e 1st Battalion of the 11th
Marines (Artillery), and Marine Air Group 33. By 13 September the 1st
Marine Division and the 1st Marine Air Wing at wartime strength had
been added. Fielding these forces placed an enormous strain on the
corps' manpower, and one result was the assignment of a number of
black service units, often combined with white units in composite
organizations, to the combat units.

The pressures of battle quickly altered this neat arrangement.
Theoretically, every marine was trained as an infantryman, and when
shortages occurred in combat units commanders began assigning black
replacements where needed. For example, as the demand for more marines
for the battlefield grew, the Marine staff began to pull black marines
from routine duties at the Marine Barracks in New Jersey,
Pennsylvania, and Hawaii and send them to Korea to bring the fighting
units up to full strength. The first time black servicemen were
integrated as individuals in significant numbers under combat
conditions was in the 1st Provisional Marine Brigade during the
fighting in the Pusan Perimeter in August 1950. The assignment of
large numbers of black marines throughout the combat units of the 1st
Marine Division, beginning in September, provided the clearest
instance of a service abandoning a social policy in response to the
demands of the battlefield. The 7th Marines, for example, an organic
element of the 1st Marine Division since August 1950, received into
its rapidly expanding ranks, along with many recalled white reservists
and men from small, miscellaneous Marine units, a 54-man black (p. 464)
service unit. The regimental commander immediately broke up the
black unit, assigning the men individually throughout his combat
battalions.

That the emergency continued to influence the placement of Negroes is
apparent from the distribution of black marines in March 1951, when
almost half were assigned to combat duty in integrated units.[18-11]
Before the war was over, the 1st Marine Division had several thousand
black marines, serving in its ranks in Korea, where they were assigned
to infantry and signal units as well as to transportation and food
supply organizations. One of the few black reserve officers on active
duty found himself serving as an infantry platoon commander in Company
B of the division's 7th Marines.

[Footnote 18-11: _Location of Black Marines, 31 March
1951_