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[[underline]] Dixie Born Commander's Idea [[/underline]]

Negro Fliers Seen Victims Of General's Planned Segregation

By ERNEST E. JOHNSON

WASHINGTON - (ANP)--  Right or wrong, the woes which have beset Negro flight officers at Selfridge Field, Walterboro Air Base, and more lately the bombardiers of Godman and Freeman Fields, are being traced to the doorstep of Maj. Gen. Frank O'Driscoll Hunter, commanding general of the First Army Air Force.

The Associated Negro Press has attempted to probe into some of the background of the general, a product of Savannah, Ga., but not of West Point Military Academy, to answer some of the curiosity about the man.  After all, one who enjoys the huge responsibility attendant upon the commander of the First Army Air Force certainly needs explanation when he will stand before a group of men under his command, insult them and injure their morale.

BORN IN GEORGIA

Hunter was born in Savannah fifty years ago, studied in Connecticut and at Lausanne, Switzerland.  He enlisted in the aviation section, signal reserve as a flying cadet on May 18, 1917, and was commissioned a first lieutenant in the section four months later.  He was called to active duty Sept. 22, 1917 and was honorably discharged on Feb. 24, 1919.  He was commissioned a first lieutenant in the regular Army Air Service in 1920, and has been strutting ever since.

Maj. Gen. Hunter came up through the ranks to the position he now holds.  His permanent rank is that of lieutenant colonel, to which he was elevated Oct. 9, 1940.

The 332nd Fighter group was organized Nov., 1943, at Selfridge Field, Mich., a part of the First Army Air Force.  Col. William T. Colman, who shot his Negro chauffeur, was commanding officer of the base.  He was reduced to the rank of captain and transferred from the post as a result.  He is now out of the Army.

The next base commander was Col. William L. Boyd, who apparently was an easy-going sort of individual, but who, homehow, saw reason for establishing separate officers' clubs for Negroes and whites in the free Northern State of Michigan.  Commanding the fighter group itself, and deputy commander of the base was Co. Robert L. Selway Jr.

The men of the group protested vehemently.  An investigation by the inspector general's office was conducted last year, and General Hunter visited the field presumably to rectify the grievances.  Standing before these men one day in April, 1944, he told the, among other things: 

CONDEMNED "AGITATORS"

"This country is not ready or willing to accept a colored officer as the equal of a white one.  You are not in the Army to advance your race.  Your prime purpose should be in taking your training and fighting for your country and winning the war.  In that way you can doe a deal for both your  race and your country.  As for racial agitators, they shall be weeded out and dealt with."

Apparently it concerned neither the general nor his Selfridge Field subordinates that Michigan has a civil rights law.  Seemingly they went about establishing a Southern jim-crow pattern at a Northern Army post, contrary to the local custom.  IT is the same thing which Southern whites object strenuously to in the South, but are quick to do themselves in the North and even abroad as events have shown.  The seeds of discontent then were well sown.

The 332nd had been, shipped overseas. Another squadron, the 553rd, was being organized at the field. Suddenly on the night of May 5, 1944, they entrained for an unknown destination. This turned out to be Walterboro, S.C., and they were no longer the 553rd Pursuit Squadron but rather the replacements for the 332nd group. Their commander was Lieut. Col. Sam P. Triffy, also not without the taint of the Selfridge Fiend unpleasantness.

Organization of the 477th Bombardment Group on May 27th, 1944, found Colonel Selway in charge. This group was assigned to Godman Field, Ky. Incidentally, in connection with the 477th, the outfit was to have been staffed by all Negro officers before commitment overseas. Whereas the unit is about ready, this objective has not yet been achieved.

UNIT MOVED SOUTH

At Waterboro almost immediately after their arrival, the fighter replacements were told they could not use a common officers' lounge, and that they were to be segregated in the post theatre. They had no alternative with the lounge matter since they had to eat. However, they refrained completely from attending the theatre. All of this, according to Col. William M. Prince, post commander, was in accordance with the laws of South Carolina.

Segregation remained effective until the War Department order abolishing jim-crow arrangements and faviliteis on Army posts was issued in June, 1944. This correspondent spent two and a half days at Waterboro inquiring and learned that soon after the transfer, General Hunter had appeared before the men and declared:

"I spend more time wrestling with the problems concerning this base than any other five (like) bases in [bold]my[/bold] air force"

Before the final article in aseries had appeared, Colonel Prince had been replaced. After their conclusion, Colonel Triffy was transferred.

At Godman Field much the same situation had developed.

Some time around April 1 the bombardiers were moved over into Indiana to Freeman Field, Colonel Selway still in command. On April 8, 101 men were placed under house arrest for attempting to use a common officers' club. Later when other read a statement promising to remain out of the "white" club, and were asked to sign it, sixtytwo refused and were also arrested. Protests mounted and all but three of the 163 men were released.

The group was returned to Godman Field where they were compelled to use separate facilities. Godman Field adjoins Fort Knox where there are no Negro officers with which to contend. But whites from Godman are welcomed at the Fort Knox Club and Negro officers are not. The excuse is tsill valid that each must use the facilities of the field at which he is based.

PLANNED SEGREGATION

Two things have become evident in this long history. They are that Colonel Selway, even while deputy to his predecessors at Selfridge Field, had been the chief needler of the other men on the jim-crow questions; and that General Hunter not only has been in accord with the segregation policy, but has repeatedly indicated that his own thinking runs so much in that direction that he might have been the direct inspiration for the jim-crow policies that have hampered morale of the 332nd and the 477th.

Note should be taken that in the Selfridge Field instance the answer to protest was the transfer of the units to Southern areas - South Carolina and Kentucky. In the Freeman Field instance the answer was a transfer, this time from the State of Indiana, which has a civil rights law and not a few mixed schools, back to Kentucky, which frowns seriously upon race mixing.

Oddly too, the area covered by the First Army. Air Force, over which General Hunter presides, takes in twelve States. These include South Carolina, Michigan and Indiana, but do not include Kentucky. It does cover Godman Field in Kentucky, however.

In all the rowing, the inspector general's office has made two investigation, and the last of which, at Freeman, being undertaken by Maj. Gen. Virgil Peterson, the I.G. himself. In at least one of the reports filed, the conclusion was drawn that General Hunter is just opposed to social equality for Negroes in any way, and that he is determined to see that his views prevail.

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