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Fred Patterson was the president of the Tuskegee Institute. He also objected to separate training of black pilots. He said it was necessary to denounce forced racial separation. But he finally accepted the program at Tuskegee. He recognized that blacks would be trained separately from whites any place in the United States. He saw Tuskegee as a beginning. At least blacks would now become military pilots.
The pilots tested their guns. When they were satisfied that their weapons were in firing condition, they flew the planes into position to guard the bombers. The bombers began to unload their cargo at the target area. Clouds of smoke rose from the explosions on the ground.
The Tuskegee Airmen took part in the most famous battles in Italy. These included the battles over the Monte Cassino monastery between Rome and Naples and the invasions of Salerno and Anzio. At Anzio, in the first months of nineteen forty-four, the pilots of the Ninety-Ninth shot down eighteen enemy airplanes. Later, in July, they shot down thirty-six enemy planes. Their record led the Army Air Forces to decide to use more black pilots in the war.
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The Civilian Pilot Training Program at Tuskegee trained black pilots for difficult and dangerous flying. The first group of African-Americans completed the training as fighter pilots in March, nineteen forty-two.
Many of the men trained at Tuskegee served in Europe with the Ninety-Ninth Pursuit Squadron. It was organized in October, nineteen forty-two. Its commander was Lieutenant Colonel Benjamin O. Davis, Junior.
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It also promoted a black colonel, Benjamin O. Davis, Senior, to Brigadier General. And the War Department appointed a black judge, William Hastie, as civilian aide on African-American affairs. Judge Hastie was the head of Howard University Law School in Washington, D.C.
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Nine hundred ninety-six black pilots were trained at Tuskegee Airfield before World War Two ended. For black Americans during World War Two, the Tuskegee Airmen represented both honor and inequality. Members of the group received almost one thousand military awards during the war. Yet their separation from white troops was a powerful sign of the military's racial policy.
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The Ninety-Ninth was sent to the Mediterranean area in April, nineteen forty-three. The pilots gained fighting experience flying over Sicily and Italy. In June of that year, the fighter pilots successfully attacked the Sicilian island of Pantelleria. It was the first time air power alone completely destroyed all enemy resistance.
President Bush spoke to the surviving airmen and their families. He praised their bravery to fight in the face of the unequal treatment they suffered at home. Retired Army general and former Secretary of State Colin Powell also spoke to the group. He thanked them for leading the way to equal racial treatment in the United States. He said the Tuskegee Airmen showed America that there was nothing a black person could not do.
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Civil rights leaders denounced the belief expressed by many white people that black people could not fight. In nineteen thirty-one, Walter White and Robert Moton requested that the War Department accept blacks in the Army Air Corps for pilot training. Mister White was an official of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, a civil rights organization. Mister Moton was president of a respected college for black students, the Tuskegee Institute.
In civilian life, many of the Tuskegee airmen became lawyers, doctors, judges, congressmen and mayors. Their fighting spirit had helped them survive battles and unequal treatment. At home, their spirit helped lead the way to civil rights progress in the United States.
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