America’s Black Flyers: The Tuskegee Airmen

17. Barring Blacks From Military Aviation

The black airmen put up impressive numbers during the conflict. By the time the war was over, they had put to rest the myth that aviation was too challenging for African Americans. In the First World War, blacks had tried to serve as pilots in the US military, but were rejected. Even those who volunteered to become mere aerial observers were denied the opportunity to serve their country in that capacity. Their numbers included Eugene Bullard, an African American pilot who flew for the French air force in WWI because his own country’s military aviation would not have him. Blacks continued to be barred from service in US military aviation until pressure and lobbying by civil rights groups got Congress to pass a bill in 1939 to train black flyers. The War Department and aviation establishment dragged their feet and slow walked the implementation of the legislation.

16. Accepting Black Cadets for Aviation Training

In 1941, the War Department finally gave in to pressure and began to accept African American cadets for aviation training. However, the selection process was made extra rigorous for black applicants – more so than for white applicants for aviation training. As described by Coleman Young, a successful African American candidate who after the war went to become Detroit’s first black mayor: “They made the standards so high, we actually became an elite group. We were screened and super-screened. We were unquestionably the brightest and most physically fit young blacks in the country. We were super-better because of the irrational laws of Jim Crow. You can’t bring that many intelligent young people together and train ’em as fighting men and expect them to supinely roll over when you try to f*** over ’em, right?“

15. The Birth of the 99^th Pursuit Squadron

The black graduates of the aerial training program were sent to a new unit, the 99^th Pursuit Squadron. It was activated before it even had any pilots, on March 22^nd, 1941. In accordance with the military’s racial segregation policies, the 99^th was an all-black flying outfit. The unit first began to train at Chanute Field in Rantoul, Illinois. That WWII’s black pilots became known as the Tuskegee Airmen instead of the Rantoul Airmen was due to the random chance of military bureaucracy and assignment. Months after it was activated in Illinois, the 99^th Pursuit Squadron was transferred to Tuskegee, Alabama, in June 1941. The following month, the squadron’s enlisted trainees were sent to Tuskegee to train there. In the meantime, five black aviation cadets were admitted to an Officer Training School at Chanute Field.

14. The First African American to Solo a US Army Air Corps Plane

The first class of five African American fighter pilots graduated in March, 1942. The black aviators were commanded by then-Captain Benjamin Oliver Davis Jr., one of only two African American line officers then serving, and the first black officer to solo an Army Air Corps plane. He was promoted to lieutenant colonel that July, and placed in command of the 99^th. Benjamin O. Davis Jr., who forever after was associated with WWII’s black airmen was born into the military. His father, Benjamin O. Davis Sr., was a US Army officer who served in segregated units for over four decades, before he became America’s first black general when he was promoted to brigadier in October, 1940. When he was thirteen-years-old, O. Davis Jr caught the flying bug when he flew with a barnstorming pilot. He decided then and there that he, too, would one day become a pilot.

13. West Point’s Only Black Student

Benjamin O. Davis Jr. eventually attended the US Military Academy at West Point. There, he faced significant discrimination. His white classmates refused to associate with him, did not speak with him outside the line of duty, and he spent four years without a roommate and having to dine alone. Such “silent treatment” was intended to discourage O. Davis and drive him from West Point, but it only strengthened his resolve. He graduated from West Point in 1936 – the first African American to do so since 1889. When he received his commission that year, Benjamin O. Davis Jr. became only the second black Army officer who was not a chaplain. The second was his father, O. Davis Sr. O. Davis Jr. tried to join the US Army Air Corps but was rejected because African Americans were not allowed. Instead, he was assigned to a black infantry regiment.

12. Benjamin O. Davis Jr. in Charge of America’s Black Flyers

Although assigned to an infantry regiment, Benjamin O. Davis Jr. did not give up on his dream to become a pilot. When a black flying unit was finally created in 1941, he joined the first class of African American pilot trainees at Tuskegee Army Air Field. When he graduated in March, 1942, he and his four classmates became the US military’s first black combat fighter pilots. O. Davis Jr. became the first African American pilot to solo in a US Army Air Corps. By July, 1942, he had been promoted to lieutenant colonel, and was appointed to command the 99^th Pursuit Squadron. Even as the Tuskegee training pipeline began to pump out black aviators, most graduates were left to cool their heels. The new black pilots were given no assignments, as plans to place them into command slots were slow walked or resisted by higher ups.

