Analysis: After 60 years, black officers rare

[Bluehawk]

Two black guys...

Source link:
Sgts. major offer 6 ideas for improving Corps - Marine Corps News, news from Iraq - Marine Corps Times
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
"A tougher warrant officer selection process, a crackdown on late fitness reports and shorter unaccompanied tours to Japan are among six recommendations the Corps’ senior enlisted community has pitched to Commandant Gen. James Conway.

Conway was briefed on the recommendations in August, said Sgt. Maj. Carlton Kent, the sergeant major of the Marine Corps. The proposals were generated after a week’s work at the Sergeants Major Symposium, an annual meeting in Washington where 68 policy concerns were whittled down to the top six suggestions.

The other recommendations pushed up to Conway include backing equal assignment incentive pay for sailors extended with Marine units, updating the amphibious doctrine guiding the Corps and Navy and removing Social Security numbers from dog tags.

If history is any indication, Marines can expect at least some of the six recommendations to become policy. In the past two years, for example, recommendations have included cracking down on body fat standards, approving campaign stars for operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom and barring forearm tattoo art.

All three of those recommendations have been adopted.

WARRANT OFFICER SELECTIONS
The Corps has had a shortage of warrant officers for some time, but the sergeants major don’t want standards to slip when it comes to filling those positions, Kent said. With that in mind, they recommended changes to the warrant officer selection process, making it tougher for Marines passed over for promotions to become warrant officers.

Kent’s example: Two staff sergeants in the same military occupational specialty are up for a promotion to gunnery sergeant, but only one gets promoted. The following year, the passed-over staff sergeant is passed again, meaning his days in the Corps could be numbered.

Despite a second pass at moving up in the enlisted ranks, the stalled staff sergeant can apply to become a warrant officer, and hypothetically move into a position of authority in the same MOS as the new gunny deemed more worthy of a promotion.

From the sergeants major, the recommendation is twofold. First, the group said a form should be required in warrant officer application packets outlining a Marine’s promotion history, Kent said. Second, the Marines recommended changing the board precepts to preclude any Marine twice passed for an enlisted promotion from becoming a warrant officer.

“We’d rather be short than promote someone who is not maintaining the standards of the Marine Corps,” Kent said.

FITREP CRACKDOWN
A longtime gripe in the Corps is that fitness reports are not submitted on a timely basis, negatively affecting both retention and Marines, as they go to their promotion boards without their latest evals. The sergeant major community wants that solved, Kent said.

Kent said that of all the fitness reports filed between Aug. 1, 2007, and July 31, 2008, about 95,000 — 52 percent — were submitted at least 30 days late. Of those, 44,000 (24 percent) were 60 days late, 27,000 (15 percent) were 90 days late and 18,000 (10 percent) were at least 120 days late.

“It’s in the best interests of these Marines and the future of the Corps to get these in on time,” Kent said. “You’ve got thousands of fitness reports annually that are submitted late, and that’s not fair.”

The trick, Kent said, is to hold reporting seniors accountable.

The sergeants major recommended that Conway publish a “white letter” to commanding generals, commanding officers and all officers in charge requiring that “all reporting officials … intensify both their reporting and supervision efforts regarding performance evaluation requirements,” according to the briefing presented to Conway.

The sergeants major also recommended required inspections on the timeliness of submissions by using the Automated Inspection Reporting System, where fitness reports are filed.

SHORTER JAPAN TOURS
In 2004, the Corps extended unaccompanied tours to Japan from one to two years, putting it in line at the time with deployments by other services and giving commanders a chance to build continuity.

But the policy change has not come without pitfalls. The long tours are tough on families, and they prevent a large number of junior Marines from deploying to Iraq or Afghanistan, Kent said.

“The commandant’s motto is ‘Every Marine to the fight,’” Kent said. “But a lot of these Marines, they never get a chance to go because they can’t get back to a unit that’s going.”

The new recommendation out of the Sergeants Major Symposium is to drop unaccompanied tours from 24 months to 18 months, a compromise that allows some team-building in Japan but doesn’t stop Marines from deploying to the fight before they get out of the Corps.

