The Tuskegee Airmen - Our All Black Air Force (standard:other, 2424 words)
Author: J P St. Jullian	Added: Aug 15 2002	Views/Reads: 3995/2656	Story vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
It was their country too, and though segregated, they fought to defend it.

The Tuskegee Airmen - WWII's All Black Air Force 

by J P St. Jullian 

It was July 2, 1943.  It was a good day for flying.  First Lt. Charles
B. Hall was on his eighth combat mission, flying a P-40 Warhawk from 
his base at Cape Bon, Morrocco.  He and other members of the 99th 
Fighter Squadron were escorting medium bombers to the coast of Sicily. 

Over the target area, the bombers began to unload.  Through the clouds
of smoke and black chunks of antiaircraft fire, enemy fighters came up 
to attack.  The American P-40s quickly broke formation to meet the rush 
of German Focke-Wulf 190s. 

"It was the first time I had seen the enemy close enough to shoot at
him," Hall later told a war correspondent.  "I saw two Focke-Wulfs 
following the bombers just after the bombs were dropped.  I headed for 
the space between the fighters and bombers and managed to turn inside 
the 'Jerries.'  I fired a long burst and saw my tracers penetrate the 
second aircraft.  He was turning to the left, but suddenly fell off and 
headed straight into the ground.  I followed him down and saw him 
crash." 

Thousands of other fighter pilots could tell similar stories, but Hall's
accomplishment was unique for one reason:  he was black, and the first 
of our race to shoot down an enemy aircraft in World War II.  He would 
not be the last. 

Charles B. Hall died in 1971, but the story of how he and other black
men came to be members of the all-black 99th Fighter Squadron is a 
story few people ever heard.  The "Tuskegee Airmen" were a group of men 
who lived and fought together as a unit, and formed the 99th Fighter 
Squadron, later absorbed into the 332nd Fighter Group.  These men 
helped to keep alive the memory of battles fought in the air and on the 
ground, against smothering racial prejudice. 

It was 1986 when I did the research for this article and learned for the
first time how this extraordinary group of men triumphed over what 
seemed like insurmountable odds. I was on active duty with the Air 
Force stationed in England at the time. I had been asked to contribute 
an article for the base newspaper on Black History.  I chose this one. 
This article is dedicated to the memory of all those men who gave their 
lives for freedom as part of the 99th FS.  So little is known of them 
and their contributions to peace in World War II.  In fact, until 
fairly recent times, little was known about any of the truly unique 
contributions of black Americans in World War II, especially in the 
field of aviation.  In this particular group, the 99th FS and the 332nd 
FG, black accomplishments were equal to and in many cases, surpassed 
those of white units.  During the war, this unit: 

Destroyed 409 enemy aircraft 

Flew 15,553 sorties on 1,578 missions 

Flew 200 missions as heavy bomber escorts into Germany without losing a
single bomber to enemy aircraft (a first for any unit) 

Flew more different types of aircraft in combat than any other fighter
unit in World War II 

Was the only fighter unit to sink a German destroyer 

Won numerous battle honors, including a Distinguished Unit Citation 

Though statistics like these would make for an enviable record in any
war, it was the feeling of most of these veterans that the major battle 
they fought was the one to get the opportunity to fight in the first 
place.  Although War Department policy required that all services 
receive black troops in numbers proportionate to the percentage of 
American blacks of military age, the Army Air Force never met that 
percentage. 

Based on the percentage of blacks registered for the draft, the
proportion, set in 1940, should have been 10.6 percent.  Blacks in the 
Army Air Force never accounted for more than 6 percent; fewer than 


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