Tuskegee Airmen, African American Pilots WW2; Memories - Red Tails Fighter Pilot; 1st Top Gun Winner Turns 100

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Last edited Sat Jun 22, 2024, 06:24 PM - Edit history (3)

- Who Were The Tuskegee Airmen? History, 2020, (6 mins).
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- Memories of A Tuskegee Pilot, Red Tails, Memoirs of WWII. 2020, (14:48 mins).
- Harold Brown,Tuskegee Airmen fighter pilot talks about air-to-air combat, surviving capture and POW camps and the obstacles that were overcome on the Red Tails road to becoming the first African- American squadron.
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- Lt. Col. James Harvey, Tuskegee Airman and first 'Top Gun' Winner Turns 100 on July 13, 2023. Rocky Mt. PBS, 2023, (8:13 mins).
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- Hampton, VA City Schools Media, 2014 (33:46).
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- The Tuskegee Airmen of WWII, History, 2023, (7:47).
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- Wiki. The Tuskegee Airmen was a group of African American military pilots (fighter and bomber) and airmen who fought in World War II. They formed the 332nd Fighter Group and the 477th Bombardment Group (Medium) of the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF). The name also applies to the navigators, bombardiers, mechanics, instructors, crew chiefs, nurses, cooks, and other support personnel.

The Tuskegee airmen received praise for their excellent combat record earned while protecting American bombers from enemy fighters. The group was awarded three Distinguished Unit Citations.

All black military pilots who trained in the U. S. trained at Griel Field, Kennedy Field, Moton Field, Shorter Field, and the Tuskegee Army Air Fields. They were educated at the Tuskegee Institute (now Tuskegee Univ.), located near Tuskegee, Alabama. Of the 922 pilots, 5 were Haitians from the Haitian Air Force and one pilot was from Trinidad. It also included an airman born in the Dominican Republic and one born in Jamaica.

The 99th Pursuit Squadron (later the 99th Fighter Squadron) was the first black flying squadron, and the first to deploy overseas (to North Africa in April 1943, and later to Sicily and other parts of Italy). The 332nd Fighter Group, which originally included the 100th, 301st and 302nd Fighter Squadrons, was the first black flying group. It deployed to Italy in early 1944. Although the 477th Bombardment Group trained with North American B-25 Mitchell bombers, they never served in combat.

In June 1944, the 332nd Fighter Group began flying heavy bomber escort missions and, in July 1944, with the addition of the 99th Fighter Squadron, it had 4 fighter squadrons. The 99th Fighter Squadron was initially equipped with Curtiss P-40 Warhawk fighter-bomber aircraft. The 332nd Fighter Group and its 100th, 301st and 302nd Fighter Squadrons were equipped for initial combat missions 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 red, the nickname "Red Tails" was coined...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuskegee_Airmen