Richard E. Nugent

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Richard Emmel Nugent
Bronze Star
Air Medal

Richard Emmel Nugent (December 12, 1902 – November 5, 1979) was a

Ninth Army during World War II. His first five years of service as a second lieutenant were spent as a tank officer. In 1929 he transferred to the United States Army Air Corps
during its five-year expansion program.

Of Nugent's 22-year career in the Air Corps, Army Air Forces and USAF, three were spent in career training and 19 years were in duty positions: four in operational units and commands, and 15 years in staff positions. 11 of those in staff positions were as a personnel specialist, and nearly ten in the Office of Chief of the Air Corps, the General Staff Corps, or Headquarters USAF.[1]

While a major general in the Air Force Office of Personnel, Nugent was involved in the preparatory work, and instrumental in the creation and implementation of the plan, in integrating the Air Force in 1949 and 1950.

Biography

At West Point in 1924

Born in

Ordnance Department at the Aberdeen Proving Ground, then was sent to Brooks Field, Texas, in March 1929 for primary flying school to obtain the rating required for permanent assignment to the Air Corps. He received his pilot's rating and commission of first lieutenant in the Air Corps on March 24, 1930.[1][2]

In the Air Corps, 1st Lt. Nugent was posted to

Army Air Corps Mail Operation at Floyd Bennett and Mitchel Fields
.

Martin B-10

In September 1935 Nugent returned to Langley, where he was made a flight commander in the

2nd Bombardment Group until July 1936. Nugent led a flight of three Martin B-10s on an instrument flight from Langley to Allegan, Michigan, for which he and his crews won the 1936 Mackay Trophy. From 1936 to 1937 Nugent returned to staff positions as adjutant for the 2nd Wing, Langley Field, and the 2nd Bomb Group.[2]

He entered the

American Embassy in London, England, with temporary duty as Assistant Military Attaché for Air.[1][2]

12th Army Group
commanding generals in Northwest Europe, April 1945. Nugent is back row, right.

Nuget was assigned a staff officer to the War Department General Staff on March 10, 1942 (the day after the Army Air Forces became an autonomous component of the Army of the United States), serving in the Office of the Chief of Staff, until April 23, 1943. He was then assigned concurrently as Chief of Staff, Eastern Defense Command and First Air Force, and promoted to brigadier general on June 30, 1943. Nugent briefly commanded the Philadelphia Fighter Wing, from October 18 to November 1, 1943, when he was transferred to the headquarters of the Ninth Air Force in England. There he served as Assistant Deputy and Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations until September 12, 1944, with concurrent duty between July and September 1944 as head of the United States component of the Allied Expeditionary Air Force.[1][2]

On September 15, 1944, the XXIX Tactical Air Command was activated in France with Nugent in command, where he remained until the end of the war.

V-E Day, Nugent served briefly at the Air Force Personnel Distribution Command at Louisville, Kentucky, then as military attaché to Brazil from December 1945 to July 1947.[1][2]

United States Air Force

Watercolor portrait of Brigadier General Richard E. Nugent, 9th Air Force, United States Army Air Force 1945

After the creation of the United States Air Force, Nugent served in several general officer positions in the Air Force Office of Personnel, Headquarters USAF, still in the temporary rank of brigadier general. During this period he was promoted to permanent brigadier general in February 1948, and immediately appointed to temporary major general, with dates of rank retroactive to June 30, 1943, and October 14, 1947, respectively. He received a permanent promotion to major general in January 1950, and to the temporary rank of lieutenant general on April 11, 1951. Nugent held a number of positions in AFOP:

Chief of the Civilian Personnel Division (1947),
Assistant Deputy Chief of Staff for Personnel (1947),
Director of Personnel Planning (1948),
Assistant Deputy Chief of Staff for Personnel (1949),
Acting Deputy Chief of Staff for Personnel (1950), and
Deputy Chief of Staff for Personnel (1951).[1][2]

He retired August 31, 1951, with a line-of-duty disability, in the grade of lieutenant general.[1][2]

He died at the

Patrick Air Force Base hospital on November 5, 1979, and was buried at Fountainhead Memorial Park in Palm Bay, Florida.[3]

Racial integration of the Air Force

In April 1948, while Director of Civilian Personnel, Nugent was tasked by his superior, DCS for Personnel Lt. Gen. Idwal H. Edwards, to chair a study group to re-examine the racial policies of the Air Force. At that time, black Americans were 7% of Air Force enlisted personnel and only .06% of Air Force officers,

