Rights Chairman Urges Probe of Military : Race relations: Fletcher returns from tour of U.S. bases in Germany and charges bias against black service personnel and civilian employees.

The chairman of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, who just returned from a tour of U.S. military bases in Germany, has called for an investigation into what he described as pervasive race discrimination against black service personnel and civilian employees in the armed forces.

Arthur A. Fletcher said Friday that he returned this week with a stack of documents alleging discrimination in areas ranging from job evaluations to the selection of cheerleaders at high schools for U.S. military offspring.

Fletcher said he will recommend that the commission return to Germany for hearings on the discrimination complaints, which include the widespread perception among minority service men and women that they will bear the brunt of planned cuts in U.S. military forces over the next five years.

“The feeling is that blacks are going to suffer more,” Fletcher said in a telephone interview between meetings with top Pentagon officials. “The attitude is, ‘They’ve used us up, and we have no value any more.’ ”

Fletcher’s charges run counter to the widespread view among sociologists and others that the U.S. military is relatively free from the racial tensions that divide much of American society.

Air Force Lt. Col. Doug Hart, a Pentagon spokesman, said Friday that “discrimination just isn’t allowed” in the U.S. military. He added, however, that the allegations will be thoroughly investigated.

Fletcher, a Republican appointed to the commission last year by President Bush, said he collected the complaints on an NAACP-sponsored tour last week of five U.S. Army and Air Force bases in Germany. The commission, an independent agency, is limited essentially to an advisory role, but its policy recommendations to Congress and the White House can carry considerable weight.

The commission chairman said that he was struck by the desire of minorities on the U.S. bases to share their experiences as victims of discrimination. In one instance, he said, an Armed Forces Radio talk show featuring him as a guest received so many calls from listeners that his appearance was extended by two hours.

Fletcher, whose tour was widely publicized among U.S. forces, said he attended several meetings with minorities, many of whom presented him with what they said was documentary evidence of racial discrimination.

Fletcher said he heard several complaints about base high schools, including one where black students allegedly were barred from the glee club and told to form a gospel singing group instead. Blacks also complained about a “lily white” cheerleading squad and school curricula that did not recognize the contributions of black Americans, he said.

Among the most serious charges, Fletcher said, was the allegation by some black officers that they were not receiving fair consideration in job evaluations. Fletcher said some officers believe “the rating boards are being used to expel blacks” as the military cuts its personnel.

Moreover, he said, minorities told him it would mean “the end of your career” if they took their complaints to equal opportunity offices.

Hart, the Pentagon spokesman, said most of the planned force reductions will be accomplished by attrition and denied that minorities would be forced out disproportionately to their numbers. He noted that minorities continue to re-enlist at a higher rate than whites, “so they must like the military.”