When Elinor arrived in 1944, Mountain View had been in operation for two years as an upscale social destination for high-ranking African American military personnel who were not allowed at Lake Side, Fort Huachuca’s officers’ club for whites. Before Mountain View’s completion, while white officers smoked cigars, drank beer, listened to music and danced with female personnel or their wives, black officers with the same rank had nowhere comparable to congregate and pass the time. They couldn’t even frequent the establishments in the local town. At Mountain View, black officers could finally socialize with dignity.

Whenever there were entertainers or major celebrities visiting Fort Huachuca to entertain the troops, such as Lena Horne or Count Basie, however, whites were in front and blacks sat in the back, regardless of rank. On one occasion when Lena Horne was performing, she stepped down from the stage and walked to the back to face the black soldiers. She reportedly said, “I came here to sing for the colored troops. They’re back here.” Horne had a similar experience at Fort Robinson in Arkansas in early 1945. The first show was for the white troops. The second show was for black troops.32

As the demographics of Fort Huachuca began to shift, with many white enlisted men and officers transferred elsewhere, the remaining white officers were outnumbered by African American officers and enlisted men—a fact that fueled an ongoing visceral tension between the two racial groups. Because of the black-white ratio, Fort Huachuca, in the opinion of some of the white officers, was a less prestigious base because they associated blacks with deficient performance and ability. As their white counterparts were transferred out, the white officers remaining felt they were among a subpar population, and they made that clear.33

Consequently, the ratio of white officers to black enlisted men spawned a need for each group to diminish the other. Whites, who were fewer in number, used their race to disparage blacks. And blacks, in response, criticized the capabilities and stature of the white officers in charge. One lieutenant from the 93rd Division who was reinstated on the base in 1942 recalled the animosity that permeated life at Fort Huachuca: