Tuskegee Airmen Essay

Tuskegee Airmen
The Tuskegee airmen were an elite squadron of African American pilots of the U.s Army Air Corse (AAC). These brave men were trained at Tuskegee Army Air Field in Alabama and flew more than 15000 individual missions in Europe and North Africa during World War II. At the current time of their deployment the U.S had not yet branched off into the U.S Air Force. Due to high racial tensions during WWII The Army had refused to use black men as pilots, but they soon would after a lawsuit was filed against them. Despite them now allowing black men into the force they were still in fact segregated into their own unit, but even so these pilots became some of the most crucial flyers of WWII. After these men made their mark in the career

as aviators, it began to gain a lot of respect for African Americans; people began to see them as just like the white people after seeing their vast intellectual ability.
In 1941, the Army Air Corps awarded a contract to the Tuskegee institute (Tuskegee University) to operate a primary flight school at Moton Field, the field the students and faculty designed and constructed to train its military pilots.

This park would later be known as a symbol of entrance for African Americans to economic, educational resources, and endless possibility even after they were segregated from the whites who had better equipment and buildings. After the first African American soldiers successfully completed their training it inspired many more African American men and women to compete in supportive roles for the war effort. These men are so influential to the war effort helped with the civil rights movement in the 1950’s and the 1960’s after they had fought and struggled to gain freedom in

America.
Careers of the Tuskegee airmen included, bombardiers, mechanics, instructors crew chief nurses cooks and other supportive personals. Their unit formed the 332nd Fighter Group and the 477th Bombardment Group of the United States Army Air Forces. Though this unit wasn't entirely African American it also was made up of a total of five Haitians for the Haintain Air Force, and one pilot from the Trinidad, it also included a Hispanic/ latino airman born in the Dominican Republic. The 477th Bombardment Group trained with North American B-25 Mitchell bombers never experienced combat, but the 99th Pursuit Squadron later, just the 99th Fighter Squadron has been the first squadron to be filled with black pilots. These men were deployed to North Africa in April of 1943, and later to Sicily and Italy. The 99th Fighter Squadron was initially equipped with Curtiss P-40 Warhawk fighter-bomber aircraft, while the 100th, 301st, and 302nd Fighter Squadrons were equipped for initial combat missions with Bell p-39 Airacobras but in march of 1944 would be better equipped with republic p-47 Thunderbolts, up until July of 1944 when they got the planes most commonly associated with their name, the North American p-51 Mustang. Which the car was to be named at a later date because its small maneuverability alongside its speed and power.
The P-51 Mustang was decorated with a red front end and a red rear end.

The plane had a Large white star on its side that was encased by a large blue dot and a white rectangle around the sides running horizontally the same way the plane flies. Amazing these planes were paid for because of a Bill, Public Law 18 was passed by congress containing an amendment by Senator Harry H. Schwartz who designated funds for training African-American poolets. The War Department managed to put money towards civilian schools willing to train African American pilots. War Department tradition and policy mandated the segregation of Blacks into divided units staffed by white

officers.
The begin of the tuskegee flight program took off quickly, and would spread further than they all ever believed possible. It really too a big jump in popularity when First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt inspected the unit in march of 1941. She even went as far as to flying with the African-American chief civilian instructor C. Alfred “chief” Anderson. This man has been flying since 1929 and had trained thousand of rookie pilots, he took the First Lady on a half a hour flight in a Piper j-3 Cub plane. She loved the experience so much she even went as far to arrange a loan of $175000 to help influence the building of Moton Field.