The Tuskegee Airmen Flew High For You

“Our mission of escort was really the prime mission to carry out successfully and this we did. The 332nd became known as the best escort operator in the 15th Air Force. We never lost a bomber to enemy action of airplanes.”
— Gen. Benjamin O. Davis, Jr., Commanding Officer, 332nd Fighter Group

Listen up. Today, the daddy is feeling the Tuskegee Airmen, who, as a group, joined the armed forces. The daddy was over at The African American Registry (check em out and give them some dough). They had an informative story on the Airmen. Check it out:

On this date in 1942, the Tuskegee Airmen were initiated into the armed forces. The Tuskegee Airmen were Black servicemen of the U.S. Army Forces who trained at Tuskegee Amy Air Field in Alabama during WWII. They constituted the first African-American flying unit in U.S. military history.

In response to pressure from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the Black press, and others, the War Department in January 1941, formed the all-Black 99th Pursuit Squadron of the U.S. Army Air Corps (later the U.S. Army Air Forces), to be trained using sing-engine planes at the segregated Tuskegee Army Air Field at Tuskegee, Alabama.

The base opened on July 19, and the first class graduated the following March. Lieutenant Colonel Benjamin Oliver Davis, Jr. became the squadron's commander. The Airmen received further training in French Morocco, before their first mission, which was on June 2, 1943, a strafing attack on Pantelleria island, an Italian island in the Mediterranean Sea.

Later that year the Army activated three more squadron that was joined by the 99th, constituting the 332nd Fighter Group. It fought in the European theatre and noted as the Army Air Forces' only escort group that did not lose a bomber to enemy planes.

The Tuskegee airfield program expanded to train pilots and crew to operate two-engine
B-25 medium bombers. These men became part of the second Black flying group, the 477th Bombardment Group. Shortage of crew-members, technicians, and equipment troubled the 477th, and before it could deployed overseas, World War II ended.

Altogether, 992 pilots graduated from the Tuskegee airfield courses; they flew 1,578 missions and 15533 sorties, destroyed 261 enemy aircraft, and won over 850 medals. The American army's 100th pursuit squadron, a group of Black aviators, fought valiantly over Britain and other European countries.

Tuskegee Institutes' Daniel "Chappie" James Memorial Hall houses the Black aviation exhibit, which focuses on the Tuskegee Airmen, who trained near Tuskegee during World War II.
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Know Black History. Know the Tuskegee Airmen. They flew high for you.