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NEWS AND COMMENTARY

Tuskegee Airmen

Recommended books:

"Red Tail Captured,  Red Tail  Free" by Alexander Jefferson
"Lonely Eagles"  by Robert A. Rose
"Tuskeegee Airmen" by Charles E. Francis

Following information is from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  

Origins

Portrait of Tuskegee airman Edward M. Thomas by photographer Toni Frissell, March 1945.

Prior to the Tuskegee Airmen, no U.S. military pilots had been black. A series of legislative moves by the United States Congress in 1941 forced the Army Air Corps to form an all-black combat unit, despite the War Department's reluctance. In an effort to eliminate the unit before it could begin, the War Department set up a system to accept only those with a level of flight experience or higher education that they expected would be hard to fill. This policy backfired when the Air Corps received an abundance of applications from men who qualified even under these restrictive specifications, many of whom had already participated in the Civilian Pilot Training Program, which the historically-black Tuskegee Institute had participated in since 1939.^[2]

The U.S. Army Air Corps had established the Psychological Research Unit 1 at Maxwell Army Air Field, Montgomery, Alabama, and other units around the country for aviation cadet training, which included the identification, selection, education, and training of pilots, navigators and bombardiers. Psychologists employed in these research studies and training programs used some of the first standardized tests to quantify IQ, dexterity, and leadership qualities in order to select and train the right personnel for the right role (bombardier, pilot, navigator). The Air Corps determined that the same existing programs would be used for all units, including all-black units. At Tuskegee, this effort would continue with the selection and training of the Tuskegee Airmen.

Training

Major James A. Ellison returns the salute of Mac Ross of Dayton, Ohio, as he passes down the line during review of the first class of Tuskegee cadets; flight line at U.S. Army Air Corps basic and advanced flying school, Tuskegee, Alabama, 1941 with Vultee BT-13 trainers in the background.

On March 19, 1941, the 99th Pursuit Squadron (Pursuit being the pre-World War II descriptive for "Fighter") was activated at Chanute Field in Rantoul, Illinois.^[3] Over 250 enlisted men were trained at Chanute in aircraft ground support trades. This small number of enlisted men became the core of other black squadrons forming at Tuskegee and Maxwell Fields in Alabama.

In June 1941, the Tuskegee program officially began with formation of the 99th Fighter Squadron at the Tuskegee Institute.^[4] The unit consisted of an entire service arm, including ground crew. After basic training at Moton Field, they were moved to the nearby Tuskegee Army Air Field about 16 km (10 mi) to the west for conversion training onto operational types. The Airmen were placed under the command of Captain Benjamin O. Davis, Jr., then one of the few black West Point graduates. A 2nd Lt Instructor for the 99th F.S. was Daniel "Chappie" James-who like Davis-rose to the rank of Air Force General.

Color poster of a Tuskegee Airman

During its training, the 99th Fighter Squadron was commanded by white and Puerto Rican officers, beginning with Major James Ellison. By 1942, Colonel Frederick Kimble oversaw operations at the Tuskegee airfield. Kimble maintained segregation on the field in deference to local customs, a policy the airmen resented.^[5] Later that year, the Air Corps replaced Kimble with the director of instruction at Tuskegee Army Airfield, Major Noel F. Parrish. Parrish, counter to the prevalent racism of the day, was fair and open-minded, and petitioned Washington to allow the Tuskegee Airmen to serve in combat.^[6]

Combat

Considered ready for combat duty, the 99th was transported to Casablanca, Morocco, on the USS Mariposa and participated in the North African campaign. From Morocco they traveled by train to Oujda then to Tunis from where they operated against the enemy. Flyers and ground crew alike were largely isolated by the racial segregation practices of their initial command, the white 33rd Fighter Group and its commander Colonel William W. Momyer. The flight crews were handicapped by being left with little guidance from battle-experienced pilots beyond a week spent with Colonel Phillip Cochran. The 99th's first combat mission was to attack the small but strategic volcanic island of Pantelleria in the Mediterranean Sea, in preparation for the Allied invasion of Sicily in July 1943. The 99th moved to Sicily where it received a Distinguished Unit Citation for its performance in combat.

Tuskegee Airmen in front of a P-40

Colonel Momyer, however, told media sources in the U.S. that the 99th was a failure and its pilots cowardly, incompetent or worse, resulting in a critical article in TIME. In response, the House Armed Services Committee convened a hearing to determine whether the Tuskegee Airmen experiment should be allowed to continue. Momyer accused the 99th's pilots of being incompetent, based on the fact that they had seen little air-to-air combat. To bolster the recommendation to scrap the project, a member of the committee commissioned and then submitted into evidence a "scientific" report by the University of Texas which purported to prove that African Americans were of low intelligence and incapable of handling complex situations (such as air combat). Colonel Davis forcefully denied the committee members' claims, but only the intervention of Colonel Emmett "Rosie" O'Donnell prevented a recommendation for disbandment of the squadron from being sent to President Franklin D. Roosevelt. General Hap Arnold ordered an evaluation of all Mediterranean Theater P-40 units be undertaken to determine the true merits of the 99th; the results showed the 99th Fighter Squadron to be at least equal to other units operating the fighter.

