Department for duty at embassies and legations, and certain special
duties of the Department of Defense and the Navy Department.[18-20]

[Footnote 18-20: Ibid., 4 Aug 52.]

For the service to reserve the right to restrict the assignment of
Negroes when it was of "overriding interest to the Marine Corps" was
perhaps understandable, but it was also susceptible to considerable
misinterpretation if not outright abuse. The Personnel Department was
"constantly" receiving requests from commanders that no black noncoms
be assigned to their units. While some of these requests seemed
reasonable, the chief of the division's Detail Branch noted, others
were not. Commanders of naval prison retraining centers did not want
black noncommissioned officers assigned because, they claimed, Negroes
caused unrest among the prisoners. The Marine Barracks in Washington,
D.C., where the commandant lived, did not want black marines because
of the ceremonial nature of its mission. The Marine Barracks at
Dahlgren, Virginia, did not want Negroes because conflicts might arise
with civilian employees in cafeterias and movies. Other commanders
questioned the desirability of assigning black marines to the Naval
Academy, to inspector-instructor billets in the clerical and supply
fields, and to billets for staff chauffeurs. The Detail Branch wanted
a specific directive that listed commands to which black marines
should not be assigned.[18-21]

[Footnote 18-21: Ibid., 10 Jun 52.]

Restrictions on the assignment of black marines were never codified,
but the justification for them changed. In place of the "overriding
interest to the Marine Corps" clause, the corps began to speak of
restrictions "solely for the welfare of the individual Marine." In
1955 the Director of Personnel, Maj. Gen. Robert O. Bare, pointed to
the unusually severe hardships imposed on Negroes in some communities
where the attitude toward black marines sometimes interfered with
their performance of duty. Since civilian pressures could not be
recognized officially, Bare reasoned, they had to be dealt with
informally on a person-to-person basis.[18-22] By this statement (p. 468)
he meant the Marine Corps would informally exclude Negroes from
certain assignments. Of course no one explained how barring Negroes
from assignment to recruitment, inspector-instructor, embassy, or even
chauffeur duty worked for "the welfare of the individual Marine." Su