4 - The Black Vault

.M.
THE BDM CORPORATION
[the] field inqiry shows that designating every inci-,
dent involved bl,?cks and whites as "racial" was misleading
in that in many of the incidents betwe,'.k, blacks
and whites "race" was in fact not a factor ....
there was no evidence of inequity .... MAGIC's
conclusion: the allegations with respect to racial
tension and military justice were not substantiated .
it appears that only 33 out of 5*00 incidents were
traced to "race" as tha significant factor.13/
Whether or not there was discrimination, blacks were treated
differently in the administration of military justice. On the average,
black soldiers stayed in pra-trial confinement five days longer than white
soldiers. In 1971, 50 percent of the soldiers held in pre-trial confinement
in Europe were black. Of the courts-martial administered in 1972,
34 percent were given to blick soldiers. Punitive discharges as a result
of courts-martial were awarded to 23 percent of the black defendents and
only 17 percent of the white. When awarded confinement at hard labor,
blacks served an average of 2.9 years while whites served only 1.9 yea.rs.
In 1971,
blacks received 45 percent oi ,-he -,,ss-than-honorable dischargns
granted in Europe.14/ A study by the Per.4,,nel Research di;ision of tile
Air Force Human Resources Laboratory confirms ,:ha. ,ii.•'Ities 'eceived
different treatment under the Uniform Code of Mil itary Justice as oi"
7_13.
Members of racial or ethnic mi;nority groups were more
likely to have received a disciplinary action than
Caucasians. Among the minorit.y groups, the American I
Indians seemed to have the highest disciplinary rates.
Negroes tended 1o have the second highest in the nonpunitive
and nonjudicial areas, while Asian Americans
had the lowest rates in all three cate-gories. These
statistics, however, may be misleading since the Military
Justice Task Force Follow-on Studies found that
whites are more likely than blacks to opt for administrative
discharge in lieu of court-martial.15/
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