Role of Aviation Squadrons (Separate) (Colored)

[tyskaorden]

Looking through OOB of the USAAF in 1941 I found an organisation named as Aviation Squadron (Separate) (Colored). That it had something to do with the racial segregation of the US Armed Forces at the time I understand. But do anyone know what the role of such a unit would be?

[RichTO90]

Looking through OOB of the USAAF in 1941 I found and organisation named as Aviation Squadron (Separate) (Colored). That it had something to do with the racial segregation of the US Armed Forces at the time I understand. But do anyone know what the role of such a unit would be?

Those were 250-man units of draftees created to accept the 9% allocation of Blacks mandated in the draft. Officially they were training squadrons with nine activated initially in June 1941. The USAAF Troop Basis of 30 June 1942 authorized 184 and eventually 266 were activated. Unofficially, they were simply a mechanism to ensure that segregation would be maintained in the USAAF, given the massive infusion of Black manpower during the war.

[Leo Niehorster]

Weren't they basically used as labor units?

[tyskaorden]

Looking through OOB of the USAAF in 1941 I found an organisation named as Aviation Squadron (Separate) (Colored). That it had something to do with the racial segregation of the US Armed Forces at the time I understand. But do anyone know what the role of such a unit would be?

Those were 250-man units of draftees created to accept the 9% allocation of Blacks mandated in the draft. Officially they were training squadrons with nine activated initially in June 1941. The USAAF Troop Basis of 30 June 1942 authorized 184 and eventually 266 were activated. Unofficially, they were simply a mechanism to ensure that segregation would be maintained in the USAAF, given the massive infusion of Black manpower during the war.

Thank you RichTO90, where they as Leo Niehorster suggest then mainly used as labour units?

[RichTO90]

Weren't they basically used as labor units?

Technically no Leo, instead they were used more or less as an initial way to absorb, organize, and train a segregated Black manpower pool. In practice, the Base Commander of whatever airbase they were assigned to could use them as they saw fit. Some were used as orderlies and attendants at base hospitals, as base maintenance handymen and janitorial staff, and as laborers. However, it seems it also became a trained manpower pool used to form other segregated USAAF ground units.

"Because of its high enlistment appeal the Air Corps, in the earlier period of expansion, was able to obtain a majority of its men through regular enlistment channels. Since only selectees were affected by the Selective Service Act's racial clauses, only that portion of the Air Corps personnel which came through the draft was affected by rulings on proportionate Negro strength.

In the fall of 1940, the Air Corps was informed that it would receive 25,000 selectees as its 1941 spring quota. Of these, 9 percent, or 2,250 would be Negro. The Air Corps proposed, initially, that these Negro enlisted men be placed in "air base detachments." These units were to be trained and employed as parts of air base groups. Detachments would be authorized when Negro selectees were sent to a given air base. Although they were to be carried in the tables of organization of air base groups, the base "detachment" was intended to prevent mixing Negroes and whites in the same unit. In a "corrected version" suggested by G-3, the Air Corps substituted 250-man "training squadrons (separate) " to be over and above the regular Air Corps allotment of selectees and to be completely separate from air base groups. This arrangement, by which the Air Corps allotment of selectees rose from 25,000 to 27,250 men, would prevent interference with the planned use of the original 25,000 white selectees on whom the Air Corps had counted for its combat group expansion program.

Before activation of the first nine aviation training squadrons in June 1941, it was explained that they were being organized "solely to take care of the colored selectees allotted to the Air Corps ...." They were later described as activated "to aid in the many duties which must be performed to keep in order the stations of the AAF within the continental limits of the United States." They were intentionally left with their duties vaguely defined so that local commanders might have discretion in the uses to which they were put.

Aviation squadrons, as these units were later called, were established at every major air base. The troop basis of the Army Air Forces, by 3o June 1 942, provided for 184 such squadrons. A total of 266 were eventually activated. A few of these squadrons operated under specific tables of organization, but the vast majority came under the bulk allotment system, under which personnel was allotted to particular commands and headquarters which, in turn, allotted personnel to particular units as required by the using installation. Their strengths therefore fluctuated according to the determined needs of the station to which they were assigned. Aviation squadrons were thereby enabled to absorb, within reasonable limits, as many or as few selectees at a given time as were necessary to maintain the desired distribution of Negroes within the Air Corps."

As the pool of Black draftees increased, QM Truck companies and Air Base Transportation platoons, and Airdrome Defense Units (later Air Base Security Battalions) were activated to continue to absorb the manpower. The Aviation Squadron (C) was later designated as "Army Air Force Base Unit, Section C" and then as "Army Air Force Base Unit, Section F".

[Leo Niehorster]

Outstanding reply, Rich. Thank you very much.
Leo

[RichTO90]

Outstanding reply, Rich. Thank you very much.
Leo

Sorry, I forgot the reference for the quotes, its from Ulysses Lee, The Employment of Negro Troops, pp. 113-116.

[Leo Niehorster]

Sort of reminds me of a holding company I was in for six months. Stocking PX shelves at night, garbage collecting, guard duty, policing the ranges, etc., etc.