Tuskeegee Airmen

[Timebuilder]

Tuskegee Airmen

On the history channel now.

 

[Gulfstreamlover]

We hold an airshow for them every year at my airport, had some of the greats there last year (figures I'd forget there names). Had about 4 original P51 pilots there. Hold it every July if any one in the NE is interest, had 45 airplanes there last year....

Edit: Free BBQ.

 

[Timebuilder]

Wait a minute.

P51's.

Original Tuskeegee Airmen.

BBQ.

Where is that airport? I want to set aside that weekend!!!

 

[Gulfstreamlover]

I knew the BBQ would catch some one's eye South Delaware if you're interested, I think we have a DC-3 and a P51 comming in this year.

 

[avbug]

What I wouldn't give for an hour or a day of their time...to listen to their experiences first hand. Much like meeting the men of the flying tigers, or so many other imporant parts of aviation history. I've been blessed to have worked with many old hands over the years who really were there and really did do this/that...and to have heard their wisdom before they passed on.

A few years ago I was at a small airshow. An older gentleman was invited to the microphone during a lull, and he began to talk about his experiences. He was in a B-17 in 1941, and arrived during the attack on Pearl Harbor. As he spoke of his various experiences, all extemporaneously and unexpectedly, there was a lot of emotion in his voice, and the show stopped to listen. I've had so many private audiences with men I've worked with over the years who shared things they would never tell publically, and I count those moments among the most priceless of things I "own."

My dad was a dyed in the wool bbq'r. Even barbequed the turkey on thanksgiving. Can't stand the stuff. But I'd come to hear them speak, and they wouldn't even need the P-51's to hedge the bet. What a great opportunity to touch history, and the very fabric of which we're made.

 

[low-n-slow]

In '94 I spent the summer working off of the Tuskeegee airport while on a boll weevil eradication program and had the opportunity to meet on several occasions Charles 'Chief' Anderson. He would come to the airport and visit from time to time and during one visit he came over to where my ag plane was parked and after taking a look at my airplane we started talking and eventually he was giving me a historical tour of the airport with his pointed finger while explaining what this and that building was used for and what planes where parked where. It was so awesome.

Just once I would have given anything to have my video camera with me, but I did get his autograph on a picture. He died in '96 at 89 from cancer.

 

[bobbysamd]

I believe that Gen. Daniel "Chappie" James, Jr. was a Tuskeegee airman and/or trained them. Gen. James became commander of NORAD in Colorado Springs in the mid '70s when I was a radio news reporter in that city. I recall covering a news conference with Gen. James. He retired after his tour as NORAD commander and died shortly thereafter.

 

[NoName]

does anyone sense reverse racism in the movie? the whole tragedy of the reality and the movie was the fact that black men as a group were not capable and not as good as pilot as the white men. at the end of the movie we learn that the black men were better then the white pilots...the movie just flips the role and still keeps races in their own bunch. racisim will continue until people are truly colorblind and judge people on their own and not as a group by their race. JMO

 

[avbug]

I don't think that was the case at all. The fact is that the 332nd war record reflects that they never lost a bomber to enemy action, and it's true that they were requested as escorts for that reason. No other unit could make that claim. That's not racisim; it's fact.

Considering that many of these men excelled after starting from such a disadvantaged position (and having been kept that way for much of their duty), their achievements are all the more remarkable.

Don't spit on their graves.

 

[LJDRVR]

I love nobody more than the American G.I., but there are some G.I.'s that are extra-special; the Tuskegee Airman.

For four years I was privileged to be a member of the USAF Presidential Honor Guard at Bolling AFB in DC. Although we performed higher-visibility ceremonies at the White House and Pentagon, our bread and butter were the hundreds of funerals a year we conducted at Arlington National Cemetary. I've buried a wide cross section of this nation's sons and daughters, but the ones that are etched most firmly in my mind's eye are the Tuskegee Airmen.

Everytime we rendered final military honors for one of these gentlemen, (And it didn't matter if he was a fighter pilot or a motor pool guy) there were always DOZENS of distinguished older black men, with gray and white hair, resplendent in their red blazers. These American MEN stood as ramrod straight as their aging spines allowed, to honor their departed comrades. Their consistant presence, military bearing, and obvious love and respect for their fellow servicemen was always head and shoulders above anything else I witnessed in the "garden". I would imagine their numbers are thinning now...what a shame. If anyone ever gets a chance to meet up with any Tuskegee Airman at an airshow, go and talk to them and thank them for their service. You'll walk away privileged to know you shook hands with a REAL man.

Low n Slow, Chief Anderson gave Eleanor Roosevlt a ride in an L-4 Cub once. Neat piece of history there.

Anybody interested in further reading, I HIGHLY recommend the Benjamin O. Davis autobiography: An American Life