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white and Negro, to improve the caliber of the peacetime training Army.

Finally, the Gillem Board tacitly recognized the fact that segregation, in itself, undoubtedly had an effect on the efficiency and morale of Negro combat units. In the winter of 1945, some 2,500 Negro soldiers from the supply services had answered a call for volunteers for front-line duty. These Negro volunteers had been formed into platoons and assigned to white companies. The combat performance of these platoons had effectively established the feasibility of integration at this level without difficulty.* The Board acknowledged the success of this experiment in its conclusions:

"Experiments and other experience of World War II indicate clearly that the most successful employment of Negro units occurred when they were employed as units closely associated with white units on similar tasks, and a greater degree of success was obtained when small Negro organizations were so employed."

Consequently, the Board recommended that "experimental groupings of Negro units with white units in composite organizations be continued in the postwar Army as a policy," and that the ultimate objective of Army policy be "the effective use of all manpower made available to the military establishment in the event of a major mobilization at some unknown date against an undetermined aggressor . . . without regard to atecedents or race."

These, then, were the six principal recommendations of the Gillem Board:


*The report of the President's Committee on Civil Rights—To Secure These Rights—reproduces in large part the results of a survey among white soldiers following this experiment. Three out of four white soldiers said their attitude toward Negroes had changed after serving beside them in combat. The Army, feeling that this experiment was not representative and fearing possible unfortunate repercussions, decided against publishing the results of the survey during the war.
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