Ever heard of the all-black American fighter squadron?
Not many people have – but it is a remarkable story.
The Tuskegee Airmen – named after their training base – were the first African-American military aviators in the United States armed forces and fought in the Second World War. Formally, they formed the 332nd Fighter Group and the 477th Bombardment Group of the United States Army Air Corps (United States Army Air Forces after June 1941).
The Tuskegee Airmen initially were equipped with Curtiss P-40 Warhawks fighter-bomber aircraft, briefly with Bell P-39 Airacobras (March 1944), later with Republic P-47 Thunderbolts (June–July 1944), and finally with the aircraft with which they became most commonly associated, the North American P-51 Mustang (July 1944). When the pilots of the 332nd Fighter Group painted the tails of their P-47s and later, P-51s, red, the nickname “Red Tails” was coined.
Their story has been told twice on film: first as “The Tuskegee Airmen”, a 1999 HBO television film [my review here], and this year in “Red Tails”, a George Lucas-funded movie [my review here]. You can find further information on the airmen and their heroic record here.
December 10th, 2012 at 2:59 pm
Rediculous to think how people were prevented to fight for their country, willing and able but too much melnin.
Even the South African Apartheid government allowed “non-white” soldiers in the border war, but as with the rest of the rediculous laws, not alongside the rest of the “ordinary soldiers”. The Bufalo Soldiers were one of our best units. Now they have to put up with abuse from the current government and threats of evictions from “land” (if you can call that part of the Kalahari that)given to them by the Nats.
Digress, I loved The Tuskegee AirmEn (spelling as well as it was made 1995, sorry for the correction Roger) [Corrected now – Roger] and can’t wait to see Red Tails. Hopefully the heroics of the men involved will gain better attention this time round, as you say “not many people have” heard of them.