Tuskegee Airmen receive Congressional Gold Medal

Darlene Superville

WASHINGTON — Six decades after completing their World War II mission and coming home to a country that discriminated against them because they were black, the Tuskegee Airmen are getting high honors from Congress.

That gratitude was expressed last Thursday, when the legendary black aviators received a Congressional Gold Medal during a ceremony in the Capitol Rotunda. The award is the most prestigious tribute Congress can offer.

President Bush, members of Congress and other dignitaries joined some 300 airmen, widows and relatives.

“The Tuskegee Airmen helped remind a resistant nation that heroism knows no skin color. They served their country above and beyond the call of duty,” Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., said in a statement congratulating the Airmen on receiving the medal. “I am honored to congratulate each and every one of them for their service, their bravery, their undeniable patriotism and their utter dedication to a country that at the time, didn’t always return their commitment and devotion.”

Kerry specifically noted the service of Airmen Luther McElwain and Eugene Jackson, as well as other Airmen hailing from Massachusetts.

The Tuskegee Airmen were recruited into an Army Air Corps program that trained blacks to fly and maintain combat aircraft. President Roosevelt had overruled his top generals and ordered that such a program be created.

But even after they were admitted, many commanders continued to believe the Tuskegee Airmen didn’t have the smarts, courage and patriotism to do what was being asked of them.

Nearly 1,000 fighter pilots trained as a segregated unit at a Tuskegee, Ala., air base. Not allowed to practice or fight with their white counterparts, the Tuskegee Airmen distinguished themselves from the rest by painting the tails of their airplanes red, which led to them becoming known as the “Red Tails.”

Hundreds saw combat throughout Europe, the Mediterranean and North Africa, escorting bomber aircraft on missions and protecting them from the enemy. Dozens died in the fighting; others were held prisoners of war.

It had long been thought that the Tuskegee Airmen had amassed a perfect record of losing no bombers to the enemy during World War II. But new research has cast doubt on that theory.

According to a report from the U.S. Air Force released last Wednesday, at least 25 bombers being escorted by the Tuskegee Airmen over Europe during World War II were shot down by enemy aircraft. Daniel Haulman, historian at the Air Force Historical Research Agency at Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, said he based his paper on after-mission reports filed by both the bomber units and Tuskegee fighter groups, as well as missing air crew records and witness testimony.

Haulman said Saturday he only counted cases where planes were shot down by enemy aircraft. No one has ever disputed that the airmen lost some planes to anti-aircraft guns and other fire from the ground.

The report specifically focused on five days — June 9, 1944; July 12, 1944; July 18, 1944; July 20, 1944 and March 24, 1945 — on which Haulman found 25 planes that the Tuskegee Airmen had escorted were shot down, the Montgomery, Ala., Advertiser reported earlier.

He said further research could show other planes may have been shot down as well during the Tuskegee Airmen’s 311 missions with the 332nd Fighter Group.

Haulman used records to substantiate what he and William Holton, national historian for Tuskegee Airmen Inc., the group formed by the surviving Tuskegee Airmen, had theorized in a report released last year.

Holton insists the discovery of lost bombers in no way tarnishes the Tuskegee Airmen’s record. The losses, he said, were considered well within acceptable limits.

Congress has awarded gold medals to more than 300 individuals and groups since giving the first one to George Washington in 1776. Originally, they went only to military leaders, but Congress broadened the scope to include authors, entertainers, notables in science and medicine, athletes, humanitarians, public servants and foreign officials.

Other black recipients include singer Marian Anderson, athletes Joe Louis, Jesse Owens and Jackie Robinson, civil rights activists Roy Wilkins, Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King, the Little Rock Nine, Rosa Parks and Dorothy Height, and statesmen Nelson Mandela of South Africa and former Secretary of State Colin Powell.

The actual medal for the airmen, made possible through legislation by Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., and Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., will go to the Smithsonian Institution for display. Individual airmen will receive bronze replicas.

(Associated Press)