President Harry S. Truman signed into effect Executive Order 9981 on July 26, 1948, abolishing segregation in the military and ordering full integration of all the services "without regard to race, color, religion or national origin."

More than 60 years after Truman's bold desegregation order, diversity challenges remain in the armed forces, particularly the dearth of women, Latinos, Blacks, Asians and American Indians in senior leadership positions.

This year, Congress established the Department of Defense Military Leadership Diversity Commission to look into how to best to diversify the armed forces and increase the pool of senior military officers. According to data provided by the Defense Department, Blacks and Latinos are overrepresented in the enlisted ranks and underrepresented in the officer ranks.

Military records only began to reflect racial/ethnic diversity in statistical terms in the 1890s. In the report for 1894, for example, the military noted that of the 7,817 men it accepted, 7,352 were white, 419 were Black and 46 were American Indian. (Source: Strategic Studies Institute) Throughout this country's history, however, Blacks, American Indians, Latinos and women have participated in every U.S. conflict from the Revolutionary War to the Iraq/Afghanistan conflict.

Below are some relevant historical facts:

Blacks

• As many as 186,000 Blacks fought for their freedom in the Union army and another 30,000 in the Union Navy, winning 14 Congressional Medals of Honor.

• Most of the 900,000 Blacks who served in the armed forces in World War II were in segregated units, chiefly in the Army.

• The Air Force was the first service to end segregation, publishing regulations on June 1, 1949. The Tuskegee Airmen were the first Black pilots in the armed forces. Beginning in 1941, Blacks received flight training at Moton Field at the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama.

• The Army's storied 92nd Infantry Division, which was made up almost entirely of Black soldiers, was the last racially segregated unit in the armed forces. They were known as the Buffalo Soldiers. According to the Buffalo Soldiers National Museum, the name originated with the Cheyenne warriors in 1867. The actual Cheyenne translation was "Wild Buffalo."
  
  
• The soldiers of the 92nd division were among the only Black soldiers to see combat in Europe, battling German troops in Italy. In 1948, President Truman issued an executive order that ended racial segregation in the military.

• Black and white soldiers did not fight side by side, dine in the same mess halls or sleep in the same barracks until 1951, during the Korean War.

• The Vietnam War saw the highest proportion of Blacks to serve in an American war. During the height of the U.S. involvement, 1965–1969, Blacks, who comprised 11 percent of the U.S. population, made up 12.6 percent of the soldiers in Vietnam. The percentage of Black combat fatalities during that same time was 14.9 percent of all fatalities.

• By 1983, Blacks represented 33 percent of the army, 22 percent of the Marine Corps, 14 percent of the Air Force and 12 percent of the Navy.

• During the Persian Gulf War of 1991, 24 percent of the 500,000 U.S. service people deployed to the Middle East were Black.

(Source: The Oxford Companion to American Military History)

American Indians

• American Indians did not usually serve in racially segregated units. During World War I, more than half of the people in the American Indian population were not considered U.S. citizens and, therefore, were not eligible for the draft. Volunteer service was rewarded with citizenship, and nearly 10,000 American Indians served in the war.

• In World War II, 25,000 American Indians served in the military. The war led to the largest single exodus of American Indian men from the reservations.

• Estimates from the Veterans Administration and the Census Bureau suggest that in the 1990s there were 160,000 living Indian veterans. This number represents nearly 10 percent of all living American Indians.

(Source: Department of Defense and U.S. Army Center of Military History)

Women

• More than 33,000 women served during World War I, the majority with the Army Nurse Corps. Although women were not allowed into combat, 432 American military women were killed during World War II, including 201 army nurses. Despite their large numbers and immense contributions, only a handful of women were allowed to remain in the military after World War II.

• In 1950, President Truman appointed Anna Rosenberg the assistant secretary of defense for manpower and personnel in 1950. She served in that position until 1953. In all, 120,000 women served in the Korean War.

• In 1991, Congress repealed the combat exclusion law.

• Blacks make up a considerably higher percentage of military women than military men (30 percent versus 17 percent). In 2002, the Army had the highest proportion of Black women (36 percent of female personnel) and the Air Force had the lowest (almost 25 percent). Latinas accounted for a lower population of the armed forces (10 percent). The Marines had the highest representation of Latinas (15 percent of its women), while the Air Force had the lowest (7 percent).

(Source: Encyclopedia.com)

Latinos

From the American Revolution to today's enlisted men and women, the Latino community has a deep-rooted U.S. military history. During the American Revolution, soldiers from Spain, Cuba, Mexico, Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic fought alongside the colonists for independence.

• World War II: Up to 500,000 Latinos served during World War II; 11 received the Congressional Medal of Honor. Marine PFC Guy "Gabby" Gabaldon singlehandedly captured more than 1,000 enemy soldiers in the summer of 1944, more than anyone else has in the history of military conflicts. The Zapien family of Kansas City sent nine brothers into World War II.

• Korean War: In July 1950, there were about 20,000 Latinos in the armed forces. Over the next three years, nearly 148,000 Latinos volunteered for or were drafted into military service. The 65th Infantry Regiment, a Puerto Rican regiment, participated in nine major campaigns.

• Vietnam War: Latinos accounted for 25 percent of the casualties. Navy Lt. Everett Alvarez became the first American prisoner of war, and remained so for more than eight years, the longest confirmed POW in American history. The last American to leave Vietnam was Msgt. Juan J. Valdez, who served at the U.S. Embassy in Saigon and departed by helicopter on April 30, 1975.

