

[Footnote 14-50: Fahy Cmte, "Second Interim Report to
the President," 27 Jul 49, FC file.]

While the committee's logic was unass