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PHOTOCOPIED October 2, 2002; NASM PRESERVATION COPY

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[[image - black & white photograph of Benjamin O. Davis, Jr.]
[[caption]]COL. BENJAMIN O. DAVIS, JR.[[/caption]]

[[image - black & white photograph of James H. Robinson]
[[caption]]COL. JAMES H. ROBINSON[[/caption]]

Budget Cutting Only Bar to Generalships

WASHINGTON—If Congress does not cut present budget requests for the Department of the Army and Department of the Air Force, both branches will soon have Negro brigadier generals, a top Defense Department spokesman revealed this week.

Slated for one star rank in the Army is Colonel James H. Robinson, currently assigned to Headquarters, Eighth Army, now in Korea. The spokesman said that under the present Army regulations, Colonel Robinson, formerly assigned to the Pentagon, has satisfied all of the military requirements for the one-star rank, and is high on the Army's list for promotion.

In the Air Force, Colonel Benjamin O. Davis, Jr., World War II commander of the 332nd Fighter Group, has satisfied the requirements for a promotion in the Air Force. Colonel Davis, a West Point graduate, is presently in Korea also, serving as commander of a Fighter Interceptor Wing.

Son of retired Army Brigadier General Benjamin O. Davis, Colonel Davis is said to be well-placed for the one-star promotion should the Air Force promotion list begin to move.

His father is the only Negro to have held the rank of a general in any military department.

Colonel Robinson Higher

The Defense Department spokesman pointed out that according to department lists, which carry a numerical order of officers in line for a promotion to the next rank, Colonel Robinson is higher in the Army listing than is Colo-

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Budget Cuts Only Bar to Generalships

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nel Davis in the Air Force listing. Both officers, however, are high on their respective department's lists.

Under wartime circumstances, the spokesman said, the lists move much more rapidly than they do in a peacetime situation, which holds back many promising career military officers.

The nation's highest ranking Naval officer is Lieutenant Commander Dennis Nelson, in charge of public information at the San Diego Naval Base, where he has an all-white staff under him. The Marine Corps. a branch of the Navy, is reported to have a Negro captain. Both Colonel Robinson and Colonel Davis hold the highest ranks for Negro officers in their respective military branches.
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