Asians

Americans of Asian and Pacific descent participated in military campaigns, dating back to 1763 when Filipino sailors and crewmen deserted from Spanish ships and established settlements in Mexico and the soon-to-be Spanish colony of Louisiana.

• During World War II, Americans of Filipino descent were the largest Asian-American group in the armed forces. There were two large units stationed in the Phillipines and staffed mostly with Filipino enlisted personnel—the Philippine Scouts and the Philippine Division. Both of these units were destroyed and their members killed, captured or dispersed when the Japanese invaded the Philippines in January 1940.

• During World War II, about 40 percent of the Chinese serving in the U.S. military were not native-born citizens. Many took advantage of the citizenship promise in 1943 after the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1943 was repealed. About 75 percent of the Chinese Americans didn't serve in segregated units, but Japanese and Filipino Americans did.

• During the opening months of World War II, almost 120,000 Japanese Americans, two-thirds of them citizens of the United States, were forced out of their homes and into detention camps established by the U.S. government. Many would spend the next three to four years living under armed guard, behind barbed wire.

• Americans of Japanese descent were initially denied the opportunity to serve in the military during World War II. When they were finally allowed to serve, members of the all-Japanese 442nd Regimental Combat Team fought in Italy, France and then Italy again from June 1944 to the end of the war in August 1945. The unit never exceeded 4,500 men in size, but its members received 18,000 individual decorations.

• Eric Ken Shinseki, a Japanese American and retired U.S Army four-star general, is currently serving as the 7th United States secretary of veterans affairs.

(Source: U.S. Army Center of Military History)

'Don't Ask, Don't Tell'

In 1981, the Department of Defense passed Directive 1332.14, which made the discharge of gay and lesbian soldiers mandatory.

The Pentagon's "don't ask, don't tell" policy was instituted after President Bill Clinton tried to lift this 1981 ban on gay and lesbian service members in 1993. It refers to the military practice of not asking recruits about their sexual orientation. In turn, service members are banned from saying they are lesbian or gay. The military discharged nearly 10,000 service members under the policy in a 10-year period, from 1997 to 2007. (Source: Associated Press)

Even though they have endured centuries of discrimination, gays and lesbians have a long history of serving in the armed forces. Lt. Gotthold Frederick Enslin was the first soldier drummed out of the Continental army for being gay in 1778.

During the Civil War, the military's first known lesbian soldiers apparently disguised themselves as men and fought in the 15th Missouri Regiment during the Civil War.

After World War II, 9,000 gays and lesbians who served were disqualified from obtaining G.I. benefits when they received section eight or "blue" discharges for undesirable habits or character traits.

In 1950, Congress enacted the Uniform Code of Military Justice, which subjected any person who engaged in oral or anal sex to court-martial and five years' incarceration.

Between 1941 and 1996, the military discharged about 100,000 gays and lesbians, an average of roughly 2,000 per year. To enforce regulations, it was not uncommon for investigators to extract confessions by threatening incarceration. Click here to read DiversityInc.com's articles on the "don't ask, don't tell" policy and other issues regarding gays and lesbians.

Veterans and the Job Market

About 1 in every 5 veterans coming home from Iraq and Afghanistan suffered some level of traumatic brain injury (TBI), 320,000 in all, according to a Rand Corp. study released in 2008. TBI has been called the "signature injury" of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan because of its frequency among the troops, particularly as a result of improvised explosive devices planted by insurgents and terrorists. In addition, 1 in 5 veterans of today's wars—a total of 300,000—suffer from depression or post-traumatic stress disorder. (Source: Disabled American Veterans)

For the hundreds of thousands of soldiers returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan, finding a job is a challenge. A 2007 Department of Veteran Affairs report found that 18 percent of the veterans who sought jobs within one to three years of discharge were unemployed, while 1 in 4 who did find jobs earned less than $21,840 a year.

According to statistics from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, more than 500,000 unemployed veterans between the ages of 18 and 64 currently live in the United States. Veterans returning from recent Gulf Wars (post-2001) are experiencing an unemployment rate of 11.6 percent—up from last year's 8 percent, and surpassing the overall national jobless rate of 10.2 percent.

But some companies are strong recruiters and supporters of this highly trained and talented labor pool, including several DiversityInc Top 50 companies.

CSX, one of Diversity's 25 Noteworthy Companies, has become an employer of choice for veterans. About 1 in 5 employees at this rail-based transportation-services company have served or are serving in the military. By forming relationships with military installation liaisons, the company actively recruits at 108 bases throughout its East Coast footprint. CSX also has one of the most effective military employee-resource groups anywhere: its Military Affinity Group (MAG) serves as a recruiting and mentoring source, helping to transition the military to civilian life.

Another company that is widely recognized as one of the most military-friendly employers is AT&T (No. 3 in the DiversityInc Top 50). AT&T provides multiple benefits policies to its military employees, including differential pay for those who report to active duty and benefits options to employees and their families. AT&T also recruits active-duty, reserve and retired military through job fairs and by presenting at military-transition centers throughout the country. Its military group, AT&T Veterans, organizes company-sponsored events, provides scholarships and forms partnerships with external groups that support veterans.

Toyota Motor North America (No. 36 in the DiversityInc Top 50) is also a strong supporter of veterans. The company's employee-resource group, Veterans Association, sends personal items to deployed soldiers and helps family members of the deployed with odd jobs such as babysitting and yard work.

Read more about veterans in the workplace at DiversityIncBestPractices.com.