The Magic Word

At first it seemed like another in the long series of racial incidents in the armed forces. It began one evening as a group of Negro soldiers of the 557th Quartermaster Company were returning to their barracks at the big U.S. air-base at Evreux, 62 miles west of Paris. Across the road lay another barracks, housing the 317th Supply Squadron, where the airmen were winding up a "G.I. party," that is, a cleanup before next morning's inspection.

Death at Dawn. The Negroes passing by were noisy, and someone shouted at them from a second-story window of the Supply Squadron barracks. No one knows who did the shouting. No one agrees on what was shouted. But unquestionably, the shouts contained what Negro soldiers at Evreux call "the magic word"--nigger. Rushing into their own barracks, the Negroes grabbed 12-in. metal rods used to transform beds into bunks and raced across the street.

First there was much pushing, shouting and loud argument. Then a fight broke out, lasting approximately 30 seconds. When it was over, six white airmen were hospitalized with head wounds. None of the injuries seemed serious, but at dawn Airman First Class Robert Padgett, 23, of Woodlawn, Va., died of a brain hemorrhage.

Next morning the Quartermaster Company was lined up, and the surviving injured airmen picked out their assailants, who were all PFCs: Richard Parker of Eckman, W. Va., Edward Spears of New York City, Raymond Host of Pittsburgh, Franklin Waddell and Robert Burrell of Philadelphia. The arrested men were Negroes, the injured and the dead whites. Even so, there was a debate at Evreux as to whether or not the fatal brawl was indeed a race riot.

Gung-Ho Look. Both units are completely integrated and in the same proportion--about 17% Negro. And there were grounds for grievances other than racial. The Quartermaster Company, the only Army unit on the base, must submit to a midnight bed check, while airmen have only to report for duty each morning. As an airborne unit, the Quartermaster Company keeps in rugged physical shape, has the tough look of gung-ho soldiers. The men of the Supply unit have the look of office workers and the vanity of intellectuals. One airman sneered, "You could take that whole Army company across the road and add up their IQs and you wouldn't get 200."

At week's end even more doubt was cast on the racial implications of the fight when a sixth member of the Quartermaster Company was arrested and also charged with homicide and aggravated assault. He was a white man, PFC Allen Gernard, 18, of New York City, who presumably had grabbed a piece of pipe and joined his Negro buddies in the attack on the airmen.

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