11. Black Pilots Had to Fight Their Chain of Command in Order to be Allowed to Fight for Their Country

General Henry “Hap” Arnold, commander of the US Air Corps, which became the US Army Air Forces in 1941, was among those who were lukewarm about the placement of black officers in operational slots. One of his stated objections was that: “Negro pilots cannot be used in our present Air Corps units since this would result in Negro officers serving over white enlisted men creating an impossible social situation“. It took even more public pressure from civil rights groups and the black press, plus the personal intercession of the president, before the military finally relented and declared the 99^th Pursuit Squadron combat ready in April, 1943. It was shipped to North Africa, where it flew P-40 Warhawks as operational fighters. Its first combat assignment was to participate in Operation Corkscrew, the air assault on the Italian island of Pantelleria, to clear the way for the upcoming Allied invasion of Sicily.

10. Earning a Distinguished Unit Citation

Flying out of Tunis, the all-black 99^th Pursuit Squadron carried out its first combat mission on June 2^nd, 1943. Operation Corkscrew turned out to be an auspicious start for the Tuskegee Airmen. Pantelleria, with a garrison of about 11,000 Italians and 100 Germans, surrendered on June 11^th – the first time in history that a sizeable ground force surrendered because of aerial attacks. However, the 99^th was unfairly criticized by some white aviators. They included the unit’s own commander, who accused the black pilots of “failure to … display aggressiveness and daring for combat“, and called for the unit’s disbandment. The 99^th was cleared by a US Army Air Forces investigation, which revealed that the unit had performed just as well or better than white squadrons that also flew P-40s. Rather than get disbanded, the close examination of the black flyers’ actual performance earned the squadron a Distinguished Unit Citation (DUC).

9. The 99^th Pursuit Squadron Over the Anzio Beachhead

After Operation Corkscrew, the 99^th flew in July, 1943, in support of Operation Husky, the Allied invasion of Sicily. Once airfields were secured in Sicily, the black flyers relocated from North Africa to that island, then flew in support of the Allied invasion of Italy that September. The 99^th was next ordered to provide close air support to the US 5^th Army during some of its major operations. They included the capture of Foggia and its vital airfields, and the amphibious Anzio landings. Attached to the 79^th Fighter Group, the black flyers of the 99^th saw significant action as one of eight fighter squadrons that defended the Anzio beachhead from German aerial attacks. On January 27^th to 28^th, 1944, the eight squadrons defending Anzio collectively shot down 32 German airplanes. The 99^th claimed the highest score among them, with 13 kills.

8. Earning A Second Distinguished Unit Citation

A week after its exploits at Anzio, the 99^th was assigned to the Twelfth Air Force and tasked with harbor protection, convoy escort, and armed reconnaissance missions. The 99^th also provided close air support to French and Polish forces when they assaulted Monte Cassino in May, 1944. The unit distinguished itself in the latter engagement. It surprised and devastated German infantry massing for a counterattack, then bombed and strafed a nearby strongpoint, forcing its surrender to French colonial troops. That performance earned the 99^th its second Distinguished Unit Citation. In the meantime, the airbase in Tuskegee continued to pump out more black aviators. By February, 1944, there were three all-black fighter squadrons ready and waiting in the US: the 100^th, 301^st, and 302^nd. The units were shipped to North Africa, where they were combined into the all-black 332^nd Fighter Group.

7. From a Fighter Squadron to a Fighter Group

The newly-created 332^nd Fighter Group and its novice squadrons were sent to Italy. There, the 332^nd was joined by the now-veteran 99^th Pursuit Squadron in June, 1944. The Tuskegee Airmen initially flew P-40s. They were switched to Bell P-39 Airacobras in March, 1944, and upgraded to P-47 Thunderbolts in June. In July, 1944, they were finally equipped with the airplane with which they became most associated: the P-51 Mustang. Operating out of Ramitelli Airfield in the city of Campomarino on Italy’s Adriatic coast, the 332^nd Fighter Group was tasked with escorting the Fifteenth Air Force’s heavy bombers. For the rest of the war, the Tuskegee Airmen accompanied the Fifteenth Air Force’s bombers on strategic raids. The black flyers flew cover on missions that targeted oil refineries, marshaling yards, factories, and airfields. The assignments took them to northern Italy, Yugoslavia, Greece, Romania, Austria, France, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Germany, and Poland.

6. The “Red Tails“

The 332^nd earned an impressive combat record escorting heavy bombers, whose crews referred to the black flyers as “Red Tails” or “Red Tail Angels” because of the distinctive red paint used on their fighters’ tails. They earned another nickname from the Germans: “Schwarze Vogelmenschen“, or “Black Birdmen”. The Tuskegee Airmen’s most famous mission, in which they went up against Luftwaffe Me 262 fighter jets, came on March 24^th, 1945. That day, Colonel Benjamin O. Davis led 43 Mustangs of the 332^nd Fighter Group as bomber escorts for Fifteenth Air Force B-17s that flew a 1600 mile round trip to raid a tank factory in Berlin. The Germans put up stiff resistance, and sent up clouds of Fw 190s, Me 163 Komet rocket fighters, plus 25 Me 262 jet fighters. Tuskegee Airmen Roscoe Brown, Charles Brantley, and Earl Lane, all managed to shoot down Luftwaffe jets over Berlin that day.

