Tuskegee Airman Marches in Inauguration Parade

By Gabe Pressman
NBCNewYork.com
updated 4:45 p.m. MT, Wed., Jan. 14, 2009

Roscoe Brown will march with pride in the Inauguration Day Parade in Washington. For 86 years this New Yorker has fought battle after battle against what he calls “the stupidity of racism.” This will be the ultimate day in a lifetime of helping to break down barriers. Brown and about 330 of his fellow pilots and ground crew members who still live have been invited to attend the inauguration of the first black president, Barack Obama.Brown, a professor and former president of Hostos College, will be wearing the black cap of the Tuskegee Airmen, the African-American men who fought for America in World War II. They were trained to fly at the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. They had to confront the Jim Crow practices of the south even as they were educated to fly fighter planes in combat at a segregated institution.It was a little more than six decades ago -- yet what a sad world it was for a young black man! Restaurants were segregated and, after they received commissions as second lieutenants, these trail blazers were denied admission to officers' clubs on various bases. They experienced bigotry frequently. They had to disprove the vicious bias of white officers who insulted them and said they would never fight like white men. But the young black airmen persisted. By the end of World War II 994 pilots and about 15,000 ground personnel had been trained at the segregated Tuskegee Army Air Field.On the March 15, 1945, Roscoe Brown was part of the longest mission flown by the air force in World War II. He flew 1,500 miles from southern Italy to Berlin to take on a group of German jets. He shot down one of the German planes and he has a vivid memory of buzzing his home base as he and other pilots celebrated their triumph when they returned.“I was a kid, 23 years old,” Brown remembers. “And we were, like all pilots, a fun-loving, happy go lucky group.”As he marches down Pennsylvania Avenue on Inauguration Day, he'll be remembering that and many other moments in his life. This past Election Night, he celebrated the outcome with Congressman Charles Rangel, who was decorated for his bravery in the Korean War. Blondell's Restaurant in Harlem was crowded with people hailing the outcome of the election. At about 11 p.m., when Sen. Obama was declared president-elect, Brown recalls, “we shouted: 'We did it!'”And indeed they did. “I was so thrilled. Obama has shown such competence.”Does he think the new president's deeds will be as impressive as his words? “Politics,” said Brown, “is the art of the possible. I think Obama will make a good run at it.”The Tuskegee Airmen, an elite corps that contributed to America's victory in World War II, still faced discrimination when they returned home. Finally, six decades later, their achievements were recognized when they received the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest civilian honor Congress can give. And their performance helped move President Harry Truman to desegregate the armed services in 1948.“My career in public service was made possible by the path heroes like the Tuskegee Airmen trail-blazed, ” Obama said.Roscoe Brown is a patient man. He looks forward to more barriers being torn down, including economic inequality. He doesn't rail against the racists who said black men would never be good soldiers. To him racists are just stupid. And he adds: “I'm just proud of being part of history.”

Tuskegee Airman Charles "A-Train" Dryden Flies Final Mission

WASHINGTON (AFRNS) -- Retired Lt. Col. Charles Dryden, 87, one of the famed "Tuskegee Airmen" who broke the military's color barrier by becoming a World War II fighter pilot, died June 24 in Atlanta.

Colonel Dryden was born Sept. 16, 1920, in New York City to Jamaican parents. He graduated from Peter Stuyvesant High School and earned a bachelor's degree in political science from Hofstra University and a master's in public law and government from Columbia University.
In August 1941, he was selected for Army Air Corps aviation cadet training, and was commissioned April 29, 1942, one of three graduates in the second all-black class to graduate from the Tuskegee Army Flying School in Alabama. He was a member of the 99th Pursuit Squadron and later the 332nd Fighter Group, which served in North Africa, Sicily and Italy.
Known as "A-Train," he remained in the military after World War II and served in additional combat during the Korean War. He retired in 1962. After his military service, Colonel Dryden traveled throughout the world to share his story with both Airmen and civilians through a variety of appearances.

In 2007, he flew with nearly 200 Aviation Career Education students from Atlanta to the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force in Ohio to present the museum with a replica of the Congressional Gold Medal for a ceremony.

He also wrote his autobiography, "A-Train: Memoirs of a Tuskegee Airman," which was published in 1997 by the University of Alabama Press.

"Many of us feel we have an obligation to inform as many people as possible," said Colonel Dryden during a visit to Kadena Air Base, Japan in February. "They need to know about this very important part of American history from our own experiences."

His visits made an impression on many Airmen.

"I was so excited to see him because my grandfather was his crew chief during World War II," said Master Sgt. Jonathan Curl, 18th Logistics Readiness Squadron at Kadena AB. "It was a way to touch my grandfather again."

His message of challenge and change resonated with those in his audience.

"I believe the experiences that (he) faced during his career set the path for all who came and will come behind him," said Master Sgt. Michelle Rozier, 116th Air Control Wing protocol superintendent at Robins Air Force Base, Ga., where Colonel Dryden gave a speech. (Courtesy of Air Force Print News)

God bless you and God speed, 'A-Train'. You're an American hero.