Shortly after the hearing, three new squadrons fresh out of training at Tuskegee embarked for Africa. After several months operating separately, all four squadrons were combined to form the all-black 332nd Fighter Group.

The Tuskegee Airmen were initially equipped with P-40 Warhawks, briefly with P-39 Airacobras (March 1944), later with P-47 Thunderbolts (June-July 1944), and finally with the aircraft that they became most commonly identified with, the P-51 Mustang (July 1944).

On January 27 and 28, 1944, Luftwaffe Fw 190 fighter-bombers raided Anzio, where the Allies had conducted amphibious landings on January 22. Attached to the 79th Fighter Group, eleven of the 99th Fighter Squadron's pilots shot down enemy fighters, including Capt. Charles B. Hall, who claimed two shot down, bringing his aerial victory total to three. The eight fighter squadrons defending Anzio together claimed 32 German aircraft shot down whilst the 99th claimed the highest score among them with 13.^[7]

Col. Benjamin O. Davis, Jr., commander of the Tuskegee Airmen 332nd Fighter Group, in front of his P-47 Thunderbolt in Sicily.

The squadron won its second Distinguished Unit Citation on May 12-14, 1944, while attached to the 324th Fighter Group, attacking German positions on Monastery Hill (Monte Cassino), attacking infantry massing on the hill for a counterattack, and bombing a nearby strong point to force the surrender of the German garrison to Moroccan Goumiers.

By the spring of 1944, more graduates were ready for combat, and the all-black 332nd Fighter Group had been sent overseas with three fighter squadrons: The 100th, 301st, and 302nd. Under the command of Colonel Davis, the squadrons were moved to mainland Italy, where the 99th Fighter Squadron, assigned to the group on May 1, joined them on June 6. The Airmen of the 332nd Fighter Group escorted bombing raids into Czechoslovakia, Austria, Hungary, Poland, and Germany.

Flying escort for heavy bombers, the 332nd earned an impressive combat record. Reportedly, the Luftwaffe awarded the Airmen the nickname, "Schwarze Vogelmenschen," or "Black Birdmen." The Allies called the Airmen "Redtails" or "Redtail Angels," because of the distinctive crimson paint on the vertical stabilizers of the unit's aircraft.

Pilots of the 332nd Fighter Group, "Tuskegee Airmen" at Ramitelli, Italy. From left to right, Lt. Dempsey W. Morgan, Lt. Carroll S. Woods, Lt. Robert H. Nelron, Jr., Capt. Andrew D. Turner and Lt. Clarence P. Lester

A B-25 bomb group, the 477th Bombardment Group (Medium), was forming in the U.S. but completed its training too late to see action. The 99th Fighter Squadron after its return to the United States became part of the 477th, redesignated the 477th Composite Group.

By the end of the war, the Tuskegee Airmen were credited with 109 Luftwaffe aircraft shot down,^[7] the German-operated Italian destroyer TA-23 sunk by machine-gun fire, and destruction of numerous fuel dumps, trucks and trains. The squadrons of the 332nd FG flew more than 15,000 sorties on 1,500 missions. The unit received recognition through official channels and was awarded a Distinguished Unit Citation (DUC) for a mission flown March 24, 1945, escorting B-17s to bomb the Daimler-Benz tank factory at Berlin, Germany. During the action its pilots were credited with destroying three Me-262 jetsof the Luftwaffe's all-jet Jagdgeschwader 7 in aerial combat that day, despite the American unit initially claiming 11 Me 262s on that particular mission.^[8] However on examining German records, JG 7 records just four Me 262s were lost and all of the pilots survived.^[8] In return the 463rd Bomb Group, one of the many B-17 groups the 322nd were escorting, lost two bombers.^[8] The 332nd themselves lost three P-51s during the mission.^[8] The bombers also made substantial claims, making it impossible to tell which units were responsible for those individual four kills. The 99th Fighter Squadron in addition received two DUCs, the second after its assignment to the 332nd FG.^[9] The Tuskegee Airmen were awarded several Silver Stars, 150 Distinguished Flying Crosses, 8 Purple Hearts, 14 Bronze Stars and 744 Air Medals.

In all, 992 pilots were trained in Tuskegee from 1940 to 1946, about 445 deployed overseas, and 150 Airmen lost their lives in accidents or combat.^[10]

Controversy over escort record

While it had long been said that the Redtails were the only fighter group who never lost a bomber to enemy fighters,^[11] suggestions to the contrary, combined with Air Force records and eyewitness accounts indicating that at least 25 bombers were lost to enemy fire,^[12] resulted in the Air Force conducting a reassessment of the history of the unit in late 2006.

