|Navy|Marine| Air
| (000)[1] | |Inductees[2]|Enlistees| |Corps |Force

1953 886.1 12.8 14.7 13.4 4.3 8.0 11.1
1954 576.3 10.0 9.9 13.0 4.0 7.8 11.9
1955 622.6 10.6 8.8 12.7 9.0 5.4 13.5
1956 481.9 11.2 10.3 15.1 9.5 10.6 12.2
1957 456.7 9.1 10.8 9.3 3.6 9.5 9.7
1958 367.1 7.9 13.2 6.4 2.8 5.1 7.1
1959 392.0 7.1 10.4 8.1 2.4 5.0 6.5
1960 389.4 8.1 12.3 8.4 3.0 7.9 8.4
1961 394.7 8.2 14.4 8.2 2.9 5.9 9.5
1962 518.6 9.7 15.3 9.0 4.1 6.5 8.6
Total 5,085.4 9.9 12.3 10.3 4.9 7.4 10.4

[Tablenote 1: Includes inductions and male
"non-prior service" enlistments into the Regular
components.]

[Tablenote 2: The Army was the only service
drafting men during this decade.]

While the Army's dependence on the draft, and thus Group IV men,
explained part of the continuing high percentage of Negroes in that
service, the Defense Department manpower group was at a loss to
explain the notable variation in black enlistments among the services.
All employed similar enlistment standards, yet during the period
1958--1960, for example, black enlistment in the Army and Air Force
averaged 7 percent, the Marine Corps 6 percent, and the Navy 2.7
percent. Nor could the analysts isolate the factors contributing to
the low officer ratios in all four services. Almost all military
officers during the period under analysis were college graduates,
Negroes comprised about 4 percent of all male college graduates, yet
only the Army maintained a black officer ratio approaching that
figure. (_See Table 13._)

The inability of many black servicemen to score highly in the tests
might also explain why training in some technical occupations
continued more restricted for them (_Tables 18 and 19_). In (p. 524)
contrast to ground combat and service occupations, which required
little formal school training, some occupation groups--electronics,
for example--had high selection standards. The Defense Department
group admitted that occupations for blacks in the armed forces had
also been influenced by historical patterns of segrega