From Sacred Cow to Endangered Specie, over night.

Because the orders to recruit the first Black cadets came down the Chain-Of-Command from President John F. Kennedy, the Commander-In-Chief, the first Black cadets were treated like sacred cows. There was zero attrition of Black cadets between 1962 and 1972. Every Black cadet who entered graduated. In 1964 the Coast Guard Officer Corps was 99.44 percent white. Less than one-half of one percent of the officer corps was comprised of Black enlisted men who had been promoted to chief warrant officers. In 1973 the percentage of Black officers was still below one percent, but progress had been made. Also, President Kennedy was no longer Commander-In-Chief. With the large influx of Black cadets in 1973 and 1974 upperclass cadets were given the green light to weed out and to eliminate the less qualified Black entering cadets. The attrition rate for Black cadets reached astronomical levels. Up to 70 percent of the Black cadets entering were forced to resign before graduation.
Overnight the Black cadets became Black officers and went from being sacred cows to an endangered specie. At the Academy they had not been prepared for what awaited them out in the field. The all white officer corps was not prepared to accept the Black officers into the Ward Room with all the rights and privileges of white officers. Most of the white officers, both Northerners and Southerners, had never been to school with Black students and were not ready to live and work with them on ships and bases. The senior officers proved to be especially hostile to the new breed of officer.
Kenny Boyd did not survive his first duty station, the USCGC Dallas, at Governors Island, New York. He received such adverse fitness reports from his senior officers that he had to be removed from the ship. An Academy graduate is required to serve 5 years of obligated service before he can resign his commission. Kenny Boyd was not allowed complete his obligated service.

Merle Smith was forced to resign his regular commission prior to the earliest date he could have retired. He was given a commission in the Reserves to accumulate retirement points. He did not retire in 1986 with his Academy class. He retired in 1988.

London Steverson was promoted to (0-4), lieutenant commander in 1978, but he did not receive a promotion during the last ten years of his career. In 6 years he was passed over 5 times for promotion to (0-5), Commander. By an Act of Congress an officer attaining the rank of 0-4 is allowed to remain on active duty until the earliest date that he is eligible for retirement. Lcdr Steverson was forced to retire in July 1988 with 20 years of active service.

His last two years of active duty at Governors Island, New York were very aggravating. After completing a tour of duty at the National Narcotics Border Interdiction System (NNBIS), he was relieved of all responsibilities. He was required to report for work every morning, but he had no official position. The one thing that he was required to do was to appear for drug tests once per month. Drug screening test were officially required to be random, but in Lcdr Steverson’s case they were targeted and regular. On one particular occasion when he was not scheduled for a drug test and he took a late lunch in uptown Manhattan, he was required to report to the Personnel Office upon his return to base. He was ordered to submit a urine sample several hours after the test had been conducted.

Considering the number of "false positives" that occured at the drug screening laboratory and the number of samples that were mis-labeled, it is a small miracle that Steverson was able to retire without being accused of failing to pass a drug test.
After 20 years his Coast Guard career fizzled out. It ended with a whimper. There was no retirement party or luncheon; no Achievement Medal or citation; not even a hand shake from his boss, Captain John Lennon, Chief of Atlantic Area and Third District Operations who was his commanding officer, at the time. One Friday afternoon, someone sneaked into his office and left his official retirement certificate on top of the desk. And that was it.

After all the retirement luncheons he has organized for other officers, and all of the dollars that he had contributed to buy retirement gifts for other retiring officers, his last day on active duty was marked by a long walk to the Governors Island Ferry and a long ride home.