Army Center of Military History, Washington, D.C.,
has on file those materials collected by the author in the preparation
of this volume, including not only those items cited in the footnotes,
but also copies of hundreds of official documents and correspondence
with various participants, together with the unique body of documents
and notes collected by Lee Nichols in his groundbreaking research on
integration. Of particular importance among the documents in the
Center of Military History are copies of many Bureau of Naval
Personnel documents, the originals of which have since been destroyed,
as well as copies of the bulk of the papers produced by the Fahy
Committee.

_Interviews_ (p. 630)

The status of black servicemen in the integration era has attracted
considerable attention among oral history enthusiasts. The author has
taken advantage of this special source, but oral testimony concerning
integration must be treated cautiously. In addition to the usual
dangers of fallible memory that haunt all oral history interviews, the
subjects of some of these interviews, it should be emphasized, were
separated from the events they were recalling by a civil rights
revolution that has changed fundamentally the attitudes of many
people, both black and white. In some instances it is readily apparent
that the recollections of persons being interviewed have been colored
by the changes of the 1950's and 1960's, and while their recitation of
specific events can be checked against the records, their estimates of
attitudes and influences, not so easily verified, should be used
cautiously. Much of this danger can be avoided by a skillful
interviewer with special knowledge of integration. Because of the care
that went into the interviews conducted in the U.S. Air Force Oral
History Program, which are on file at the Albert F. Simpson Historical
Research Center, they are particularly dependable. This is especially
true of those used in this study, for they were conducted by Lt. Col.
Alan Gropman and Maj. Alan Osur, both serious students of the subject.
Particular note should be made of the especially valuable interviews
with former Secretary of the Air Force Eugene M. Zuckert and several
of the more prominent black generals.

The extensive Columbia University Oral History Collection has several
interviews of special interest, in particular the very revealing
interview with the Natio