Black Angels

image borrowed from bing

Black Angels

“Negro pilots cannot be used in our present Air Corps units, 

since this would result in Negro officers serving over white

enlisted men, creating an impossible social situation.”

--General Henry “Hap” Arnold

John Henry Allen died today at 84;

drafted right after high school in 1945,

he was assigned to the 332nd Fighter

Squadron Wing of the Tuskegee Airmen.

Black pilots were prevented from participating

in WWI. After tremendous pressure & lobbying,

in April 1939, Congress designated funds for

the training of African-American pilots.

Of course there were strict racist protocols

regarding the training, & they only accepted

those applicants with high IQs and good educations,

& the resulting units formed were fully segregated,

staffed by all white officers.

So what was the Army Air Corps to do with these

“black gorillas with wings” that Congress had forced

upon them--of course, that became as little as possible.

At first the black pilots were trained at the

477th Bombardment Group to fly the

American B-25 Mitchell Bombers, but

they were never allowed to fly in combat. 

But in 1941, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt

inspected the Tuskegee Program, and she

was taken aloft for 30 minutes by veteran

black pilot Al Anderson. And gosh, right after

that the 99th Fighter Squadron was formed.

Still, the 99th was held in reserve until 1943,

when they were finally deployed to N. Africa;

only allowed to fly ground attacks, & were

prevented from flying air to air combat missions.

One bright note in the chaos was that their

aircraft kept improving; they cut their teeth

on the Curtiss P-40 Airhawk, then got the

Bell P-39 Aircobras, followed by the

Republic P-47 Thunderbolts-that were

the first planes to have their tails

painted blood red. 

In July 1944, when I was a month old,

they received the first shipment of

American P-51 Mustangs. After drenching

their tails red, the squadron was finally

deployed to Europe, where they were

“allowed” to fly as fighter escorts for several

B-17 Bomber Groups. The bomber losses

had been as high as 50% on some raids,

but the Tuskegee unit flew 179 escort missions

and only lost 25 bombers, earning them the

affectionate nickname of Red Tail Angels.

Those black pilots fought like demons, unleashing

all their pent-up passions, sensing that they had

a chance to change history; and they did.

In desperation, the Germans sent up their super-fighters

against them, the FW 190 radical propeller fighters,

the ME 153 rocket-powered fighters, & then the 

ME 262s, the world’s first jet fighters--and the

Red Tails shot them down by the dozens.

Three Tuskegee Airmen officers went on to become

generals in the Air Corps. In 2007, 300 of the surviving

airmen were awarded Congressional Gold Medals.

180 survivors attended the first inauguration

of Barack Obama.

I tell you we were very fortunate that a band

of black brothers rose up and sprouted angry

wings when we needed them, distinguishing

themselves against incredible segregational odds.

The survivors inspire us to strive to become

better Americans, where all of the Jim Crow

racism is pursued and punished with righteous

“extreme prejudice; and one day, I hope it will

be as extinct as polio, and that no one will tolerate

its regeneration. 

Glenn Buttkus

August 2013

Posted over on dVerse Poets Poetics

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