“By putting it at 18 months, it can reduce some ... some hardships on families, too,” Kent said.

Conway has already acknowledged the hardships in Japan. In March 2007, he said the Corps was reviewing its policies for unaccompanied assignments, acknowledging it created problems for families.

“I think we’ve got to look at the whole of this and see what is effective, what is compassionate and gets the job done best,” he said.

FAIR PAY FOR CORPSMEN
When sailors deploy with Marine units, they live in the same conditions, eat the same food and face the same dangers. But when Marine units are extended in Iraq or Afghanistan, the sailors don’t get the same bonus pay.

That needs to change, the sergeants major say.

Navy command master chiefs — attending the symposium this year for the first time — successfully lobbied the sergeants major to ask Conway to research the possibility of giving sailors deployed with Marine units equal assignment incentive pay.

“Even though it’s a [Defense Department] policy, the Navy implements it one way and the Marine Corps implements it another,” said Command Master Chief Raphael Sanchez, who attended the symposium as the top enlisted sailor for I Marine Expeditionary Force and Marine Corps Central Command.

“When you have sailors and Marines serving together … discrepancies kind of show up, and it’s like, ‘Well, if they’re getting this, how come we’re not?’”

The Corps and Navy both have approved plans that authorize $800 per month in AIP and $200 per month in additional hardship pay to service members extended beyond 365 days of “boots on the ground.” But the Corps also authorized $250 per month in AIP for Marines extended more than 210 days but less than 365 — a policy the Navy has not adopted, said Navy Capt. Jerry Logan, acting director of the Navy’s Military Personnel Plans and Policy Division.

“The Navy’s retention, recruiting and mission requirements differ from the Marine Corps, thus we use Assignment Incentive Pay program differently to meet our service-specific needs,” Logan said.

Sanchez said the change would apply primarily to corpsmen but also to religious program specialists and other sailors serving with Marines. All told, there are about 8,000 sailors who serve with the Corps, he said.

Kent said it is still uncertain whether the Navy or the Corps would pay the sailors’ AIP, but the sergeants major want to spark the discussion.

“You’re talking about being fair,” Kent said. “We always have to be fair in the Marine Corps.”

NEW AMPHIBIOUS DOCTRINE
After nearly 70 years without much change, the Corps’ amphibious doctrine needs updating, the sergeants majors say.

Their recommendation is to have the Corps launch a doctrine overhaul, focusing on things such as modern Marine air-ground task force operations, new intelligence capabilities and requirements and emerging threats to amphibious operations.

“We’re bringing a lot of ships online at the same time in the next few years, and [the doctrine] just doesn’t match the future plan that we have for war fighting,” Kent said. “The key to this is coordination between us and the Navy.”

Kent said many of the doctrine changes would focus on technology upgrades and fall outside the realm of items the Corps can change on its own. Still, “We want to bring them up from the Marine Corps side of the house,” he said.

The sergeants major recommended forming a working group at Marine Corps headquarters made up of subject matter experts from Fleet Marine Force units, Training and Education Command, Plans, Policy & Operations, the Center for Naval Analyses and Naval Amphibious Groups.

DOG TAG CHANGES
The sergeants major also suggested throwing the Corps’ support behind removing Social Security numbers from dog tags to guard against identity theft.

Kent said at least part of the number would be removed from dog tags and the entire Social Security number of a Marine would be removed from his or her dependents’ ID cards.

“That’s the key right there, to not take the whole number,” Kent said of the dog tag proposal. “We need to modify.”

Kent acknowledged changes may be needed at the Defense Department level but said the sergeants major wanted to rally behind the effort. They recommended establishing a group at Marine Corps headquarters to brainstorm a way to safeguard personal information while maintaining the ability to identify a service member.

As for the more than five dozen additional concerns the sergeants major brought to the table, many could become new policies down the road. Some subjects — the Corps’ rash of motorcycle fatalities this year among them — were under heavy discussion at the symposium but didn’t make the list, said Marines attending the meeting. That doesn’t mean they won’t be addressed; it just means taking them to the commandant isn’t a priority right now.

“We took the most important ones,” Kent said. “The other agenda items were being worked on already, or they can be worked on at other levels.”