Honoring the Great Tuskegee Airmen of WWII

William Holloman of Kent, Washington, a member of the Tuskegee Airmen, bows his head Monday at the Museum of Flight while taps is played at the end of a ceremony honoring the veterans, who were the nation's first African American military pilots. (May 28, 2007)

Barrier-Shattering Black aviators fought on 2 fronts

by CRAIG T. KOJIMA, Star Bulletin

"Lt. Col. Bill Holloman flew "Red Tail" P-51s with the 332nd
Fighter Group in World War II -- the famed Tuskegee
Airmen. He continued flying during the Korean War and
Vietnam, was the first black helicopter pilot in the Air Force
and later became a professor of history at the University of
Washington.

"I'm proud to be associated with that group of men who not only fought racism among the Nazis, but also here in America," Holloman says.

He'll speak on the contributions of the Tuskegee Airmen in a Black History Month presentation at the Pacific Aviation Museum at Pearl Harbor tomorrow and Sunday.

It's one of the great stories rising from the so-called Greatest Generation, the tale of the
"Tuskegee Airmen," the all-black squadrons that not only scored victories over Nazis in the air,
they scored strikes against racism on the homefront. As an inspirational paen, it's a story that
can't be told often enough.

Particularly now, during Black History Month. Which is why the Pacific Aviation Museum at PearlHarbor is bringing in Tuskegee Airman Bill Holloman and others to give a couple of talks on the subject this week. Except that ... ..."During the war, nobody ever heard of Tuskegee Airmen," explains Holloman.

Say what?

"We were 'those colored pilots,' " said Holloman. "Then we were 'Negros' until 1963, when we
became 'black.' Then somebody dreamed up 'African-American,' which I sort of resent. I'm an
American who happens to be of African descent. And I'm proud to be associated with that group
of men who not only fought racism among the Nazis, but also here in America. Some of our pilots
who were captured by the Germans were asked, why would you fly for a country that treats you as second-class citizens? Compared to what the Nazis were doing, America is the greatest nation
on Earth."

The phrase "Tuskegee Airmen," Hollomen explained, came about in the 1970s when veterans of
the fighter group organized an educational trust under that name. It comes from the all-black
Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, a university that served as a conduit for young black men to join
the Army Air Forces.

In 1941, Congress pressured the military into creating a black flying unit, but the plan was nearly scuttled by overt racism within the War Department, which commissioned "scientific" studies from the University of Texas proving that blacks couldn't handle anything as complex as a flying machine. This notion was scuttled by, of all people, Eleanor Roosevelt, who showed up at the flying field one day and insisted that she be taken up in the air in a Piper Cub flown by a black pilot.

Eventually, the 99th, 100th, 301st and 302nd all-black squadron were formed, collectively under the 332nd Fighter Group. And if you're wondering why there are four squadrons instead of the usual three, "we were the only four-squadron group in the armed forces," said Holloman. "And it was because we were segregated."

Not just pilots. The Tuskegee Airmen also consisted of hundreds of black support personnel.
"And one of the beautiful things about being in a segregated unit," said Holloman, "is that you
couldn't be transferred out away from your friends. We became a family."

Holloman hails from St. Louis, and like many aviators of the era, tried flying by jumping off the
garage roof with a sheet tied across his shoulders. "That is, until my mother got wind of it, and my father had us try jumping off a box instead. 'If you can fly off the box,' he said, 'I'll let you jump off the garage.' "

The airplane-crazy kid went to Tuskegee for training, graduating in class 44H, and Holloman says that nearby Tuskegee Airfield was unique in the sheer variety of training aircraft. "Usually, cadets would move from one field to another, learning different types of aircraft. But since we were segregated, instead, all the types of aircraft came to Tuskegee."

Holloman became rated in the famous P-40, P-39 and P-47 fighters, and like many aviators, his
heart was stolen by the sleek P-51 Mustang. The 332nd painted their aircraft with distinctively
crimson control surfaces, and thoroughout the campaign in Europe, the "Red Tails" were noted
as a fierce bunch of fighter pilots who went the extra air mile to protect bombers -- and often the crews who praised them didn't know the Red Tails were black.

Richard Taylor's painting of the Red Tails at work, protecting the heavy bombers over Europe in WWII.

"Star Wars" creator George Lucas' dream project is a movie about the 332nd, called, naturally,
"Red Tails." Holloman was called to Los Angeles last week to consult on the script.

"By 1945, we pretty much controlled the air," said Holloman. "We'd do five escort missions, then
get to do one search-and-destroy or strafing mission, which we preferred because it was more
exciting! As a whole, fighter pilots are crazy young men, and we liked it that way."
The armed forces were desegregated in 1948 by executive order, creating by law -- supposedly the only fully integrated communities in the United States. "I discovered quickly that you can have friends in the military, and be treated as an equal, as long as our kids didn't date," said Holloman.

"If there was any good that came out of World War II, it was the notion that we ignore the color of our skin when we're in the trenches together. America is not perfect -- 'America' is a goal, a
dream to work toward."