The Tuskegee Airmen is the popular name of a group of African American pilots who fought in World War II as the 332nd
Fighter Group of the US Army Air Corps.
The Tuskegee Airmen were the first African American military aviators in the United States armed forces. During World
War II, African Americans in many U.S. states were still subject to Jim Crow laws. The American military itself was
racially segregated. The Tuskegee Airmen were subject to racial discrimination, both within and outside the Army.
Despite these adversities, they flew with distinction. They were particularly successful in their missions as bomber
escorts in Europe.
Origins
Prior to the Tuskegee Airmen, no U.S. military pilots had been African American. A series of legislative moves by the
United States Congress in 1941 forced the Army Air Corps to form an all-black combat unit, despite the War Department's
reluctance. In an effort to eliminate the unit before it could begin, the War Department set up a system to accept only
those with a level of flight experience or higher education that they expected would be hard to fill. This policy
backfired when the Air Corps received an abundance of applications from men who qualified even under these restrictive
specifications, many of whom had already participated in the Civilian Pilot Training Program, which the historically-
black Tuskegee Institute had participated in since 1939.
The U.S. Army Air Corps had established the Psychological Research Unit 1 at Maxwell Army Air Field, Montgomery,
Alabama, and other units around the country for aviation cadet training, which included the identification, selection,
education, and training of pilots, navigators and bombardiers. Psychologists employed in these research studies and
training programs used some of the first standardized tests to quantify IQ, dexterity, and leadership qualities in
order to select and train the right personnel for the right role (bombardier, pilot, navigator). The Air Corps
determined that the same existing programs would be used for all units, including all-black units. At Tuskegee, this
effort would continue with the selection and training of the Tuskegee Airmen.
Strict racial segregation in the U.S. Army required the development of separate African American flight surgeons to
support the operations and training of the Tuskegee Airmen. Prior to the development of this unit, all U.S. Army flight
surgeons were white. Training of African American men as aviation medical examiners was conducted through
correspondence courses until 1943 when two black physicians were admitted to the U.S. Army�s School of Aviation
Medicine at Randolph Field, Texas. This was one of the earliest racially integrated courses in the U.S. Army. Seventeen
flight surgeons served with Tuskegee Airmen from 1941 through 1949. At that time, the typical tour of duty for a U.S.
Army flight surgeon was four years. Six of these physicians lived under field conditions during operations in North
Africa, Sicily and Italy. The chief flight surgeon to the Tuskegee Airmen was Vance H. Marchbanks, Jr., M.D., a boyhood
friend of Benjamin O. Davis, Jr.
Training
On March 19, 1941, the 99th Pursuit Squadron (Pursuit being the pre-World War II descriptive for "Fighter") was
activated at Chanute Field in Rantoul, Illinois. Over 250 enlisted men were trained at Chanute in aircraft ground
support trades. This small number of enlisted men became the core of other black squadrons forming at Tuskegee and
Maxwell Fields in Alabama.
In June 1941, the Tuskegee program officially began with formation of the 99th Fighter Squadron at the Tuskegee
Institute. The unit consisted of an entire service arm, including ground crew. After basic training at Moton Field,
they were moved to the nearby Tuskegee Army Air Field about 16 km (10 mi) to the west for conversion training onto
operational types. The Airmen were placed under the command of Captain Benjamin O. Davis, Jr., then one of the few
black West Point graduates.
During its training, the 99th Fighter Squadron was commanded by white and Puerto Rican officers, beginning with Major
James Ellison. By 1942, Colonel Frederick Kimble oversaw operations at the Tuskegee airfield. Kimble maintained
segregation on the field in deference to local customs, a policy the airmen resented. Later that year, the Air Corps
replaced Kimble with the director of instruction at Tuskegee Army Airfield, Major Noel F. Parrish. Parrish, counter to
the prevalent racism of the day, was fair and open-minded, and petitioned Washington to allow the Tuskegee Airmen to
serve in combat. The founder of Negro Airmen International, Edward A. Gibbs, was a civilian flight instructor in the
U.S. Aviation Cadet Program at the airfield during this time. An Instructor of the 99th Pursuit Squadron was Lt Daniel
James, Jr..
Combat
Considered ready for combat duty, the 99th was transported to Casablanca, Morocco, on the USS Mariposa and participated
in the North African campaign. From Morocco they traveled by train to Oujda then to Tunis from where they operated
against the enemy. Flyers and ground crew alike were largely isolated by the racial segregation practices of their
initial command, the white 33rd Fighter Group and its commander Colonel William W. Momyer. The flight crews were
handicapped by being left with little guidance from battle-experienced pilots beyond a week spent with Colonel Phillip
Cochran. The 99th's first combat mission was to attack the small but strategic volcanic island of Pantelleria in the
Mediterranean Sea, in preparation for the Allied invasion of Sicily in July 1943. The 99th moved to Sicily where it
received a Distinguished Unit Citation for its performance in combat.