[cato2]

The nation's first African-American Marines

In this section of the site, you'll find interviews from over sixty interviews conducted with Montford Point veterans.
In reading the transcripts, we hope you'll get a sense of the importance of the role that these men played in both Marine Corps and American history.
The stories you'll read cover a variety of emotional topics, and include everything from what it was like to go to basic training to how racism affected these Marines both in the Corps and their daily life.
In many cases, the veterans interviewed had waited their entire lives to share the Montford Point story-- their Montford Point story--with the world.

• Ash, Fred
• Banker, Al
• Batts, Adner
• Blount, Turner
• Borden, Melvin
• Brown, Calvin
• Caputo, Anthony
• Carpenter, Joseph - Transcripts to be posted
• Coleman, Fannie
• Cork, Thomas - Transcripts to be posted
• Corley, Averet
• Cotman, Orvia
• Cunningham, Ellis - Transcripts to be posted
• Darden, Herman - Transcripts to be posted
• Davenport, Charles
• Diggs, Lawrence
• Dinkins, David
• Doughty, Gene - Transcripts to be posted
• Douglas, Lee
• Drake, Frederick
• Durden, Roland - Transcripts to be posted
• Edwards, Hulon
• Felder, Lorenzo
• Foreman, William
• Frasier, Issac
• Gayton, John
• Givian, Johnnie
• Grayson, Leroy
• Hagan, Paul
• Hamilton, Harry
• Hines, Ruben - Transcripts to be posted
• Holtsclaw, Paul
• Hooper, FM
• Hosea, Nathaniel
• Lumpkin, Oliver
• Mack, Leroy
• Maddox, Walter
• McNair, Henry
• McNair, Reuben - Transcripts to be posted
• Mial, Howard
• Mosley, Archibald - Transcripts to be posted
• Myers, Joseph - Transcripts to be posted
• Nathaniel, Herman
• Patterson, Benjamin
• Payne, Norman
• Perry, Wilmore
• Reavis, Carroll
• Robinson, Steven - Transcripts to be posted
• Taylor, George - Transcripts to be posted
• Thompkins, Jonnie
• Thompson, Walter
• Vann, William
• Walker, Joseph
• Walker, Richard
• Washington, Jonnie
• White, Glenn - Transcripts to be posted
• Wiggins, Andrew - Transcripts to be posted
• Williams, Allen
• Williams, Howard
• Wilson, James
• Vaughn, LaSalle

Montford Point Marines

[Bluehawk]

More good old news.

Source link:
Trackpads - Military Community
-------------------------------------------------------------------
MCCHORD AIR FORCE BASE, Wash. (AFPN) --

"One woman flew military aircraft in the waning days of World War II while another woman is the first operational and combat-ready female F-22 Raptor pilot

Dorothy Olsen, a former member of the Women Airforce Service Pilots, met July 20 at the McChord Air Expo 2008 with Capt. Jammie Jamieson, who flies the the Air Force's newest and most advanced fighter aircraft.

Ms. Olsen, who recently turned 92, read a feature article on Captain Jamieson and requested the opportunity to meet with her.

As a WASP, she primarily flew fighter aircraft in the program from 1943 through the end of the war, said her son Kim Olsen.

"She was qualified on everything the Army flew, as well as some Navy planes," he said.

However, he noted, her favorites were the P-51 and P-38 fighters.

"She felt bombers were like driving busses," Mr. Olsen said.

Ms. Olsen had always wanted to fly growing up, and she took flying lessons in a Piper cub, her son said. As soon as she heard about the WASP program, she signed up. The pilot wings his mother wore were among the rarest from World War II, with only about 1,000 issued, he said.

The Air Force currently has 13,202 pilots, of which 596 are female, according to Air Force Personnel Center statistics.

Ms. Olsen said she ferried the planes from factory to points of shipment in the United States, but did not have the opportunity to take any overseas.

"I loved every minute of it," she said.

As the former WASP and current F-22 pilot shared stories and flying experiences, they learned that the two had both flown in the same airspace over at least one town, more than 50 years apart.

