Tuskegee Airmen

The Tuskegee airmen were the first black servicemen to serve as military aviators in the U.S. armed forces, flying with distinction during World War II. Though subject to racial discrimination both at home and abroad, the 996 pilots and more than 15,000 ground personnel who served with the all-black units would be credited with some 15,500 combat sorties and earn over 150 Distinguished Flying Crosses for their achievements. The highly publicized successes of the Tuskegee Airmen helped pave the way for the eventual integration of the U.S. armed forces under President Harry Truman in 1948.

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Did You Know?

The Tuskegee Airmen have been the subject of several books and movies, including the 2012 film "Red Tails," produced by George Luca

Black servicemen of the U.S. Army Air Forces who trained at Tuskegee Army Air Field in Alabama during World War II. They constituted the first African American flying unit in the U.S. military.

In response to pressure from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the black press, and others, the War Department in January 1941 formed the all-black 99th Pursuit Squadron of the U.S. Army Air Corps (later the U.S. Army Air Forces), to be trained using single-engine planes at the segregated Tuskegee Army Air Field at Tuskegee, Ala. The base opened on July 19, and the first class graduated the following March. Lieut. Col. Benjamin Oliver Davis, Jr., became the squadron's commander.

The Tuskegee Airmen received further training in French Morocco before their first mission, on June 2, 1943, a strafing attack on Pantelleria Island, an Italian island in the Mediterranean Sea. Later that year the army activated three more squadrons that, joined in 1944 by the 99th, constituted the 332nd Fighter Group. It fought in the European theatre and was noted as one of the Army Air Forces' most successful and decorated escort groups.

The Tuskegee airfield program expanded to train pilots and crew to operate two-engine B-25 medium bombers. These men became part of the second black flying group, the 477th Bombardment Group. Shortages of crew members, technicians, and equipment troubled the 477th, and World War II ended before it could be deployed overseas.

Altogether 992 pilots graduated from the Tuskegee airfield courses, and they flew 1,578 missions and 15,533 sorties, destroyed 261 enemy aircraft, and won more than 850 medals.

Copyright © 1994-2011 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. For more information visit Britannica.com.

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