Secretary of the Air Force Stuart Symington in January 1949, and implementation began May 11.[6]

Although Edwards, Nugent, and Marr had all recommended full integration, reasoning that it was not only socially just but that segregation was inefficient and could never be made efficient, the Air Force adopted an incremental integration plan modeled on that of the U.S. Navy, which already had an official racial equality policy formulated by

Navy Secretary James Forrestal during World War II.[7] The Navy's racial problem stemmed from its limited compliance with its own policy, caused by diverting 62% of its blacks into the Steward's Branch, but where black sailors served in the fleet, complete integration within units, including living quarters, had already taken place.[8] The numbers, however, were very small. Even so, Edwards and the civilian leadership of the Air Force announced that Air Force policy unequivocally endorsed Truman's order and demanded "ungrudging compliance" with it.[4] Edwards made clear to local commanders that they would be held personally and officially responsible for the smooth implementation of the Air Force plan.[6]

As a result, what was perceived as a limited plan went swiftly forward towards full integration.[4] The effectiveness of the change is noted by the reports of the black-owned Pittsburgh Courier, which was wholly skeptical of the Air Force's sincerity in a May 21 story, yet just five months later prematurely announced the end of segregation in the service in bold headlines.[9][10] By the end of the first year of implementation, in May 1950, only 24 of the original 106 black units remained, with the definition of a "Negro unit" being one with more than 50% black representation. Integration of quarters and other facilities in integrated units was almost immediate and total.[11] At the end of 1950 only nine black units (all service units) remained and 95% of black airmen served in integrated units.[6]

By June 1952,[10] members of the last black unit, a 98-man service unit with 25 whites, had been distributed throughout the Air Force, while the Navy had made only a "token" transition that would continue for another ten years. Compliance by the Army had hardly begun because of strong internal resistance.[6][12]

Awards and decorations

SOURCE: Biographical Data on Air Force General Officers, 1917-1952, Volume 2 - L thru Z[1]

Command pilot
  Combat Observer
  Technical Observer
Distinguished Service Medal
Legion of Merit
Bronze Star Medal
Air Medal
American Defense Service Medal
American Campaign Medal
European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal
World War II Victory Medal
Commander of the Order of the British Empire
Legion of Honor (France
)
Croix de Guerre with Palm (France)
Commander, Order of Leopold (Belgium)
Croix de Guerre with palm (Belgium)
Order of Adolphe of Nassau (Luxembourg)
Croix de Guerre (Luxembourg)
Order of Alexander Nevsky (Soviet Union)
Order of Military Merit (Brazil)

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Fogerty, Robert P. (1953). "Biographical Data on Air Force General Officers, 1917-1952, Volume 2 - L thru Z" (PDF). USAF Historical Study No. 91. AFHRA (USAF). Archived from the original (PDF) on September 5, 2012. Retrieved November 17, 2010., pp. 169-171 in PDF
  2. ^ a b c d e f g "Lieutenant General Richard E. Nugent". Inside AF.mil (USAF). Retrieved June 25, 2014.
  3. ^ "Richard Nugent". Florida Today. November 6, 1979. p. 3B. Retrieved December 27, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. ^ a b c Boyne, Walter J. (2007). Beyond the Wild Blue: A History of the United States Air Force 1947-2007. MacMillan.
    ISBN 978-0-312-35811-2
    .    , p. 247
  5. ^ MacGregor, Morris J Jr. (1985). "Chapter 11, The Postwar Air Force". Integration of the Armed Forces 1940-1965. Center For Military History (US Army). Retrieved November 17, 2010.
  6. ^ a b c d MacGregor, Morris J Jr. (1985). "Chapter 16, Integration of the Air Force and the Navy". Integration of the Armed Forces 1940-1965. Center For Military History (US Army). Retrieved November 17, 2010. This source describes the plan as "running away with itself" in achieving full integration rather than limited.
  7. ^ Gropman, Alan L. (1985). The Air Force Integrates, 1945-1964. Office of Air Force History.
    ISBN 0-912799-24-2
    .    , 89
  8. ^ Gropman 1985, pp. 94–95
  9. ^ Gropman 1985, p. 122
  10. ^ a b Boyne 2007, p. 248
  11. ^ Gropman 1985, p. 95
  12. ^ Gropman 1985, p. 145

External links

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