Minorities in the Military

By: Rachel L. JonesThough Operation Desert Storm is becoming a faint memory, debate over the issue of minority representation in the military lingers on.

In an article on the disproportionate representation of minorities in the military (See "80 Percent of Chicago-Area Recruits Are Minorities," The Chicago Reporter, Jan. 1991), Chicagoan Barbara Carter, the mother of an Army reservist sent to the war, agonized over her daughter's safety. She also criticized dissent over the war by college activists.

"Tomorrow, they're going to get out of their lily-white beds and go to their classes, and my daughter will be out there dodging bullets," said Carter, who is black.

But her daughter Mia, who spent four months in the Persian-Arabian Gulf in an Army Reserve medical unit, now says the issue of skin color quickly faded as fear and patriotism gripped young soldiers.

"It's just one big family," 26-year-old Mia Carter said recently from her South Shore home. "You really didn't think about the fact that the person next to you might be a different color. When those SCUDs (missiles) were falling, and you didn't know if they might hit you or not, the only thing you saw when you looked at that guy is that he might be the one who has to carry you away from danger."

At first, she was cynical about leaving her family, her studies at DeVry Technical Institute and her job to go to war. "It was all about money and oil, and preserving those rich people's (Kuwaitis) way of life. I was very bitter, but once I got over there, I saw how afraid those people were of Saddam Hussein," she said. "I felt we were fighting for freedom."

Carter also found disproportionate numbers in her unit; only six of 32 members were white—all six were officers. The rest were black enlisted personnel, she said.

Most of the Chicago-area personnel who served in the gulf are now back in their local units. For example, all but a handful of the 1,979 Chicago-area Army reservists sent to the gulf have returned, said Maj. Doug Bidele, an Army spokesman at Fort Sheridan.

From the Marine Corps, 210 local men and women went to the gulf from August 1990 to March 1991. The Air Force sent 830 active recruits from Scott Air Force Base in Belleville, along with 1,233 Air Force reservists and 442 Air National Guard soldiers.

And while many believe a war boosts recruiting, military spokesmen said that just isn't so. "We set recruiting goals each year before the beginning of the fiscal year, and we must stay within those goals," said Capt. Joey Henderson of the 3557th Air Force Recruiting Squadron in Milwaukee, Wis.

From October 1990 to August 1991, 317 people joined the Air Force from a region including Chicago, northeastern Illinois and Wisconsin. "We bring people in based on the numbers of jobs available," she added.

Recent rumblings between the United States and Iraq may mean another skirmish looms. Mia Carter admits the thought "terrifies" her. "If I have to go, I will, but it would be awful," she said. "I'm finally starting to get my life back in order, and I don't want to have to live through that again."