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[[image: black & white photograph of a radar training session for tracking enemy aircraft]]

[[caption]] At Keesler Air Force Base young Negroes are trained in highly technical radar Ground Control Interception (G.C.I.) system. From information passed them from radar screens, they plot positions of approaching enemy aircraft on lucite board. Monitor in front of panel, 18-yr-old Roland Henderson, East Chicago, Ind., channels procedure. Tellers before the board relay information to air defense control center for action. [[/caption]

The Air Force makes no bones about what it means by integration. Negro boys are being

• When the Negro unit at Lockbourne Air Base was de-centralized last October, many Negroes had their misgivings. The "Race Base" (as Lockbourne was slanged) had operated so well under a Negro commander, that they felt it was a crime to break it up. Some were convinced that Negro pilots would be lost in the diffusion, be grounded because of race and would lose their flying pay. Others saw the glory of the 332nd scattered to the winds.

Those were short-term views; in many cases, selfish. The Air Force proposals provided for the assignment and utilization of Negro personnel on the basis of individual ability. All references to race were to be stopped. Breaking up Lockbourne was only the initial step in the implementation of the policy. Soon enough the Air Force showed that it meant business. By December 31, last year - the time set for the policy to be in complete operation - the scheme had worked far beyond expectations without the least friction. The majority of Negro air officers with whom OUR WORLD talked are now sure that this "is the best thing that ever happened to the Air Force" in terms of a long-range plan. A few still "beef" about the high percentage of grounding among Negro pilots.

But investigations in Washington indicate to OUR WORLD, that white boys have suffered just as much; and grounding in most instances, has been ordered because of appropriation cutbacks or to conform with age limitations.

If anyone needs confirmation of the Air Force's good faith in the accomplishment of this program, a visit to lackland A.F.B., deep in the heart of Texas, will do it.

PAGE 30   OUR WORLD June