Colonel Momyer, however, told media sources in the U.S. that the 99th was a failure and its pilots cowardly,
incompetent or worse, resulting in a critical article in TIME. In response, the House Armed Services Committee convened
a hearing to determine whether the Tuskegee Airmen experiment should be allowed to continue. Momyer accused the 99th's
pilots of being incompetent, based on the fact that they had seen little air-to-air combat. To bolster the
recommendation to scrap the project, a member of the committee commissioned and then submitted into evidence a
"scientific" report by the University of Texas which purported to prove that African Americans were of low intelligence
and incapable of handling complex situations (such as air combat). Colonel Davis forcefully denied the committee
members' claims, but only the intervention of Colonel Emmett "Rosie" O'Donnell prevented a recommendation for
disbandment of the squadron from being sent to President Franklin D. Roosevelt. General Hap Arnold ordered an
evaluation of all Mediterranean Theater P-40 units be undertaken to determine the true merits of the 99th; the results
showed the 99th Fighter Squadron to be at least equal to other units operating the fighter.
Shortly after the hearing, three new squadrons fresh out of training at Tuskegee embarked for Africa. After several
months operating separately, all four squadrons were combined to form the all-black 332nd Fighter Group.
The Tuskegee Airmen were initially equipped with P-40 Warhawks, briefly with P-39 Airacobras (March 1944), later with
P-47 Thunderbolts (June-July 1944), and finally with the aircraft that they became most commonly identified with, the
P-51 Mustang (July 1944).
On January 27 and 28, 1944, Luftwaffe Fw 190 fighter-bombers raided Anzio, where the Allies had conducted amphibious
landings on January 22. Attached to the 79th Fighter Group, eleven of the 99th Fighter Squadron's pilots shot down
enemy fighters, including Capt. Charles B. Hall, who claimed two shot down, bringing his aerial victory total to three.
The eight fighter squadrons defending Anzio together claimed 32 German aircraft shot down whilst the 99th claimed the
highest score among them with 13.
The squadron won its second Distinguished Unit Citation on May 12-14, 1944, while attached to the 324th Fighter Group,
attacking German positions on Monastery Hill (Monte Cassino), attacking infantry massing on the hill for a
counterattack, and bombing a nearby strong point to force the surrender of the German garrison to Moroccan
Goumiers.
By the spring of 1944, more graduates were ready for combat, and the all-black 332nd Fighter Group had been sent
overseas with three fighter squadrons: The 100th, 301st, and 302nd. Under the command of Colonel Davis, the squadrons
were moved to mainland Italy, where the 99th Fighter Squadron, assigned to the group on May 1, joined them on June 6 at
Ramitelli Airfield, near Termoli on the Adriatic coast. From Ramitelli, the Airmen of the 332nd Fighter Group escorted
Fifteenth Air Force heavy strategic bombing raids into Czechoslovakia, Austria, Hungary, Poland, and Germany.
Flying escort for heavy bombers, the 332nd earned an impressive combat record. Reportedly, the Luftwaffe awarded the
Airmen the nickname, "Schwarze Vogelmenschen," or "Black Birdmen." The Allies called the Airmen "Redtails" or "Redtail
Angels," because of the distinctive crimson paint on the vertical stabilizers of the unit's aircraft.
A B-25 bomb group, the 477th Bombardment Group, was forming in the U.S. but completed its training too late to see
action. The 99th Fighter Squadron after its return to the United States became part of the 477th, redesignated the
477th Composite Group.
By the end of the war, the Tuskegee Airmen were credited with 112 Luftwaffe aircraft shot down, the German-operated
Italian destroyer TA-23 sunk by machine-gun fire, and destruction of numerous fuel dumps, trucks and trains. The
squadrons of the 332nd FG flew more than 15,000 sorties on 1,500 missions. The unit received recognition through
official channels and was awarded a Distinguished Unit Citation (DUC) for a mission flown March 24, 1945, escorting B-
17s to bomb the Daimler-Benz tank factory at Berlin, Germany. During the action its pilots were credited with
destroying three Me-262 jets of the Luftwaffe's all-jet Jagdgeschwader 7 in aerial combat that day, despite the
American unit initially claiming 11 Me 262s on that particular mission. However on examining German records, JG 7
records just four Me 262s were lost and all of the pilots survived. In return the 463rd Bomb Group, one of the many B-
17 groups the 332nd were escorting, lost two bombers. The 332nd themselves lost three P-51s during the mission. The
bombers also made substantial claims, making it impossible to tell which units were responsible for those individual
four kills. The 99th Fighter Squadron in addition received two DUCs, the second after its assignment to the 332nd FG.
