Security Act of 1947 the U.S. Air Force was created
as a separate service in a Department of the Air
Force on 18 September 1947. The new service
included the old Army Air Forces; the Air Corps,
U.S. Army; and General Headquarters Air Force. The
strictures of WD Circular 124, like those of many
other departmental circulars, were adopted by the
new service. For convenience' sake the terms _Air
Force_ and _service_ will be employed in the
remaining sections of this chapter even where the
terms _Army Air Forces_ and _component_ would be
more appropriate.]

The Air Force seemed on safer ground when it pleaded that it lacked
the black airmen with skills to carry out the variety of assignments
called for by the Gillem Board. The Air Force was finding it
impossible to organize effective black units in appreciable numbers;
even some units already in existence were as much as two-thirds below
authorized strength in certain ground specialist slots.[11-24] Yet here
too the statistics do not reveal the whole truth. Despite a general
shortage of Negroes in the high test score categories, the Air Force
did have black enlisted men qualified for general assignment as
specialists or at least eligible for specialist training, who were
instead assigned to labor squadrons.[11-25] In its effort to reduce the
number of Negroes, the service had also relieved from active duty
other black specialists trained in much needed skills. Finally, the
Air Force still had a surplus of black specialists in some categories
at Lockbourne Field who were not assigned to the below-strength units.

[Footnote 11-24: "Tactical Air Command (TAC) History,
1 Jan-30 Dec 48," pp. 94-96, AFSHRC; see also
Lawrence J. Paszek, "Negroes and the Air Force,
1939-1949," _Military Affairs_ (Spring 1967), p.
8.]

[Footnote 11-25: Memo, DCofS/Personnel, TAC, for CG,
TAC, 18 Mar 48, AFSHRC.]

Again it was not too many black enlisted men or too few black officers
or specialists but the policy of strict segregation that kept the Air
Force from using black troops efficiently. Insistence on segregation,
not the number of Negroes