Tablenote 1: Includes inductions and male "non-prior service" enlistments into the Regular components.
Tablenote 2: The Army was the only service drafting men during this decade.
While the Army's dependence on the draft, and thus Group IV men, explained part of the continuing high percentage of Negroes in that service, the Defense Department manpower group was at a loss to explain the notable variation in black enlistments among the services. All employed similar enlistment standards, yet during the period 1958—1960, for example, black enlistment in the Army and Air Force averaged 7 percent, the Marine Corps 6 percent, and the Navy 2.7 percent. Nor could the analysts isolate the factors contributing to the low officer ratios in all four services. Almost all military officers during the period under analysis were college graduates, Negroes comprised about 4 percent of all male college graduates, yet only the Army maintained a black officer ratio approaching that figure. (See Table [13].)
The inability of many black servicemen to score highly in the tests might also explain why training in some technical occupations continued more restricted for them (Tables 18 and 19). In contrast to ground combat and service occupations, which required little formal school training, some occupation groups—electronics, for example—had high selection standards. The Defense Department group admitted that occupations for blacks in the armed forces had also been influenced by historical patterns of segregated assignments to food service and other support occupations. Among men with twenty or more years in uniform, 40 percent of the blacks and 12 percent of the whites were assigned to service occupations. But this pattern was changing, the analysts pointed out. The reduction in the differential between whites and blacks in service occupations among more recent recruits clearly reflected the impact of policies designed to equalize opportunities (Table 20). These policies had brought about an increasing proportion of Negroes in white collar skills as well as in ground combat skills.
Table 18—Distribution of Enlisted Personnel in Each Major Occupation, 1956
| Occupation | Percentage Distribution by AFQT Groups | ||
| I & II | III | IV | |
| Electronics | 60.3 | 31.4 | 8.3 |
| Other technical | 57.9 | 30.7 | 11.4 |
| Admin. & clerical | 51.5 | 37.4 | 11.1 |
| Mechanics & repairmen | 37.6 | 43.8 | 18.6 |
| Crafts | 30.0 | 44.1 | 25.9 |
| Services | 21.5 | 43.3 | 35.2 |
| Ground combat | 24.5 | 37.1 | 38.4 |
Table 19—Occupational Group Distribution by Race. All DOD, 1962
| Percentage Distribution | Total Percent of Negroes in Each Group | ||
| Negroes | White | ||
| Ground combat | 23.7 | 15.0 | 14.3 |
| Electronics | 7.0 | 14.9 | 4.7 |
| Other technical | 6.8 | 7.7 | 8.5 |
| Admin. & clerical | 21.5 | 19.2 | 10.6 |
| Mechanics & repairmen | 15.1 | 26.0 | 5.8 |
| Crafts | 5.6 | 6.6 | 8.4 |
| Services | 20.3 | 10.7 | 16.6 |
| Total | 100.0 | 100.0 | 9.2 |
Table 20—Occupational Group Distribution of Enlisted Personnel By Length of Service and Race
| Occupational Group | 0-4 Years | 4-8 Years | 8-12 Years | 12-20 Years | Over 20 Years | |||||
| White | Black | White | Black | White | Black | White | Black | White | Black | |
| Ground combat | 20.3 | 32.7 | 9.8 | 17.7 | 9.6 | 17.8 | 9.8 | 14.5 | 8.4 | 12.5 |
| Electronics | 14.1 | 5.6 | 19.7 | 10.3 | 15.6 | 8.1 | 14.2 | 6.7 | 10.5 | 3.6 |
| Other technical | 7.5 | 7.1 | 7.3 | 7.0 | 7.8 | 6.8 | 8.6 | 6.1 | 7.3 | 5.0 |
| Admin. & clerical | 18.3 | 22.3 | 17.5 | 22.6 | 19.6 | 22.0 | 22.0 | 18.5 | 24.5 | 18.7 |
| Mechanics | 23.9 | 12.8 | 29.6 | 20.5 | 28.9 | 16.2 | 24.2 | 15.1 | 29.1 | 13.6 |
| Crafts | 5.3 | 4.0 | 6.9 | 7.4 | 7.7 | 6.8 | 8.8 | 7.2 | 8.6 | 6.1 |
| Services | 10.6 | 15.5 | 9.2 | 15.1 | 10.8 | 22.3 | 12.3 | 31.9 | 11.7 | 40.4 |
This change was dramatically highlighted by the occupational distribution of naval personnel in 1962 (Table 21). Among General Qualification Test Groups I and II, the percentage of Negroes assigned to service occupations, mainly stewards, commissarymen, and the like, declined from 22 percent of those with more than twelve years' service to 2 percent of those with less than twelve years' service, with sharp increases in the "other technical" group, mainly medical and dental specialists, and smaller increases in other technical skills. A similar trend also appeared in the lower mental categories. One persisting occupational difference was the tendency to assign a relatively large percentage of Negroes with high aptitudes to "other technical" skills and those of low aptitude to service occupations. The group admitted that these differences required further analysis.