"Working for Equal Opportunity: Officer Recruiting: The MORE Team."
All Hands. no. 651. Washington, D.C. GPO, April 1971. P. 13-14.
SuDoc No.: D208.3
The Navy's Minority Officer Recruiting Effort (MORE), is described here. The program's goal to
bring more minorities into the officers ranks brought the MORE recruiting team to black
colleges and universities.
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Three years ago there were 365 black officers in the Navy. Today, there are over 500. Three
years ago, the major criticism leveled at the Navy was that there were not many black officers.
Today, that criticism, as the Secretary of Navy has said, is still valid. But there is a
strengthened commitment within the Navy to attract more black officers.
Operating on the philosophy that to get black officers into the service, you must actively
recruit, the officers of the Minority Officer Recruiting Effort, the MORE Team, travel nine
months of the year to black colleges and universities around the country showing young black
men and women that the Navy as a career can be a worthwhile, challenging job.
"This is no more than what we do for college students in predominantly white
universities," said Lieutenant Commander Robert L. Toney, director of the MORE Team's
efforts. "We offer nothing special, nothing out of the ordinary, nothing other than the
opportunities open to most other college students."
The Minority Officer Recruiting Effort was organized by the Navy in 1967 to spearhead the drive
for black officers. Their efforts have been complemented with the presence of a minority naval
officer in each recruiting district, who looks out for special opportunities locally.
Perhaps the most important single accomplishment in the procurement of a Naval Reserve Officer
Training Corps at a predominantly black university in 1968, Prairie View A&M University,
Prairie View, Tex.
This unit, which graduated and commissioned its first group of officers in May 1970, will provide
a continuous input of black officers into Naval and Marine Corps service. The unit also boasts
a preflight curriculum, leading to a commission and acceptance into the Navy's pilot training
program.
Two other NROTC Units are scheduled for commission at predominantly black universities within a
year.
"We do not assume the entire responsibility of minority recruitment, however," said
LCDR Toney. "Every office of the Recruiting Division now lends strong assistance to this
effort in accordance with its area of expertise.
"This mode or organization provides for more efficient and productive handling of minority
recruiting into the established system."
In September 1970, the Director of Recruiting, RADM William Greene, raised minority recruiting to
the number one priority in the scope of Navy-wide recruiting policy. This established a goal of
15 per cent minority recruits, both officer and enlisted each month, from the Navy's total
accession.
With these continuing programs, the Navy will eventually reach equity with the other services in
percentage of black officers and enlisted men. This, alone, would not necessarily mean a Navy
free of racial strife, but would certainly provide the visible strength to the numbers of the
civilian community served by the Navy that racial barriers in recruiting were indeed a thing of
the past.
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