The Tuskegee Airmen were awarded several Silver Stars, 150 Distinguished Flying Crosses, 8 Purple Hearts, 14 Bronze
Stars and 744 Air Medals.
In all, 994 pilots were trained in Tuskegee from 1941 to 1946, about 445 deployed overseas, and 150 Airmen lost their
lives in accidents or combat.
Controversy over escort record
While it had long been said that the Redtails were the only fighter group who never lost a bomber to enemy fighters,
suggestions to the contrary, combined with Air Force records and eyewitness accounts indicating that at least 25
bombers were lost to enemy fire, resulted in the Air Force conducting a reassessment of the history of the unit in late
2006.
The claim that no bomber escorted by the Tuskegee Airmen had ever been lost to enemy fire first appeared on March 24,
1945, in the Chicago Defender, under the headline "332nd Flies Its 200th Mission Without Loss." According to the March
28, 2007, Air Force report, however, some bombers under 332nd Fighter Group escort protection were shot down on the
very day the Chicago Defender article was published. The subsequent report, based on after-mission reports filed by
both the bomber units and Tuskegee fighter groups as well as missing air crew records and witness testimony, was
released in March 2007 and documented 25 bombers shot down by enemy fighter aircraft while being escorted by the
Tuskegee Airmen.
The St. Petersburg Times in 2008 quoted a historian at the Air Force Historical Research Agency as confirming the loss
of up to 25 bombers. Disputing this, a professor at the National Defense University said he researched more than 200
Tuskegee Airmen mission reports and found no bombers were lost to enemy fighters. Bill Holloman, a Tuskegee airman who
taught black studies at the University of Washington and now chairs the Airmen's history committee, was reported by the
Times as saying his review of records did confirm lost bombers, but "the Tuskegee story is about pilots who rose above
adversity and discrimination and opened a door once closed to black America � not about whether their record is
perfect."
One mission report states that on July 26, 1944: "1 B-24 seen spiraling out of formation in T/A (target area) after
attack by E/A (enemy aircraft). No chutes seen to open." A second report, dated August 31, 1944, praises group
commander Colonel Davis by saying he "so skillfully disposed his squadrons that in spite of the large number of enemy
fighters, the bomber formation suffered only a few losses."
Postwar
Far from failing as originally expected, a combination of pre-war experience and the personal drive of those accepted
for training had resulted in some of the best pilots in the U.S. Army Air Corps. Nevertheless, the Tuskegee Airmen
continued to have to fight racism. Their combat record did much to quiet those directly involved with the group
(notably bomber crews who often requested them for escort), but other units continued to harass the Airmen.
In 1949, the 332nd entered the annual All Air Force Gunnery Meet in Las Vegas, Nevada and won. After segregation in the
military was ended in 1948 by President Harry S. Truman with Executive Order 9981, the veteran Tuskegee Airmen now
found themselves in high demand throughout the newly formed United States Air Force. Some taught in civilian flight
schools, such as the black-owned Columbia Air Center in Maryland.
Many of the surviving members of the Tuskegee Airmen annually participate in the Tuskegee Airmen Convention, which is
hosted by Tuskegee Airmen, Inc.
In 2005, four Tuskegee Airmen (Lt. Col. Lee Archer, Lt. Col. Robert Ashby, MSgt. James Sheppard, and TechSgt. George
Watson) flew to Balad, Iraq, to speak to active duty airmen serving in the current incarnation of the 332nd,
reactivated as first the 332nd Air Expeditionary Group in 1998 and made part of the 332nd Air Expeditionary Wing. "This
group represents the linkage between the 'greatest generation' of airmen and the 'latest generation' of airmen," said
Lt. Gen. Walter E. Buchanan III, commander of the Ninth Air Force and US Central Command Air Forces, in an e-mail to
the Associated Press.
About 119 pilots and 211 ground personnel are still alive from the original crew member number of 994 pilots and about
15,000 ground personnel.
Photograph shows pilots of the 332nd Fighter Group, "Tuskegee Airmen," the elite, all-African American 332nd Fighter Group at Ramitelli, Italy., from left to right, Lt. Dempsey W. Morgran, Lt. Carroll S. Woods, Lt. Robert H. Nelron, Jr., Capt. Andrew D. Turner, and Lt. Clarence P. Lester & was Hand Oil Tinted by artist Margaret A. Rogers.
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