Courage, Commitment, and Perseverance - Three words that, to me, describe a very special segment of WWII heroes. While those apply to so many, I am referring here to those men of the Tuskegee Airmen of the 332nd Fighter Group.
I first heard about the "Red Tails", as they were called, from my former father-in-law, Richard B. Sigle (R.I.P.), who had been a B-24 Liberator Pilot in WWII. He told me that no bomber was loss to hostile fighters, when the Red Tails were doing escorts. Wow.
Those men, those Negro Airmen of that day, had to endure so much in the segregated America, long before their introduction into the Army Air Corp. We know our history, but unless you were "colored", we can never know what they went through, or how they felt.
Yet, those men did endure the racist treatment, which continued when they entered the Air Corp. And they exceeded all expectations, persevered and attained their wings. They trained, they excelled, and they went on to serve their country, our country, in the European theater of war, and flew P-40 Warhawks, to P-51 Mustangs. The pilots and ground crews, were tasked with ground support and bomber escorts, while still bearing the brunt of racism. And that takes commitment and courage.
Those Airmen, later returned "home", only to find that America had not been any more accepting to them, as they had been before. Sadly, racism was still the way of things in even Post War America. All black Veterans, found the same America they had left to fight for, but they DID IT anyway.
We all owe a lot to Veterans of all wars, those men and women, who go into war zones for the continued struggle for our freedoms. But few Veterans know the rejection by those who held on to those racial beliefs. Sad, that such Veterans should be treated that way. No Veteran should be treated that way, but our Black Veterans of WWII went through things the rest of us can never imagine.
To those Veterans, we owe so much to. As with all WWII Veterans, they too are part of that greatest generation. The respect those Airmen are getting today, while long overdue, is so deserving.
Personally, and while NOT a pilot myself, I love all things that fly. And the men and women who fly them have my deepest respect and admiration. I do not care what their color is, their heritage, or their gender. If you have been a pilot, specially a military pilot, my hat is off to you. To those who proudly served, in the face of racism, thank you for serving OUR country anyway.
(Thanks too, to my son, Major Matt Bayes, Kansas Air National Guard Pilot, and Southwest Airlines Pilot.)
If you haven't seen it, watch The Tuskegee Airmen movie, and also the PBS special of the same title.
