he Department of Defense Policy on Equality of
Treatment and Opportunity in the Armed Services,
SecAF files.]

[Illustration: ASSISTANT SECRETARY ZUCKERT.]

Zuckert also deleted several clauses in the supplementary letter (p. 402)
to Air Force commanders that was to accompany and explain the order.
These clauses had listed possible exemptions from the new order: one
made it possible to retain a man in a black unit if he was one of the
"key personnel" considered necessary for the successful functioning of
a black unit, and the other allowed the local commander to keep those
Negroes he deemed "best suited" for continued assignment to black
units. The free reassignment of all eligible Negroes, particularly the
well-qualified, was essential to the eventual dissolution of the
all-black units. The Fahy Committee had objected to these provisions
and considered it important for the Air Force to delete them,[16-21]
but the matter was not raised during the committee hearings. There is
evidence that the deletions were actually requested by the Secretary
of Defense's Personnel Policy Board, whose influence in the
integration of the Air Force is often overlooked.[16-22]

[Footnote 16-21: _Freedom to Serve_, pp. 37-38.]

[Footnote 16-22: Memo, SecAF for Chmn, PPB, 30 Apr 49,
copy in FC file. McCoy and Ruetten, _Quest and
Response_, p. 223, call the deletion a victory for
the committee.]

The screening of officers and men at Lockbourne got under way on 17
May. A board of officers under the presidency of Col. Davis, the
commander of Lockbourne, and composed of representatives of Air Force
headquarters, the Continental Air Command, and the Air Training
Command, and important officers of Lockbourne, interviewed every
officer in the wing. After considering each man's technical training,
his performance, and his career field preference, the board
recommended him for reassignment in a specific duty field. Although
Edwards had promised that the screening boards would also judge each
man's "adaptability" to integrated service, this requirement was
quickly dropped by Davis and his fellow board members.[16-23] In fact,
the whole idea of having screening boards was resented by some black
officers. Zuckert later admitted that the screening may have been a
mistake, but at the time it had been considered the be