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Ernestine Johnson Thomas
US Air Force
1949-1952
The year 1948 was a seminal year for women
in the military. Congress passed the Women's Armed Services Integration
Act which gave women a permanent place in the military and President
Truman signed Executive Order 9981 calling for equality of treatment
and opportunity for all persons in the armed forces without regard
for race, color, religion or national origin.
One year later when Ernestine Johnson
(Thomas) enlisted in the US Air Force, the armed services were still
struggling with how to carry out these mandates for gender and racial
integration. A native of Warren, Ohio, Johnson enlisted on an impulse.
She was 19 years old and had never been out of the Midwest. Neither
had she experienced any kind of racial segregation until she was
on her way to Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas.
I had never been South and we were in a Pullman
[railroad] car so I didn't have any encounters and when we got
to, ....Arkansas I think [The porter] could probably tell that
I was very naive...and had never traveled anywhere and he said...'Well,
I would just like for you to get off when we get to Little Rock,'
or wherever it was...and just go up...into the waiting room and
just see what it was like. And so I was...elated and very happy
and so my friends, the two white girls, we all went up and we
were getting ready to go through the door and all of a sudden
I looked up and I saw that sign and it was just like a bomb exploded.
I'll never forget it. It said, White Only ... and I just
took off and ran all the way back to the train.
Upon her arrival at Lackland, Thomas became the
first black person to be integrated into a basic training squadron.
Up to that time, training squadrons had been segregated. When the
Korean War broke out in 1950, Thomas volunteered to go to Japan.
Life in Tokyo was far from spartan. The WAF
(Women in the Airforce) lived in the Mitsubishi Building in Tokyo
and had maid service, table cloths, candlelight and gourmet food.
Thomas liked her work as a clerk typist in the intelligence section
but became upset when a male private was promoted ahead of her despite
her seniority. She complained to her supervisor, a master sergent.
I
told him I had been here longer...and I wanted to know why I had
not been promoted, and he said,' well perhaps I would go in the
next time'. I said, 'Well then I'm not going to work here anymore.'
He
said...I didn't have a choice, and I said, I did. So I went to
see the colonel... and I talked to Colonel Chisholm and I told
him...that I wasn't going to work in that office and that I had
been overlooked for a promotion, and he told me that I really
didn't have anything to say about that because I was in the military
and you just don't do things like that. And I said, 'I felt that
the government had spent too much money on training me and I'm
just not going to let it go like that.' And I said,' I'm just
not going to stay. You can discharge me.'
I
thought they were going to put me out....But as it turned out,
it didn't happen that way.
...they
sent me over to personnel....to talk with someone there to see
what positions were available in my category. They sent me around
for interviews. The men were livid. They said, 'Who does she think
she is that she can go and apply for positions and get interviews?'...l
understand that I was the talk of the whole...Headquarters.
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