e volume of their
complaints was considerably reduced. One unsettling note: although
fewer in number, the complaints were often addressed to the White
House, the Justice Department, the civil rights organizations, or the
Secretary of Defense, thus confirming the Gesell Committee's finding
that black servicemen continued to distrust the services' interest in
or ability to administer justice.[22-5]

[Footnote 22-4: Charles Moskos, "Findings on American
Military Establishment" (Northeastern University,
1967), quoted in Yarmolinsky, _The Military
Establishment_, p. 343.]

[Footnote 22-5: For many examples of these racial
complaints and their disposition, see DASD (CR)
files, 1963-64, especially Access Nos. 68-A-1006
and 68-A-1033.]

The Secretary of Defense's manpower staff processed all these
complaints. It dismissed those considered unrelated to race but
forwarded many to the individual services with requests for immediate
remedial action. Significantly, those involving the violation of a
serviceman's civil rights off base continued to be sent to the Justice
Department for disposition. Defense Department officials themselves
adjudicated the hundreds of discrimination cases involving civilian
employees.[22-6]

[Footnote 22-6: The Assistant Secretary of Defense
(Manpower) prepared a monthly compilation of all
discrimination cases in the Department of Defense
involving civilian employees. Originally requested
by then Vice President Lyndon Johnson in his
capacity as chairman of the President's Committee
on Equal Opportunity in Employment in June 1962,
the reports were continued after the Gesell
Committee disbanded. The report for November 1963,
for example, listed 144 cases of "Contractor
Complaints" investigated and adjudicated and 159
cases of "In-House Complaints" being processed in
the Department of Defense. See Memo, ASD (M) for SA
et al., 20 Dec 63, ASD (M) 291.2.]

In the weeks and months following publication of the equal opportunity
directive, official replies to the demands and complaints of black
s