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Meet Some of the Tuskegee Airmen Ahmed A. "Sammy" Rayner, Jr.
A first lieutenant, part of the 616th Bombardment Squadron, Rayner later remembered his experiences in an oral history with Studs Terkel.
More about Rayner's Life and Experience as a Tuskegee Airman Charles McGee
Brig. Gen. Charles McGee began his military career as a Tuskegee Airman. He was stationed in Italy and flew 137 combat missions, including one in which he shot down a German Fw 190. He later returned to Tuskegee Army Airfield as an instructor. He continued to serve in the United States Air Force, flying 100 combat missions in the Korean War, and 172 missions in the Vietnam War as commander of the 16th Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron.
Hear McGee Reflect on His Life and Career Supporting the Aviators Noel F. Parrish
A career Army Air Corps pilot, Noel F. Parrish took a keen interest in promoting Black involvement in military aviation. In the late 1930s, he befriended Cornelius Coffey and admired the flying program of his Challengers Air Pilots' Association in Chicago.

Lt. Col. Parrish took command of Tuskegee Army Air Field in 1941 and oversaw the training of airmen for Black fighter and bomber squadrons. He held that post throughout World War II. Parrish did much to make the Tuskegee program a success. He provided leadership and promoted morale among the cadets at a time when the armed forces remained segregated.
A Pattern of Resistance
The Tuskegee Airmen's fight for equality involved more than their skills in the air. It required coordinated, collective actions of civil disobedience in which 162 officers risked their careers and their lives to stand up against systemic racism in the US Army Air Forces (AAF).
Learn More about the Pattern of Resistance
The largest of these incidents became known as the Freeman Field Mutiny. On April 5, 1945, the African American officers began a pre-planned display of resistance. In small groups of just a few officers at a time, they began entering the white "instructor" club, 36 of them getting arrested in the process. The next night the same tactic played out again, with another 25 arrested. The club was then closed, and 110 officers wrote to the Army Inspector General to request an investigation into the arrests.
Discover What Happened and How it Led to Drastic Change

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In 1941, a new air base at Tuskegee, Alabama, became the center for the training program of Black air personnel. First with the 99th Fighter Squadron and later with the 332nd Fighter Group, African Americans contributed to the war effort, serving in the Mediterranean combat theater, flying from bases in North Africa and Italy while supporting operations against German forces.

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Tuskegee Airmen Facts
NOTE: For historical photographs or information regarding the Tuskegee Airmen, contact: Maxwell Air Force Base by e-mail at afhranews@maxwell.af.mil or write the Air Force Historical Research Agency, 600 Chennault Circle, Maxwell AFB, Ala. 36112-6424.
Some Facts include:

The Tuskegee Airmen were dedicated, determined young men who volunteered to become America's first Black military airmen

Those who possessed the physical and mental qualifications and were accepted for aviation cadet training were trained initially to be pilots, and later to be either pilots, navigators, or bombardiers.

Tuskegee University was awarded the U.S. Army Air Corps contract to help train America's first Black military aviators because it had already invested in the development of an airfield, had a proven civilian pilot training program and its graduates performed highest on flight aptitude exams.

Moton Field is named for Tuskegee University's second President, Dr. Robert R. Moton who served with distinction from 1915-1935. The Airmen were deployed during the presidential administration of Dr. Frederick Douglas Patterson (1935-1953).

The all-Black, 332nd Fighter Group consisted originally of four fighter squadrons, the 99th, the 100th, the 301st and the 302nd.

From 1941-1946, some 1,000 Black pilots were trained at Tuskegee.

The Airmen's success in escorting bombers during World War II - having one of the lowest loss records of all the escort fighter groups, and being in constant demand for their services by the allied bomber units.- is a record unmatched by any other fighter group.

The 99th Squadron distinguished itself by being awarded two Presidential Unit Citations (June-July 1943 and May 1944) for outstanding tactical air support and aerial combat in the 12th Air Force in Italy, before joining the 332nd Fighter Group.

The 332nd Fighter group was awarded the Presidential Unit Citation for its' longest bomber escort mission to Berlin, Germany on March 24, 1945. During this mission, the Tuskegee Airmen (then known as the 'Red Tails') destroyed three German ME-262 jet fighters and damaged five additional jet fighters.

The 332nd Fighter Group had also distinguished itself in June 1944 when two of its pilots flying P-47 Thunderbolts discovered a German destroyer in the harbor of Trieste, Italy.

The tenacious bomber escort cover provided by the 332nd "Red Tail" fighters often discouraged enemy fighter pilots from attacking bombers escorted by the 332nd Fighter Group.

C. Alfred "Chief" Anderson earned his pilot's license in 1929 and became the first Black American to receive a commercial pilot's certificate in 1932, and, subsequently, to make a transcontinental flight.

Anderson is also well known as the pilot who flew Eleanor Roosevelt, wife of then-U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, convincing her to encourage her husband to authorize military flight training at Tuskegee.

In 1948, President Harry Truman enacted Executive Order No. 9981 - directing equality of treatment and opportunity in all of the United States Armed Forces, which in time led to the end of racial segregation in the U.S. military forces.

The U.S. Congress authorized $29 million in 1998 to develop the Tuskegee Airmen National Historic Site, with the University, Tuskegee Airmen Inc. and the National Park Service serving as partners in its development. To date, a mere $3.6 million has been appropriated for the Site's implementation.

Facts provided by Tuskegee Airmen Inc. and the Tuskegee University Office of Marketing and Communications.

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NOTE: For historical photographs or information regarding the Tuskegee Airmen, contact: Maxwell Air Force Base by e-mail at afhranews@maxwell.af.mil or write the Air Force Historical Research Agency, 600 Chennault Circle, Maxwell AFB, Ala. 36112-6424.

