the enlistment physical.[4-7]

[Footnote 4-5: Quoted in Navy General Board, "Plan
for the Expansion of the USMC," 18 Apr 41 (No.
139), Recs of Gen Bd, OpNavArchives.]

[Footnote 4-6: Ltr, CMC to Harold E. Thompson,
Northern Phila. Voters League, 6 Aug 40, AQ-17,
Central Files, Headquarters, USMC (hereafter MC
files).]

[Footnote 4-7: Memo, Off in Charge, Eastern
Recruiting Div, for CMC, 16 Jan 42, sub: Colored
Applicants for Enlistment in the Marine Corps, WP
11991, MC files.]

Such evasions could no longer be practiced after President (p. 101)
Roosevelt decided to admit Negroes to the general service of the naval
establishment. According to Secretary Knox the President wanted the
Navy to handle the matter "in a way that would not inject into the
whole personnel of the Navy the race question."[4-8] Under pressure to
make some move, General Holcomb proposed the enlistment of 1,000
Negroes in the volunteer Marine Corps Reserve for duty in the general
service in a segregated composite defense battalion. The battalion
would consist primarily of seacoast and antiaircraft artillery, a
rifle company with a light tank platoon, and other weapons units and
components necessary to make it a self-sustaining unit.[4-9] To inject
the subject of race "to a less degree than any other known scheme,"
the commandant planned to train the unit in an isolated camp and
assign it to a remote station.[4-10] The General Board accepted this
proposal, explaining to Secretary Knox that Negroes could not be used
in the Marine Corps' amphibious units because the inevitable
replacement and redistribution of men in combat would "prevent the
maintenance of necessary segregation." The board also mentioned that
experienced noncommissioned officers were at a premium and that
diverting them to train a black unit would be militarily
inefficient.[4-11]

[Footnote 4-8: Memo, SecNav for Adm W. R. Sexton, 14
Feb 42, P14-4, Recs of Gen Bd, OpNavArchives. The
quotation is from the Knox Memo and is not
necessarily in the President's exact words.]

[Footnote 4-9: In devising plans for the composite
battalion the Director of Plans and