MC files. For OSD awareness of the problem, see
Stephen N. Shulman, "The Civil Rights Policies of
the Department of Defense," 4 May 65, copy in CMH.]

[Footnote 22-42: Memo, SecDef for Educators, 6 Oct 65,
sub: Equal Opportunity at the Service Academies of
the United States Army, Navy, and Air Force, SD
291.2.]

Enlistment depended not only on a man's desire to join but also on his
ability to qualify. Following the publication of a presidential task
force report on the chronic problem of high draft rejection rates, the
Army inaugurated in August 1964 a Special Training and Enlistment
Program (STEP), an experiment in the "military training, education,
and physical rehabilitation of men who cannot meet current mental or
medical standards for regular enlistment in the Army."[22-43] Aimed at
increasing enlistments by providing special training after induction
for those previously rejected as unqualified, the program provided for
the enlistment of 8,000 substandard men, which included many Negroes.
Before the men could be enlisted, however, Congress killed the
program, citing its cost and duplication of the efforts of the Job
Corps. It was not until 1967 that the idea of accepting many young men
ineligible for the draft because of mental or educational deficiencies
was revived when McNamara launched his Project 100,000.[22-44]

[Footnote 22-43: DOD News Release, 13 Aug 64. See the
President's Task Force on Manpower Conservation,
_One-Third of a Nation: A Report on Young Men Found
Unqualified for Military Service_ (Washington:
Government Printing Office, 1964). Kennedy
established the task force in September 1963. Its
members included the Secretaries of Labor, Defense,
and Health, Education and Welfare and the Director
of Selective Service.]

[Footnote 22-44: McNamara, _The Essence of Security_,
pp. 131-38. See also Bahr, "The Expanding Role of
the Department of Defense," ch. V.]

The services were unable to bring off a dramatic change in black
enlistment patterns in the 1960's. With the exception of the Marine
Corps, in which the proportion of black enlisted men increased