or other services, see Memo, Chief,
Pers Ser Div, USAF, for all Major ZI Commands and
Alaskan Air Command, 8 Feb 54, sub: Elimination of
Segregation in On-Base Schools, AFPMP-12, AF files;
Ltr, TAG to CG's, Continental Armies, MDW, 4 Feb
54, sub: Elimination of Segregation in On-Post
Public Schools, AGCP 352.9 (4 Feb 54).]

Any local school official hoping for a reprieve from the deadlines
expressed in these orders was likely to be disappointed. In response
to queries on the subject, the services quoted their instructions, and
if they excused continued segregation during the 1954 school year they
were adamant about the September 1955 integration date.[19-76] The
response of Secretary of the Air Force Talbott to one request for an
extension revealed the services' determination to stick to the letter
of the Wilson order. Talbott agreed with the superintendent of the
Montgomery County, Alabama, school board that local school boards were
best qualified to run the schools for dependent children of the
military, but he refused to extend the deadline. "Unilateral action in
the case of individual Air Force base schools would be in violation of
the directive," he explained, adding: "At such time as the Alabama
legislature acts to permit your local board of education to operate
the school at Maxwell AFB on an integrated basis, the Air Force will
return operational responsibility for the school to the local board at
the earliest practicable date."[19-77]

[Footnote 19-76: Ltr, SecNav to Clarence Mitchell, 30
Apr 54; Ltr, Jack Cochrane, BuPers Realty Legal
Section, to B. Alden Lillywhite, Dept of HEW, 20
Apr 54; both in P 11-1, GenRecsNav. See also Ltr,
ASD (M&P) to Commissioner of Educ, 3 May 55; Ltr,
ASD (M&P) to Dr. J. W. Edgar, Texas Education
Agency, 3 May 55; both in OASD (M&P) 291.2 (3 May
55).]

[Footnote 19-77: Ltr, SecAF to Superintendent of
Montgomery Public Schools, 12 Jan 55, SecAF files.]

As a result of this unified determination on the part of departmental
officials, the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense could
announce in December 1954 that two of the schools, the one at Craig
Air Force Base, Alabama, a