The claim that no bomber escorted by the Tuskegee Airmen had ever been lost to enemy fire first appeared on March 24, 1945, in the Chicago Defender, under the headline "332nd Flies Its 200th Mission Without Loss." According to the March 28, 2007, Air Force report, however, some bombers under 332nd Fighter Group escort protection were shot down on the very day the Chicago Defender article was published.^{[13][14][15][16]} The subsequent report, based on after-mission reports filed by both the bomber units and Tuskegee fighter groups as well as missing air crew records and witness testimony, was released in March 2007 and documented 25 bombers shot down by enemy fighter aircraft while being escorted by the Tuskegee Airmen.^[17]

Tuskegee Airmen gathered at a U.S. base after a mission in the Mediterranean theater.

The St. Petersburg Times in 2008 quoted a historian at the Air Force Historical Research Agency as confirming the loss of up to 25 bombers. Disputing this, a professor at the National Defense University said he researched more than 200 Tuskegee Airmen mission reports and found no bombers were lost to enemy fighters. Bill Holloman, a Tuskegee airman who taught black studies at the University of Washington and now chairs the Airmen's history committee, was reported by the Times as saying his review of records did confirm lost bombers, but "the Tuskegee story is about pilots who rose above adversity and discrimination and opened a door once closed to black America — not about whether their record is perfect."^[18]

One mission report states that on July 26, 1944: "1 B-24 seen spiraling out of formation in T/A (target area) after attack by E/A (enemy aircraft). No chutes seen to open." A second report, dated August 31, 1944, praises group commander Colonel Davis by saying he "so skillfully disposed his squadrons that in spite of the large number of enemy fighters, the bomber formation suffered only a few losses."^[19]

Postwar

The 332nd Fighter Group attends a briefing in Italy in 1945.

Far from failing as originally expected, a combination of pre-war experience and the personal drive of those accepted for training had resulted in some of the best pilots in the U.S. Army Air Corps. Nevertheless, the Tuskegee Airmen continued to have to fight racism. Their combat record did much to quiet those directly involved with the group (notably bomber crews who often requested them for escort), but other units continued to harass the Airmen.

In 1949, the 332nd entered the annual All Air Force Gunnery Meet in Las Vegas, Nevada and won. After segregation in the military was ended in 1948 by President Harry S. Truman with Executive Order 9981, the veteran Tuskegee Airmen now found themselves in high demand throughout the newly formed United States Air Force. Some taught in civilian flight schools, such as the black-owned Columbia Air Center in Maryland.^[20]

Many of the surviving members of the Tuskegee Airmen annually participate in the Tuskegee Airmen Convention, which is hosted by Tuskegee Airmen, Inc.^[21]

In 2005, four Tuskegee Airmen (Lt. Col. Lee Archer, Lt. Col. Robert Ashby, MSgt. James Sheppard, and TechSgt. George Watson) flew to Balad, Iraq, to speak to active duty airmen serving in the current incarnation of the 332nd, reactivated as first the 332nd Air Expeditionary Group in 1998 and made part of the 332nd Air Expeditionary Wing. "This group represents the linkage between the 'greatest generation' of airmen and the 'latest generation' of airmen," said Lt. Gen. Walter E. Buchanan III, commander of the Ninth Air Force and US Central Command Air Forces, in an e-mail to the Associated Press.

About 119 pilots and 211 ground personnel are still alive from the original crew member number of 994 pilots and about 15,000 ground personnel.^[22]

Legacy and honors

President George W. Bush presents the Congressional Gold Medal to about 300 Tuskegee Airmen at the US Capitol rotunda on March 29, 2007, in Washington, D.C.

"Red Tails" continue to fly in the 99th Flying Training Squadron at Randolph Air Force Base in honor of the Tuskegee Airmen

On March 29, 2007, about 350 Tuskegee Airmen and their widows received the Congressional Gold Medal^[23] at a ceremony in the US Capitol rotunda.^[24][25][26] The medal will go on display at the Smithsonian Institution; individual honorees will receive bronze replicas.^[27]

The airfield where the airmen trained is now the Tuskegee Airmen National Historic Site.^[28]

In 2006, California Congressman Adam Schiff and Missouri Congressman William Lacy Clay, Jr., led the initiative to create a commemorative postage stamp to honor the Tuskegee Airmen.^[29]

The 99th Flying Training Squadron flies T-1A Jayhawks and, in honor of the Tuskegee Airmen, they are in the process of painting the tops of the tails of their aircraft red.

On August 1, 2008, the City of Atlanta, Georgia officially renamed a portion of State Route 6, in honor of the Tuskegee Airmen. The road is a highway that serves as the main artery into Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport.

On December 9, 2008, the remaining Tuskegee Airmen were invited to attend the inauguration of Barack Obama, the first African-American elected President. Retired Lt. William Broadwater, 82, of Upper Marlboro, a Tuskegee Airman, summed up the feeling. "The culmination of our efforts and others' was this great prize we were given on Nov. 4. Now we feel like we've completed our mission."^[30][31] More than 180 airmen attended the January 20, 2009 inauguration.^[32]