CO, AdComd, NavTraCen, 12 Jun 45, sub: Selection of
Negro Personnel for Instruction in Class "A"
Schools, 54-1-21, GenRecsNav.]

Despite these reforms, the months following Forrestal's talk with King
saw many important recommendations of the Special Programs Unit
wandering uncertainly through the bureaucratic desert. For example, a
proposal to make the logistic support companies interracial, or at
least to create comparable white companies to remove the stigma of
segregated manual labor, failed to survive the objections of the
enlisted personnel section. The Bureau of Naval Personnel rejected a
suggestion that Negroes be assigned to repair units on board ships and
to LST's, LCI's, and LCT's during the expansion of the amphibious
program. On 30 August 1944 Admiral King rejected a bureau
recommendation that the crews of net tenders and mine ships be
integrated. He reasoned that these vessels were being kept in
readiness for overseas assignment and required "the highest degree of
experienced seamanship and precision work" by the crews. He also cited
the crowded living quarters and less experienced officers as further
reasons for banning Negroes.[3-115]

[Footnote 3-115: Memo, CNO for Chief, NavPers, 30 Aug
44, sub: Negro Personnel--Assignment to ANs and
YMs, P13-/MM, BuPersRecs.]

There were other examples of backsliding in the Navy's racial
practices. Use of Negroes in general service had created a shortage of
messmen, and in August 1944 the Bureau of Naval Personnel authorized
commanders to recruit among black seamen for men to transfer to the
Steward's Branch. The bureau suggested as a talking point the fact (p. 092)
that stewards enjoyed more rapid advancement, shorter hours, and
easier work than men in the general service.[3-116] And, illustrating
that a move toward integration was sometimes followed by a step
backward, a bureau representative reported in July 1945 that whereas a
few black trainees at the Bainbridge Naval Training Center had been
integrated in the past, many now arriving were segregated in all-black
companies.[3-117]

[Footnote 3-116: BuPers Cir Ltr 227-44, 12 Aug 44,
sub: Steward's Branch, Procurement of From
General-Service Negroes.]

[Footnote 3-117: Memo, Lt William H. Robertson, Jr.,
for Rear Adm Will