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Press Conference, Wing Commander's Office, 1015, 17 May 1949

Press Representatives:

Mr. Perry Morrison, The Columbus Citizen, and a photographer
Mr. Tod Raper, The Columbus Dispatch, and a photographer
Mr. John Combs, The Cleveland Call Post

Military Representatives:

Col. Martin D. Mannion
Col. B. O. Davis, Jr.
Lt. Col. T. M. Noonan
Maj. John T. McDaniels
Maj. Johnson Crawford
Maj. Edward C. Gleed
Maj. Thomas J. Money
1st Lt. Willard W. Savoy
1st Lt. Francis B. Collier
2d Lt. Don W. Lentz

Col. D.:  I am happy to have this opportunity to talk.  Yesterday was the first time I was able to present this subject to the troops here on the station.  If I get a little hoarse you will understand.  I talked about six hours yesterday to three groups of people.  I would like to give you a background on this whole subject and tell you exactly what we plan to do here at Lockbourne and what is probably going to take place in the Air Force over-all.

Mr. R.:  That is a fine idea, I think.

Col. D.:  Now, prior to 1940, there weren't any Negroes in the Air Force at all.  It was the Army Air Corps at that time.  At that time the Secretary of War was determined that there should be some.  Shortly after that time the Selective Service Act was passed and the Air Corps was to take its proportionate share of Negro personnel based on the ratio of the number of Negroes to whites in the United States.  During the several years since 1940, that the Air Corps and the United States Air Force have had Negro personnel, it has been becoming increasingly apparent to the Air Force that they weren't using them very efficiently.  Numerous occasions came up during the War where the policies that were in effect at that time were obviously found to be faulty.  The Negro units themselves suffered and the Air Force was forced to do a whole lot of extra work because it had to maintain a dual classification system and had to maintain dual rosters, and they had to set up separate establishments, namely, Tuskagee Army Air Field, which represented a terrific extra cost to the government simply because it was a completely separate training field for Negro personnel.  The thing went on and on and finally