5. Contra Racist Predictions of Unsuitability, the Tuskegee Airmen Exceeded the Norms of Peer Fighter Groups

The 332^nd Fighter Group earned another Distinguished Unit Citation for its exploits on the March 24^th, 1944, Berlin mission. In total, the all-black squadrons flew 1578 combat missions, including 179 bomber escort missions, and put up some pretty good statistics while they were at it. They lost bombers on only seven missions, for a total of 27 airplanes, compared to an average loss of 46 bombers for other Fifteenth Air Force P-51 fighter groups. They shot down 112 enemy airplanes, destroyed another 150 on the ground, and damaged 148 more. On ground attack runs, they destroyed 600 rail cars, plus 350 trucks and motor vehicles. At sea, they destroyed 40 boats and barges, plus a German torpedo boat.

4. Earning A Third Distinguished Unit Citation

Collectively, the Tuskegee Airmen earned three Distinguished Unit Citations. The first of them went to the 99^th Pursuit Squadron for its performance in the aerial assault on Pantelleria in June, 1943. The 99^th earned another DUC in May, 1944, for actions during the Allied assault on Monte Cassino. The third Distinguished Unit Citation went to the 332^nd Fighter Group (including the 99^th Pursuit Squadron plus two other black squadrons, the 100^th and 301^st) for action over Berlin in March, 1945. As seen below, despite the predictions of many that blacks were unsuited to fly combat, the Tuskegee Airmen turned out to be some of the best fighter pilots in the US Army Air Forces.

3. The Tuskegee Airmen’s Track Record

During WWII, Tuskegee Airmen earned 96 Distinguished Flying Crosses, a Silver Star, 14 Bronze Stars, 744 Air Medals, and 8 Purple Hearts. Their accomplishments came at a price. Nearly a thousand pilots were trained at Tuskegee, of whom 355 were deployed overseas. 68 black pilots lost their lives in combat or accidents related thereto, another 12 perished in training and on non-combat missions, and 32 were taken as prisoners of war. The numbers should have spoken for themselves. Predictably, though, they did little to silence racists who continued to attack and denigrate the accomplishments of the black airmen. Nonetheless, after the US military was finally desegregated in 1948, the veteran black pilots blossomed in the newly formed United States Air Force, and found themselves in high demand.

2. The Tuskegee Airmen’s Last Hurrah

The 332^nd Fighter Group was deactivated in 1949 as part of the US Air Force’s plan to achieve racial integration. As a last hurrah, shortly before deactivation, Tuskegee Airmen of the 332^nd Fighter Group won first place in the US Annual Gunnery Meet – a competition that included shooting aerial targets, strafing ground targets, and dropping bombs. As to the African American airmen’s commander, Benjamin O. Davis Jr. had personally led 67 missions during WWII. He earned a Silver Star for strafing targets in Austria, and a Distinguished Flying Cross for a bomber escort mission to Munich in June, 1944.

1. The Distinguished Post War Career of the Tuskegee Airmen’s Commander

After the war, Colonel Benjamin O. Davis Jr. stayed in the US Army Air Forces and its successor, the independent US Air Force. When the US military was finally integrated in 1948 per an executive order of President Truman, O. Davis helped draft the Air Force’s plan to implement the president’s directive. He saw combat once again in the Korean War, this time flying an F-86 Sabre jet after he was appointed to command the 51^st Fighter-Interceptor Wing. He continued to serve the Air Force in various capacities and commands, until he retired as a lieutenant general in 1970. In 1998, he was promoted to full Air Force general (retired), and President Clinton personally pinned on his fourth star. He passed away at age 89 in 2002, appropriately enough for such a patriot, on July 4^th.

_________________

Where Did We Find This Stuff? Some Sources and Further Reading

Air Power History, Vol. 57, No. 3 (Fall 2010) – The Tuskegee Airmen in Combat

Broadnax, Samuel L. – Blue Skies, Black Wings: African American Pioneers of Aviation (2007)

Encyclopedia Britannica – Tuskegee Airmen

Francis, Charles E. – The Tuskegee Airmen: The Men Who Changed a Nation (1997)

History Collection – African American Loyalists During the Revolutionary War: 10 Significant People, Events, and Things

Moye, Todd J. – Freedom Flyers: The Tuskegee Airmen of WWII (2010)

Nalty, Bernard C. – Strength for the Fight: A History of Black Americans in the Military (1989)

Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum – Black Wings: African American Pioneer Aviators