The year 2025 is 80 years after the Tuskegee Airmen completed their unusual and valiant service in World War II.
The remaining living Tuskegee Airmen and their families will be honored in Tuskegee on March 7.
“Tuskegee Airmen Day” was designated as an annual observance by the Alabama Legislature for each March 7.
The Tuskegee Airmen were almost exclusively African-American military pilots and support personnel. There were also five Haitians, a Jamaican, a Dominican, one from Trinidad and one other of indeterminate origin. It did not matter. All were fighting for America.
They trained at five airfields around Tuskegee and what was then named Tuskegee Institute, now Tuskegee University.
Before the Tuskegee Airmen, there were no black U.S. military pilots. The U.S. War Department and the Army Air Corps created the first all-black flying unit, the 99th Pursuit Squadron.
The five-month-old Tuskegee program got a political and publicity boost when first lady Eleanor Roosevelt, wife of President Franklin Roosevelt, inspected the field and took a flight while there. Black instructor “Chief” Anderson was the pilot, flying Mrs. Roosevelt for a half-hour in a Piper J-3 Cub. After successfully landing, she was widely quoted as saying, “Well, you can fly all right.”
An interesting historical anomaly was realized by 1819 News. The program was started before the United States developed patriotic fervor. It began in early 1941, months before the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor and the U.S. declarations of war on Japan and Germany. The Tuskegee Airmen were training before their country needed them.
During the wartime training, the trainees and stateside support personnel were treated to entertainment from the USO and other entertainment programs. An officers’ club was constructed named "Skyway Club." It is still there at Moton Field, then a training facility and now the home of the Tuskegee Airmen National Historic Site.
The celebrities who came to Tuskegee to provide a diversion for the pilot trainees and personnel comprised a stellar list: Singer Nat ‘King’ Cole (from Montgomery), Lena Horn, Ella Fitzgerald, Louie Armstrong, heavyweight champion Joe Lewis and boxer Sugar Ray Robinson.
When trained, the airmen formed the 332nd Fighter Group and the 477th Bombardment Group of the U.S. Army Air Forces. They deployed to North Africa, Sicily, Italy and elsewhere.
While news accounts and conversations focus on the pilots, the Tuskegee Airmen also included navigators, bombardiers, mechanics, instructors, crew chiefs, nurses, cooks and other support personnel.
There were 922 pilots and close to 10,000 other personnel.
1819 News toured the Tuskegee Airmen National Historic Site on Feb. 19. The first question asked of staffers was:
“Are any of the Tuskegee Airmen pilots still living?’
According to the staff, 15 are still alive, from ages 95 to 109.
1819 News obtained a list of the living pilots. It had 16 listed. One name had been scratched off by hand. Flight Officer Russell Nalle, Jr. of Detroit, Michigan died February 2 at age 103, leaving 15 living. Living history.
“Our mantra was that we dared not fail.” __Charles Dryden, Student with Tuskegee Airmen, 1942
Jim ‘Zig’ Zeigler writes about Alabama’s people, places, events, groups and prominent deaths. He is a former Alabama Public Service Commissioner and State Auditor. You can reach him for comments at ZeiglerElderCare@yahoo.com.
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