One of her favorite memories was flying a P-38 at night over Coolidge, Ariz. She said she caused a stir when she buzzed the field and "woke the whole town up."

Captain Jamieson said she spent a week in Coolidge during her junior year at the U.S. Air Force Academy learning aerobatics during glider training.

The captain, a Washington native who graduated from Prosser High School in 1996, received her commission through the Academy in 2000. She said she was very inspired by the astronaut program, specifically with their courage in the face of the unknown.

She said she loves flying the F-22, and that aerial "dog fighting" is her favorite part.

Captain Jamieson is currently stationed at Elmendorf Air Force Base, Alaska, where she is the mobility flight commander for the 525th Fighter Squadron."

[Bluehawk]

Source link:
Black Americans in the US Military from the American Revolution to the Korean
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Black Americans In The US Military From The American Revolution To The Korean War:
World War Two

"Prior to World War II the U.S. armed forces had declined, and segregation within them continued. The Air Arm of the U.S. Army refused to accept any Black applicants as late as the spring of 1939. Not until 1940 did the Army initiate a policy of accepting Blacks according to their proportion to the population, but still only accepted enough to make Blacks represent 6% of the Army while Blacks represented 10% of the American population. The Black soldier initially served as infantrymen or labor.

After many efforts by anti-segregationist and Black leaders, the racial policy of the armed forces only changed once it became a political strategy. Republican frontrunner Wendell L. Wilkie had declared himself an “enemy of racism” (Nalty, p. 138) and gained the support of the Pittsburgh Courier, an influential black newspaper. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, in response to Wilkie’s successes in the Black electorate, announced a change to the armed forces racial policy that would allow Blacks to enlist to their proportion within the population. Roosevelt announced that Blacks would be eligible to serve in the U.S. Army Air Corps, receive officer training, and work civilian jobs at army posts. In order to keep the scale balanced between the Blacks and any white Racists within the Government, Roosevelt refused to de-segregate the armed forces. Although Eleanor Roosevelt had always supported improvement of Black American participation within the many programs installed to combat the Great Depression, she was not always successful in convincing her husband to make changes. President Roosevelt seemed cautious with the changes he made.

One of the most famous fighter wings from World War II, the 99th, later known as the Tuskegee Airmen, made significant progress for the Blacks in World War II. Not only did they make key contributions to the war effort, they did so after barely getting a chance to serve in the Air Wing. Initially, the War Department tried to send the Black aviators to Liberia, from where the squadron would hunt for German submarines. The plan may have fallen through, but first of all, the Liberian government could not afford to pay the aviators. Secondly, William O. Hastie, the special advisor to the State Department for racial matters, had retired in order to protest the continued segregation in the Army and Air Force training. Hastie, a Black American, had gained the position of Assistant Secretary in the War Department, and was a leading advocate of Black manpower. Thirdly, the U.S. needed the Black fighter pilots once the Allies invaded into North Africa.

In North Africa, the Black airmen had a disadvantage in navigation, since cross-country training flights within the U.S. were difficult to arrange, since this required air bases to have separate facilities for Blacks. The 99th Fighter Squadron was attached to the White 33rd Fighter Group, and received poor treatment. The Black airmen did not receive all of the intelligence given to the White airmen, and had to follow the whites but never lead any attacks. They were called “boys” (Nalty, p. 150) by the White airmen and were expected to follow along without hurting the overall progress of the U.S. Airmen’s accomplishments.

Important information from the Tuskegee Airmen is pertinent today, as they overcame many barriers and gained respect on the battlefield. The New York State Museum of Military History recently interviewed one of these particular Airmen, Clarence Dart. Dart revealed that the Black Airmen felt as much pressure from themselves as they did from the enemy. They had been regarded as “too dumb” to be fighter pilots, despite previous achievements made by Black Aviators. For example, Eugene Jacques Bullard, known as the “Black Swallow of Death,” the only Black pilot of World War I. Bullard received a pilot's badge and a Croix de Guerre, for having served on the ground and in the air. Nevertheless, Dart noted that the feeling of unimportance faded away later into World War II as the Black pilots were needed as bomber escorts. Even if people regarded them openly as less skilled, they were still receiving important tasks, contradicting the myth of their incompetence.

