The Tuskegee "Experience"

In spite of adversity and limited opportunities, African Americans have played a significant role in U.S. military history over the past 300 years.

 

"Tuskegee Airmen" refers to all who were involved in the so-called "Tuskegee Experiment," the Army Air Corps program to train Black American men to fly and maintain combat aircraft. The Tuskegee Airmen included pilots, navigators, bombardiers, maintenance and support staff, instructors, and all the personnel who kept the planes in the air. There were also a few white officers and trainers involved.

 

Although the best-known Tuskegee Airmen were the fighter pilots of the 332nd Pursuit Group (99th, 100th, 301st, and 302nd fighter squadrons), the 477th Bomber Group (the first black bomber group) was also part of the Tuskegee Airmen. Pilots, navigators, bombardiers, maintenance and support staff, and instructors all played a role. There were 996 original Airmen. These included pilots, bombardiers, and navigators. More than 10,000 Black men and women served as their vital support personnel.

 

The Tuskegee "Experiment"

Service in the U.S. Army Air Corps had been limited to white personnel from its inception as part of the U.S. Army Signal Corps in 1907 until near the end of the 1930s. The officer corps of the Army included a high number of men from the South, the region of the old Confederate States of America during the Civil War. The belief that blacks were inherently inferior to whites was still widespread in most of the United States and particularly in the South, where virtually all aspects of life were racially segregated. So it is not surprising that Southern military men readily accepted—in fact, they had helped to write—a 1925 Army War College study of black troops in World War I that concluded Negroes, the racial term then in use, were subservient, mentally inferior and “barely fit for combat.”

 

In 1939, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) questioned the military’s segregationist policies, and Negro newspapers and civic groups around the country began a public campaign to integrate the armed forces. In 1941, the effort turned to the courts, where Yancey Williams, a student at Howard University, filed a suit backed by the NAACP to force the Air Corps to accept him into training. The Corps’ answer was to create a segregated unit to train black pilots and ground crews at Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. The military selected Tuskegee Institute to train pilots because of its commitment to aeronautical training. Tuskegee had the facilities, and engineering and technical instructors, as well as a climate for year round flying. That wasn’t what the NAACP had sought; it wanted full integration. The 239 black aviators who comprised the National Airmen’s Association also strongly objected, but to no avail. The plan was called the Tuskegee Experiment. Member of the Tuskegee Airmen believed it was called an experiment, "because we were supposed to fail."  Contrary to what is commonly believed, however, the training at Tuskegee was the equal of that at white facilities. The first Civilian Pilot Training Program students completed their instruction in May 1940. The Tuskegee program was then expanded and became the center for Black aviation during World War II.

 

The Tuskegee Airmen go to War

The 99th Pursuit Squadron was activated at Tuskegee on July 19, 1941, nearly six months prior to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. After completing their training, in the late spring of 1943 the men were sent to North Africa, which the Allies had invaded in November 1942. The 99th Pursuit Squadron, under the command of Benjamin O. Davis, the first Black man to hold the rank of General in the U.S. Army, was unwanted by the commander of the fighter group it was assigned to. An impassioned plea from Davis prevented the unit from being shipped back to the States. They saw action in North Africa, Sicily and Italy. In February 1944, the 100th, 301st, and 302nd Pursuit Squadrons (Fighter Squadrons), comprising the 332nd Pursuit Group began flying combat operations in Italy as part of the Twelfth Air Force.

​

Fighter groups gave their aircraft’s tails a distinctive paint scheme, both for easy recognition and esprit de corps. The planes of the 332nd were painted red, which led to the group’s nickname, the "Red Tails."

​

The group compiled an impressive record, primarily in the Mediterranean Theater of Operations, despite facing frequent resistance to their presence in the formerly all-white Army Air Corps. Because they stayed close to the bombers and did not pursue fleeing enemy fighters, the men of the 332nd did not rack up as many kills as other fighter groups, and stories soon spread that the Tuskegee Airmen had never lost to enemy aircraft any bomber they had escorted. It wasn’t true, but was believed until the 21st century when comparisons of flight logs, mission reports and bomber losses were made. It was discovered a total of 27 bombers they escorted had been shot down by enemy aircraft. However, the average number of bombers lost by other escort groups of the Fifteenth Air Force was 46, nearly double the loss rate of bombers protected by the Red Tails.

 

The Tuskegee Legacy

The Tuskegee Airmen debunked several of the myths, both positive and negative, that were put upon them. Their reality was that, even if they did not demonstrate that they were far superior to the members of the six non-black fighter escort groups of the Fifteenth Air Force with which they served, they certainly demonstrated that they were not inferior to them, either. Moreover, they began at a line farther back, overcoming many more obstacles on the way to combat. Their exemplary performance opened the door for the racial integration of the military services, beginning with the Air Force, and contributed ultimately to the end of racial segregation the United States."

 

The Tuskegee Airmen overcame segregation and prejudice to become one of the most highly respected fighter groups of World War II. They proved conclusively that African Americans could fly and maintain sophisticated combat aircraft. The Tuskegee Airmen's achievements, together with the men and women who supported them, paved the way for full integration of the US military.

On November 6, 1998, President Clinton approved Public Law 105-355, which established the Tuskegee Airmen National Historic Site at Moton Field in Tuskegee, Alabama, to commemorate and interpret the heroic actions of the Tuskegee Airmen during World War II.

​

The SF Bay Area Chapter

​

In 1972, several decorated veterans founded the San Francisco Bay Area chapter of the Tuskegee Airmen, Inc. Their mission was to spread the history of TAI and to promote education in aviation to young Black boys and girls. Included in the original founding members was Colonel William "Bill" Campbell, for whom the chapter is now named.

The founding DOTAs (Documented Original Tuskegee Airmen) wanted to bring their accomplishments to the Bay Area by developing, promoting and executing programs that were designed to excite young people to get involved in the field of aviation.