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The Digital Collections of the National WWII Museum : Oral Histories | Oral History

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Early Life, Enlistment and Becoming a Pilot Transition Training, Losses and Targets Tuskegee Army Air Field and Racism Celebrity, Fighter Planes and Being Shot Down Deployment, Life in Italy, Combat and Benjamin O. Davis, Jr. War News and Transfer to Stalag VII-A Stalag VII-A, Air Battles and Liberation Returning Home, Postwar Service, and the G.I. Bill Being an American, the Civil Rights Movement, and Tuskegee Army Airfield Combat, Shot Down, Stalags and Liberation Liberation, Home, and Forming the Tuskegee Airmen, Inc. Ploesti, Down Time, and Being Interrogated Racism, Red Cross Parcels, and Smoking Back to Reality

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John Langston Harrison, Jr. was born in December 1920 in Topeka, Kansas. He was raised in Osage City, Kansas and Omaha, Nebraska. His father worked as a school teacher, but he passed away when Harrison was a baby so he never got to know him. He was raised by his grandmother who had been a slave, freed when she was 26 years old. Slavery was never talked about in his presence, so he never got any information about that part of her life. His uncle had a good-sized farm with horses, cows, hogs, geese, and chicken, and as a child, Harrison did little jobs like feeding and watering the animals. His uncle paid him 75 cents a month for completing those tasks. His uncle was a father figure to him, and told Harrison the he could do anything that any other man could do. He had a positive mindset that he has used all throughout his life. Hearing about his uncle's life traveling as a cowboy and wheat harvester instilled a sense of wanderlust in Harrison. He thinks that is why he ended up making more than 30 crossings of the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, and flying around the world. When Harrison was a young man in December 1941, Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941] happened. He had been following world news and was worried about Hitler [Annotator's Note: German dictator Adolf Hitler] taking over Holland and other parts of the world. He knew a war would be coming. The day after Pearl Harbor, President Roosevelt [Annotator's Note: Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 32nd President of the United States] declared war on Japan [Annotator's Note: Day of Infamy Speech; President Franklin D. Roosevelt to a Joint Session of the United States Congress, 8 December 1941], and five months later, in May 1942, Harrison went to the recruiting office in Omaha. He told the sergeant there that he wanted to be a fighter pilot and shoot down Japs [Annotator's Note: a period derogatory term for Japanese] to which the sergeant responded, "We do not train you people [Annotator's Note: meaning African-American people] to be pilots". Harrison said they did, and had a picture of the Tuskegee pilots [Annotator's Note: a group of primarily African-American military pilots and airmen who fought in World War 2, trained at the Tuskegee Institute in Tuskegee, Alabama]. Harrison was thrown out of the recruiting office. He was a young man who wanted to train and fight for his country, and that was the reception he got. Two weeks later, he went back and tried again and was able to fill out all of the necessary paperwork. He went in, took a test and was given a physical, acing both.

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John Langston Harrison, Jr. was born in December 1920 in Topeka, Kansas. He was raised in Osage City, Kansas and Omaha, Nebraska. His father worked as a school teacher, but he passed away when Harrison was a baby so he never got to know him.

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Meet Some of the Tuskegee Airmen Ahmed A. "Sammy" Rayner, Jr.
A first lieutenant, part of the 616th Bombardment Squadron, Rayner later remembered his experiences in an oral history with Studs Terkel.
More about Rayner's Life and Experience as a Tuskegee Airman Charles McGee
Brig. Gen. Charles McGee began his military career as a Tuskegee Airman. He was stationed in Italy and flew 137 combat missions, including one in which he shot down a German Fw 190. He later returned to Tuskegee Army Airfield as an instructor. He continued to serve in the United States Air Force, flying 100 combat missions in the Korean War, and 172 missions in the Vietnam War as commander of the 16th Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron.
Hear McGee Reflect on His Life and Career Supporting the Aviators Noel F. Parrish
A career Army Air Corps pilot, Noel F. Parrish took a keen interest in promoting Black involvement in military aviation. In the late 1930s, he befriended Cornelius Coffey and admired the flying program of his Challengers Air Pilots' Association in Chicago.

Lt. Col. Parrish took command of Tuskegee Army Air Field in 1941 and oversaw the training of airmen for Black fighter and bomber squadrons. He held that post throughout World War II. Parrish did much to make the Tuskegee program a success. He provided leadership and promoted morale among the cadets at a time when the armed forces remained segregated.
A Pattern of Resistance
The Tuskegee Airmen's fight for equality involved more than their skills in the air. It required coordinated, collective actions of civil disobedience in which 162 officers risked their careers and their lives to stand up against systemic racism in the US Army Air Forces (AAF).
Learn More about the Pattern of Resistance
The largest of these incidents became known as the Freeman Field Mutiny. On April 5, 1945, the African American officers began a pre-planned display of resistance. In small groups of just a few officers at a time, they began entering the white "instructor" club, 36 of them getting arrested in the process. The next night the same tactic played out again, with another 25 arrested. The club was then closed, and 110 officers wrote to the Army Inspector General to request an investigation into the arrests.
Discover What Happened and How it Led to Drastic Change

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In 1941, a new air base at Tuskegee, Alabama, became the center for the training program of Black air personnel. First with the 99th Fighter Squadron and later with the 332nd Fighter Group, African Americans contributed to the war effort, serving in the Mediterranean combat theater, flying from bases in North Africa and Italy while supporting operations against German forces.

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World War II archive photos document Tuskegee Airmen in Europe

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A collection of historical images from the U.S. Library of Congress documents the daily lives of Tuskegee Airmen preparing for European theater missions during World War II.