Tuskegee Airmen Essay -- American History Military Air Force

On July 19, 1941 the U.S. Air Force created a program in Alabama to train African Americans as fighter pilots(Tuskegee Airmen1). Basic flight training was done by the Tuskegee institute, a school founded by Booker T. Washington in 1881(Tuskegee Airmen 1). Cadets would finish basic training at Tuskegee's Moton Field and then move on to the Tuskegee Army Air Field to complete his transition from training to combat aircraft. The early Tuskegee squad were taught to fit in with the famous 99th fighter squadron, tagged for combat duty in North Africa. Other Tuskegee pilots were commissioned to the 332d Fighter Group which fought alongside with the 99th Squadron based out of Italy. By the end of the war, 992 men had completed training at Tuskegee, 450 were sent overseas for combat . During the same time, almost 150 died while in training or on combat missions. Additional men were trained at Tuskegee for aircrew and ground crew. The Mustang pilot spotted the string of Bf-109's heading toward the crippled B-24. The pilot, a Lt. Weathers, dropped his wing tanks, and turned into the German formation. He gave the leader a burst with his .50 calibers and it nosed up, smoking, and soon went hurtling down to the ground. The pilot radioed the others in his flight and heard "I'm right behind you." But when Weathers looked back for himself, all Page 2 he could see was the nose cannon of another Bf-109, pointing right at him. He dropped flaps and chopped throttle, instantly slowing his Mustang, and the Bf-109 overran him. A few bursts, and Lt. Weathers had his second kill of the day. Two more e/a were still in view and seemed like easy pickings, but the voice of the Group CO echoed in the pilot's mind, "Your job is to protect the bombers a... ...). Luke Weathers' escort mission described above provided the group's only aerial victories for the month of November. They flew 22 missions in December, running the group tally to 62 confirmed air-to-air victories by year's end. Bad weather in January limited them to 11 missions, picking up to 39 in February, but without many aerial victories. On March 24, 1945, Col. Davis led the Group on the longest escort mission ever flown by the Fifteenth Air Force, a 1600-mile round trip to the Daimler-Benz tank works in Berlin(Tuskegee Airmen 5). On this mission, Roscoe C. Brown, Jr., Charles Brantly and Earl Lane, each shot down a German Me-262 jet fighter aircraft. The Group received a Distinguished Unit Citation for their achievements this day(History 4). The Tuskegee Airmen continued flying and fighting, killing and dying, until the end of the war in Europe in May, 1945.