Friday, January 20, 2012

RED TAILS

In honor of the Tuskegee Airmen film which premieres today, I am rerunning my post on my visit to the museum display I visited in May of 2009 at the Museum of Flight here in Birmingham, Alabama.
Listening to TJMS this morning I discovered that many of the wives of these men also had the skills to fly planes but because of the era they were not allowed to do so.



Museum of Flight-Tuskegee Airmen



 I have always been fascinated by the story of the Tuskegee Airmen. These daring young men were the first African American military pilots during World War II from 1941-1946.
Click on the photos to enlarge


















The Tuskegee 99th Fighter Squadron began in June of 1941.Basic training took place at Moton Field. Each unit had an entire service arm along with a ground crew. After training the squadron was moved to the Tuskegee Army Air Field . There they were taught conversion training onto operational types. Captain Benjamin O. Davis was given command of the airmen. Captain Davis was an African American graduate of West Point.













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