The 99th Fighter Squadron merged into the 332nd Fighter Group on July 2nd, 1944. Members of the 99th had the experience, while the 332nd members had just arrived from the Tuskegee Institute. The 332nd gained the name "The Redtails" from the assigned paint color for their tails. Led by Col. Benjamin O. Davis, the Redtails had learned that their purpose in World War II was to protect the bombers, and never lost a bomber. (Acepilots.com)

In the ground war, there were few chances for Black units to represent the front lines. The 93rd Infantry Division was the only all Black unit of World War II, and served on the defensive in the Pacific. On February 7, 1944, the 93rd occupied the Solomon Islands, where it split up. Its elements served on the defensive as labor units in training. The 25th Infantry division engaged in limited offensive operations in the Guadalcanal, against the Japanese along the Kuma and East-West Trails. In May the 25th moved to the Green Islands to construct defensive fortifications and train. The 368th had similar tasks, first at the Bakina Russel Islands, where it worked at docks, warehouses and supply depots. This division saw only labor and defensive patrols, and its biggest responsibility being the complete control of Palawan Island when the 41st Infantry Division left. The 369th Antiaircraft Artillery Regiment, formerly the Infantry Regiment from the New York State National Guard, saw a similar fate. The 369th only engaged in defensive and tactical mopping up operations on the New Georgia Island, and later on Emirau, Los Negros Island Admiralty Island, Biak Island, Sansapor New Guinea, Middleburg Island, and Morotai Island. On Morotai Island the regiment established outposts and patrolled until the end of the war. On Biak Island the regiment supplied labor details. The 93rd was regarded as only experimental, and appealed more as a labor unit.

In the Battle of the Bulge, Blacks finally received a call to arms. As the Ardennes counteroffensive took its toll on manpower, Lieutenant General John C. H. Lee suggested that Black troops be allowed to serve in combat. In only the first week of battle, 50,000 Americans were killed or wounded. In the month of December, the U.S. lost 125,000 to the fighting and cold weather. Eisenhower agreed, and in late December, circulars went out for Black volunteers. The Blacks were deployed in platoons, and proved themselves to the whites in the units they joined. A survey of White company officers and platoon sergeants showed that 84 percent of the officers and 81 percent of the sergeants believed that the Blacks served “very well.” (Nalty, p. 178) Even General George S. Patton, Jr., praised the Black soldiers. The 761st Tank Battalion had joined the 26th Infantry Division under Patton’s Third Army. The 26th had been bogged down at Metz, France, and needed additional support to push ahead. The 761st helped the 26th Infantry and Ninth Air Force surround and capture Metz. It also helped push the retreating 13th SS Panzer Division back into Germany after its long assault in Bastogne. The 761st joined the 103rd Infantry in Alsace-Lorraine in March of 1944 and knocked out Siegfried Line defenses at Reisdorf. The “C” Company from the 761st continued this push past the Siegfried Line, destroying two anti-tank guns, nine machine gun nests and twenty-four pillboxes, killing 265 Germans and capturing 1,450. Two platoons of the 761st were responsible for the capture of Hermann Göring’s castle as well. Göring was the second in command behind Hitler, and the commander-in-chief of the Luftwaffe, the German air force. This unit then spearheaded the assault on Regensburg, and shortly thereafter received the order to continue toward the Enns River in Austria. On May 4th the 761st reached Steyr, Austria, and two days later met the First Ukrainian Front under Marshal Ivan Konev. This unit also captured 106,926 prisoners and liberated the Gunskirchen concentration camp. On July 15, 2002, The Holocaust Center of Northern California honored the 761st US Tank Battalion and the Japanese American 522nd Field Artillery Battalion for liberating hundreds of Jews from this concentration camp. (Unlikely Liberators)

Only the White units that the 761st had been attached to received Dinstinguished Unit Citations, despite Major General E.H. Hughes recommendation. Finally in 1978 President Carter signed the Distinguished Unit Citation. Even after all of Patton’s admiration of the 761st, the unit received no representation in the movie Patton, which was released in 1970."