For those of you as interested in racial integration and the Civil Rights movement as yours truly, Pittsburgh has something new to boast about. The Sewickley Cemetery plans a Red Tail memorial, honoring the eight Tuskegee Airmen from their town and the many more from the Pittsburgh area.
Make no mistake, African American men had been fighting for our country for a hundred years by the outbreak of WWII but not in sanctioned roles of responsibility. The American government rebuffed black efforts to train at flight schools for service in World War I; the inevitable changing tide of racial integration fueled by Walter White of the NAACP, A. Phillip Randolph (labor union leader) and Judge William H. Hastie finally established the chance for men of color to be tested and enlist as flight school pilots for service in the WWII war effort.
On April 3, 1939 Bill Public Law 18 passed containing an amendment designating funds for the training of African American pilots. Segregated, the Tuskegee (Institute) flight program was largely based out of an Alabama Works for Progress (WPA) airfield built to mimic a white base just forty miles away. C. Alfred “Chief” Anderson a civilian black pilot, who had been instructed at the institute took First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt up in March 1941 and won the school press coverage and a loan to help purchase the new field.
The Tuskegee Airmen were not only extremely well trained WWII bomber pilots and escorts, but they were the pioneer class of military African American aviators in the country. Between the years 1941-6, 996 men were trained as military pilots at Tuskegee. An interesting benefit of the army’s unwillingness to integrate was the initial class of trained black flight surgeons. During the war years, seventeen men were trained as field doctors.
The army refused to integrate, because it would lead to black men commanding white soldiers at some point; they called this “an impossible situation.” Thus the Tuskegee airmen were kept in all black units, primarily the 332nd Fighter Group and the 477th Bombardment Group (as well as the 99th Fighter Squadron) of the U.S. Army Air Corps.
The official service record was 996 men graduated from Tuskegee into live service between 1941-46. 445 were deployed overseas, 150 lost in combat including KIAs and POW situations. Together their service record reads; 15.533 combat sorties, 311 missions, 112 German aircraft destroyed in the air, 150 on the ground. 950 railcars, trucks and motor vehicles destroyed, one destroyer sunk. Losing only 25 US bombers on hundreds of protection missions.
The 99th Pursuit Squadron captured Pantelleria, Italy and was awarded thusly. The 99th Fighter Squadron ran air strikes against Monte Cassino in the Italian campaign. And the 332nd held the longest ever bomber escort mission of WWII.
Awards totaled: 744 Air Medals, Silver Star, 150 Distinguished Flying Crosses, 14 Bronze Stars, 8 Purple Hearts.
Any man or woman’s service is to be respected and honored, but it is important to note that these men were social pioneers as well. Before entering service, they were subject to Jim Crow laws and after finishing service, expected to live once again within those parameters. They fought for a country that willingly oppressed them before, during and even after service. It would be decades before integration reached a head and more until any comfort.
I am extremely proud to be from an area with local ties to this moment in history and can’t wait to see the finished Memorial.
