ciated with racially designated units had been
reduced by an appreciable degree or eliminated entirely. The problems
anticipated from the mingling of blacks and whites in social
situations had proved to be largely imaginary. The Air Force adopted a
standard formula for dealing with these problems during the next
decade. Incidents involving black airmen were treated as individual
incidents and dealt with on a personal basis like any ordinary
disciplinary case. Only when there was no alternative was an incident
labeled "racial" and then the commander was expected to deal speedily
and firmly with the troublemakers.[16-43] This sensible procedure
freed the Air Force for a decade from the charges of on-base
discrimination that had plagued it in the past.

[Footnote 16-42: See, for example, Memo, SecAF for
SecDef, 17 Feb 49; Ltr, SecAF to Sen. Burnet R.
Maybank, 21 Jul 49; both in SecAF files.]

[Footnote 16-43: Memo, Evans, OSD, for Worthington
Thompson, 18 May 53, sub: Summary of Topics
Reviewed in Thompson's office 15 May 53, SD 291.2.]

[Illustration: MAINTENANCE CREW, _462d Strategic Fighter Squadron,
disassembles aft section of an F-84 Thunderstreak_.]

Without a doubt the new policy improved the Air Force's manpower (p. 410)
efficiency, as the experience of the 3202d Installation Group
illustrates. A segregated unit serving at Eglin Air Force Base,
Florida, the 3202d was composed of an all-black heavy maintenance and
construction squadron, a black maintenance repair and utilities
squadron, and an all-white headquarters and headquarters squadron.
This rigid segregation had caused considerable trouble for the unit's
personnel section, which was forced to assign men on the basis of
color rather than military occupational specialty. For example, a
white airman with MOS 345, a truck driver, although assigned to the
unit, could not be assigned to the heavy maintenance and construction
squadron where his specialty was authorized but had to be assigned to
the white headquarters squadron where his specialty was not
authorized. Clearly operating in an inefficient manner, the unit was
charged with misassignment of personnel by the Air Inspector; in July
1950 it was swiftly and peaceably, if somewhat belatedly, integrated,
and its three squadrons were converted to racially mixed units,
allowing an airman to be as