was designated U.S. Army, Europe
(USAREUR). Gruenther was the commander in chief of
the European Command from July 1953 to November
1956. At the same time he occupied the senior
position in the NATO Command under the title
Supreme Allied Commander, Europe (SACEUR).]

[Footnote 17-83: Memo, USCINCEUR for TAG, 30 Sep 53,
sub: Racial Integration of USAREUR Units, AG 291.2
(30 Sep 53); see also Sher Monograph, pp. 24-27.]

[Footnote 17-84: Memos, G-1 for TAG, 30 Oct 53, sub:
Negro Overstrength in USAREUR, and TAG for
USCINCEUR, 2 Nov 53, same sub; both in AG 291.2 (30
Oct 53).]

There was little the Army staff could do. The continental commands had
the same overstrength problem, and the staff considered the European
Command an inappropriate place to raise black percentages. By mid-1953
Negroes accounted for some 16 percent of Army personnel in Europe and,
more important to the command, the number of Negroes with combat
occupation specialties continued to increase at the same rate. As an
alternative to the untenable practice of reclassifying combat-trained
men for noncombat assignments purely on account of race, Gruenther
again raised the acceptable ratio of blacks in combat units. At the
same time he directed the Seventh Army commander to treat ratios in
the future merely as guidelines, to be adhered to as circumstances
permitted.[17-85] The percentage of Negroes in the command leveled off
at this time, but not before the black proportion of the command's
transportation units reached 48.8 percent. Summing up his command's
policy on integration, Gruenther concluded: "I cannot permit the
assignment of large numbers of unqualified personnel, regardless of
race, to prejudice the operation readiness of our units in an effort
to attain 100 percent racial integration, however desirable that goal
may be."[17-86] A heavy influx of white replacements with
transportation specialties allowed the European Command to finish
integrating the elements of the Seventh Army in July 1954.[17-87] The
last black unit in the command, the 94th Engineer Battalion, was
inactivated in November.

[Footnote 17-85: Ltr, USCINCEUR to CG, Seventh Army, 8
Jul 53, sub: Racial Integration of US