Tuskegee Airmen History

Under considerable pressure, the War Department relented and undertook what was called the "Noble Experiment."  It was tacitly considered to be doomed to failure especially by those who initiated a separate and supposedly equal part of the Army Air Corps. (Equal in rank, but not equal in privilege.)

Due to the rigid pattern of racial segregation that prevailed in the United Slates during World War II, the War Department selected Tuskegee, Alabama for the base site - far away from the center of things. In spite of a lack of official confidence and support, and a remote location, 992 pilots were graduated from Tuskegee Army Air Corps Flying School, which also trained and developed some of the support personnel, which would ultimately be needed to form combat units.

Some of the technical and other support personnel were also trained at other locations, primarily Chanute, Illinois. Thus, the "Noble Experiment" resulted in the capability of forming a totally segregated unit of the Air Corps - pilots, navigators, bombardiers, gunners, and myriad numbers of technicians for ground support, again separate but supposedly equal, as was the then governing status of all the US, military organizations.

This "Noble Experiment" group turned out to be as good as any and better than most. Four hundred and fifty Black Fighter pilots under the command of Col. Benjamin 0. Davis (the fourth African-American to graduate from the U.S. Military Academy, also a Lt. General with many major commands during his 38 years of distinguished service), fought overseas in North Africa, Sicily, and Europe, flying P-40, P39, P-47, and P-51 type aircraft. These gallant men flew 15,553 sorties in 1,578 missions with the 12th and 15th Army Air Forces, where they were both feared and respected by the Germans who called them the "Schwartze Vogelmensohen" (Black Birdmen).

White American bomber crews revered them as the "Black Red tail Angels" because of the identifying red painted tail assembly of their aircraft, and more importantly because they never lost a bomber to enemy fighter interdiction. The Black Airmen won one Silver Star, 150 Flying Crosses, Legion of Merits and Red Star of Yugoslavia, and left 66 of their comrades buried in foreign soil.

Although the 99th, along with the 100th, 301st, and 302nd fighter squadrons of the 332nd Fighter Group were building envious reputations overseas, the 477th Medium Bombardment Group was authorized in the spring of 1943. It became operational in January 1945. The segregated training program restricted the number of men available for the bombardment group, and thus many months were required to properly man the group. The imbalance in the production of pilots and air crewmen, followed by a shortage of trainees, and the group itself was continually blamed for these difficulties inherited from Air Corps command. 

It became generally felt that the integrated "qualified" White command personnel were in many cases using the 477th as a stepping stone for speedy promotions, and were found in many instances to be sharpening their own inadequacies.  This portent of trouble came to fruition in the spring of 1945 when 162 Black officers were placed under arrest for entering the "club" which the White command had attempted to segregate with White only membership and for refusing to obey an unlawful order.

All White personnel were reassigned. Fighting the adversities of a segregated military from the inside and an awesome enemy from the outside, the "Black Air Force" became a cohesive, motivated and dedicated group, Nearly thirty years of anonymity were ended in 1972 with the founding of Tuskegee Airmen, Inc. as a nonpolitical, non-military, and non-profit entity.