. Fahy quickly warned the
Deputy Director of Personnel and Administration that there was no
chance of its winning the committee's approval.[14-110]

[Footnote 14-108: Ltr, Bendetsen to Fahy, 25 Nov 49;
Memo for Rcd, Kenworthy, 28 Nov 49; both in Fahy
Papers, Truman Library.]

[Footnote 14-109: Army Draft No. 1 of Revised Circular
124, 16 Nov 49, FC file.]

[Footnote 14-110: Ltr, Fahy to Maj Gen C. E. Byers, 30
Nov 49, FC file.]

_Assignments_

The quota and assignments issues remained the center of controversy
between the Army and the committee. Although Fahy was prepared to
postpone a decision on the quota while negotiations continued, he was
unwilling to budge on the assignments issue. As the committee had
repeatedly emphasized, the question of open, integrated assignment of
trained Negroes was at the heart of its program. Without it the
opening of Army schools and military occupational specialties would be
meaningless and the intent of Executive Order 9981 frustrated.

At first glance it would seem that the revision of Circular 124
supported the assignment of Negroes to white units, as indeed
Secretary Gray had recently promised. But this was not really the
case, as Kenworthy explained to the committee. The Army had always
made a distinction between _specialists_, men especially recruited for
critically needed jobs, and _specialties_, those military occupations
for which soldiers were routinely trained in Army schools. The draft
revision did not refer to this second and far larger category and was
intended to provide only for the placement of the rare black
specialist in white units. The document as worded even limited (p. 369)
the use of Negroes in overhead units. Only those with skills
considered appropriate by the personnel office--that is, those who
possessed a specialty either inappropriate in a black unit or in
excess of its needs--would be considered for racially mixed overhead
units.[14-111]

[Footnote 14-111: Memo, Kenworthy for President's
Cmte, 18 Nov 49, sub: Successor Policy to WD Cir
124; idem for Fahy, 28 Nov 49, sub: Revised WD Cir
124; both in Fahy Papers, Truman Library.]

Fahy was determined to have the Army's plan modified, and furthermore
he had learned during the past few we