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They were pilots - and pioneers

By COLLETTE BANCROFT
Published July 26, 2005

[Photo courtesy of Henry Bohler

A photo of Henry Bohler's Tuskegee Airmen group, in front of a P-40 Warhawk. Bohler, is sitting second from the bottom right.

Always a flier at heart At 80, Henry Bohler still maintains his military bearing: spine straight, shoulders squared. And he is still passionate about what he learned as a Tuskegee Airman: "I love to fly." In Sarasota, an Airman for life The first time Yenwith Whitney tried to sign up to fight in World War II, he was rated 4F. At 112 pounds, he was described by the draft board examiners as "underweight and physically immature."

In 1925, a study by the Army War College concluded that African-Americans were inherently ill-suited for combat physically and psychologically. Starting in 1941, 992 men proved how wrong that study was. Sixty years after the end of World War II, the surviving members of the Tuskegee Airmen, the first black pilots in the U.S. Armed Forces, will gather next month to recall their distinguished record. Two former Tuskegee Airmen who live in the Tampa Bay area talk about their experiences and how the ground-breaking program changed their lives.

The Tuskegee Airmen

Between 1941 and 1946, 992 men graduated as Tuskegee Airmen, becoming the first black pilots in the U.S. Armed Forces. They fought two wars, one against foreign enemies and one against the prejudices of a society still dominated by segregation, and served proudly in both. Fewer than 200 of those men are alive today, but they have not stood down. The Tuskegee Airmen Inc. will hold its 34th annual convention Aug. 15-20 at the Rosen Centre Hotel in Orlando.

As World War II began, the American military was still racially segregated. In early 1941, with U.S. involvement in the war seeming inevitable, President Franklin Roosevelt ordered the Army Air Corps to create a training program for black pilots.

A flight school was founded at historic Tuskegee University in Alabama on July 19, 1941. At its inception, 12 cadets and one officer, Capt. Benjamin O. Davis Jr., who later became the Air Force's first African-American general, were in the program. These and later graduates became known as Tuskegee Airmen.

Between 1941 and 1946, 992 pilots graduated from the program at Tuskegee. About 9,000 black civilians, officers and enlisted men and women supported them on ground duty.

Four hundred and fifty of the Tuskegee Airmen were assigned overseas in the 99th Pursuit Squadron, which flew combat missions in North Africa and Italy, and the 332nd Fighter Group, which was based in Italy and flew combat missions and escorted bombers.

The Tuskegee Airmen shot down 409 German aircraft, destroyed 950 units of ground transportation and sank a destroyer with machine guns alone - an unprecedented feat.

Their most distinctive achievement was that they never lost a bomber to enemy aircraft during 200 escort missions, many into the Germans' most heavily defended territories.

Sixty-six of the Airmen died in combat, and 32 were shot down and became prisoners of war.

The Tuskegee Airmen were awarded two Soldier Medals, eight Purple Hearts, 150 Distinguished Flying Crosses (95 awarded during the war) and 744 Air Medals and Clusters.

The first African-American 4-star general was a Tuskegee-trained pilot. Gen. Daniel "Chappie" James flew bombers during WWII, because his 5-foot-11 frame was too tall to fly fighter planes.

At Freeman Field in Indiana, Tuskegee Airmen were refused access to the officers' club despite an order from President Roosevelt. On April 5, 1945, a group of the Airmen peacefully entered the club in protest. Sixty-one were arrested. At the 24th annual convention of Tuskegee Airmen Inc. in 1995, Assistant Secretary of the Air Force Rodney Coleman announced that the Air Force would exonerate all of the officers involved in the incident.

The outstanding achievements of the Tuskegee Airmen were among the forces that led to the integration of the American armed forces, which began in 1948, and to the civil rights movement.

Sources: The National Home of the Tuskegee Airmen Inc., tuskegeeairmen.org; Military.com

[Last modified July 22, 2005, 11:20:06]