o of
one to ten." Old wanted to reduce the number of black airmen in the
Ninth Air Force by 1,633 men. The loss would not materially affect the
efficiency of his command, he concluded. It would leave the Ninth Air
Force with a ratio of one black officer to ten white and one black
airman to eight white, and still permit the manning of black tactical
units at full strength.[11-39] In the end none of these recommendations
was followed. They needed the approval of Air Force headquarters, and
as Lt. Gen. Elwood R. Quesada, commander of the Tactical Air Command,
explained to General Old, the headquarters was in the midst of a
lengthy review of Circular 124. In the meantime the command would have
to carry on without guidance from higher headquarters.[11-40] Carry on it
did, but the problems associated with the distribution of black
airmen, problems the command constantly shared with Air Force
headquarters, lingered throughout 1948.[11-41]

[Footnote 11-39: Memo, Maj Gen Old for CG, TAC, 26 Jan
48, sub: Utilization of Negro Manpower, 9AF 200.3,
Hist of Ninth AF, AFSHRC.]

[Footnote 11-40: Ltr, Lt Gen Quesada to Maj Gen Old,
Ninth AF, 9 Apr 48, Hist of Ninth AF, AFSHRC.]

[Footnote 11-41: Ltrs, CG, TAC, to CS/USAF, 1 Sep 48,
sub: Reception of Submarginal Enlisted Personnel;
VCS/USAF to CG, TAC, 11 Sep 48, sub: Elimination of
Undesirable or Substandard Airmen; CG, TAC, to
CS/USAF, 24 Sep 48, same sub. All in AFSHRC.]

The Air Force's segregation policy had meanwhile created a critical
situation in the black tactical units. The old 332d, now the 332d
Fighter Wing, shared with the rest of the command the burden of too
many low-scoring men--35 percent of Lockbourne's airmen were in the
two lowest groups, IV and V--but here the problem was acute since the
presence of so many persons with little ability limited the number of
skilled black airmen that the Tactical Air Command could transfer to
the wing from other parts of the command. Under direction of the
command, the Ninth Air Force was taking advantage of a regulation that
restricted the reenlistment of low-scoring airmen, but the high
percentage of unskilled Negroes persisted at Lockbourne. Negroes (p. 283)
in the upper test brackets were not reenlisting while the low scorers
unquestionab