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.
