r
o
ilitary analy ts
are arning that, fter a decade of im­
provement in minority recruitment, there
m y n be drop in the number of
Bl c entering the armed rvice
offi rs,
The re n i that th
in their recruit in
ith engineering or ientific skill
to m t the demands of an inere singly
technology-on nted milit ry.
Thi h cud probJem the an -
Iy t Y be u di prop rtion te num-
b r of 81 tudent in college - the
.. ngle urce of offi er ndi-
d te re continuin to m jor in
nd lib ral rt.
uthority on
ADDrrIO AL difficulty IS in­
ere d comp tition from pri te in­
du try, ys Air Force Col. Frederic
Pang, director of officer and enli ted
per nnel manag ment t the Pentagon.
"Our recruiting peopl y there are
limited number of Bl ck who gradu e
from college and have the technical
qualification ttl ys Pang "and they're
the same people the private • ctor i
goin fter."
Until th end of or d ar II, Blac
ere virtually excluded from- the officer
corp. But Defense Dep rtrnent figur
o dramati progress ha been made
. e then, e iaDy in the p decade.
In fiscal 1972, Black counted for
only I.S percent of th becoming
om en in the four rvice. By fi
1982 the number of Blac in-
to 7.1 percent of tho enteri
om er corp .
A of September 1982, B c com-
pri d 8.4 percent of all Army officer
fi e percent of all ir orce offi er .
four percent of the officers in the arine
and 2.9 percent of tho in th avy.
Bl cks now make up about 22 p r .ent
of all enli ted per nne) in the ilit ry
rvice including nearly 33 percent in
the rmy, 21 percent in the tines,
17 percent in the Air Force and 1 .4
per ent in the avy .
While all the bran he hav made
d� nces the Air orce and avy are
expected to continue to have the most
diffi ulty in recruitin dequate number
of 81 c offie r. The rea n, the an- I
aly Y, is that the t 0 branche
ith their increa ingly phisticated ea-
ponry . and m chinery ill have the
gre te ne d for tho ith high level
of technical and ientific ill
00 OTES th t Re rve Officer
T r inin orp program at Blac col-
leges d universitie have produo d
rou hly half the Blac officer no on
ti e duty.
One way to en ure the hool
continue to prod ce B ck officer is to
increa the number of ROTC scholar­
ship .
But Dorn note number of white
college and uni rsiti that dropped
ROTC becau of prote s durin the
Vietnam era have recently rein ituted
the program, meaning there will be more
competition for holarships.
At the same time, h y, the Penta­
gon 'hasn't re nded to requ . from
8 ROTC colleges for scholarship
incre in the. numbers that would
significantly help the situation."
But the larger problem appears to be
simply th t there are too fe BI c s
gr duating from college with degrees
in . ence or technology .
Doro, a Blac Univer ·ty of Texa
ROTC � duate who serv d Army
captain in the early 1970 notes that of
the 60,000 B c ho received under­
graduate degree in 1981, fe er than
,000 earned degrees in mathematics
engineer in or the phy . cal sci nces.
f -
- ,
JUNE 15 - 21. 1983 THE CITIZEN PAGE 3 .
eed
es
o
or exe a
ge
H ve YQU ever thought hat it ould
be like to have. a tudent from another
country Ii with you for year learn
about their culture, teenager hoot
go emrnent, religion, their food, nd
televi . n while they are learnin about
our?
Youth For Under anding is 100 ing
for home in St. Joseph, C , and Berrien
counties for exchance tudents for the
1983-84 school year.
St. Joseph Ca and Berrien counti
. enjoyed 36 students on the Youth For
Under t ndin program for the 1982-
83 school year. The YFU program placed
over 50 students in . higan from
ex�n .
If interested in 0
contact Robert and Jacq
phon 616/429-4574, or "�I.&_�
der phone 616/279-9083.
will a er your que io
in placing a student in your
a
A LA TA - About 70 prominent
Saudi Arabian busine en and top
government offici I jetted into At­
lant recently for two days of m etings.
The S udis too part in a conference
to ek agreement for joint busine
partners and to trade with about
350 repre ntati e fiom American com­
panies from 27 states.
AI represented ere 11 companie
from other countrie .
The Saudis were invited by Atlant
ayor Andrew Young.
On that trip, Youn invited the S u­
dis to come to the United States to see
bu in opportunitie in tlant. Their
ttendan e t the conference a their
c ept n of th t invitation.
"Our 0 n ec nomic urvi J de­
pend on intern ti nal tr de, ith th
Third rld in parti ul r.' Youn
id. 'They on r very ttractive market.
• It v ry important for American
bu in t et inv Ived with the Third
orld, the Saudi in p rti ular. The
end re ult is more jobs.'
Th meeting had thre b si objec­
tives:
-Direct sale of goods and rvice
to the Saudi
-Joint busine ventures
-Inve ment by the udis in U.s.
projects
During th meeting tternpt ere
m de to li the American firm ith
S udi lth similar intere t .
The conference
the U.s. Chamber
n­
m-
Young lat r dec ed: "I
ccu d of b in m yor ith forei n
policy. I pi d guilty. If y n 't
'The leadership belong. not to th
loudest, not to tho· who beat th drums
or blow the trumpets, but to tho ho
da in and da out, in all
amin to
To
persist and to remain deer
t b l n th l 'Od up.