![]() personally led 67 of those missions, including an incredible round-trip bomber escort over Berlin in which the Tuskegee Airmen took down three of the new, faster German jet fighters without losing any fighters of their own. They flew 15,000 sorties, downed 112 enemy aircraft, destroyed 273 planes on the ground, and even sunk an enemy destroyer. The unit supported the Allied invasion of Sicily and provided air cover for much of the fighting throughout Italy. The war record of the Tuskegee Airmen of the 332 nd -which included the re-named 99 th Fighter Squadron and three other squadrons-is legendary. A year later, he took command of the 332 nd Fighter Group, leading all Black military aviators. would command the 99 th Pursuit Squadron, the first and oldest of the Tuskegee Airmen units. Throughout the course of the war, over 1,000 more Black cadets would graduate from the program to become “ Tuskegee Airmen ,” the nation’s first Black combat pilots. and four other Black officers earned their wings. He began his flight training at Tuskegee Army Air Base in May 1941, and was the first Black officer to solo an Army Air Corps plane. ![]() It was more than just the realization of his dream of becoming a pilot in leading the unit, he had an opportunity to undermine segregation and show the world that African American pilots were just as capable as white ones. was a natural choice to lead the squadron. ![]() As the only active Black West Point graduate, Davis Jr. Thanks to the collective efforts of many pioneering Black aviators and activists- and some convincing from Davis Sr., newly promoted to the rank of Brigadier General-President Franklin Roosevelt ordered the creation of an all-Black Army flying unit in 1941. would even go on to teach military science at Tuskegee Institute, a position his father had also held. was commissioned as a second lieutenant with the all-Black 24 th Infantry Regiment, the Army had only two Black line officers : Both Davises, father and son. There were no Black air units, so he was denied his requests for flight training and instead sent to the infantry. He was “silenced” by the other cadets, meaning they only spoke to him on official business.ĭespite the fact Davis graduated in the top 20 percent of his class in 1936, the segregation of the armed forces still kept his dream of becoming a pilot at bay. ![]() As Air Force Sustainment Center Historian Howard Halvorsen wrote, “His four years there were not pleasant ” he roomed alone, took his meals alone, and had no friends among his colleagues. was only the fourth African American graduate of West Point in its history, and the first in the 20 th century-the first since the Reconstruction era. Congress.Īt the time of his graduation, Davis Jr. De Priest, who was at that moment the only African American Representative in the U.S. After a few years of studying at the University of Chicago, he received a recommendation to attend West Point from Rep. However, African Americans were still largely barred from flight training opportunities, so he set his focus instead on attending the U.S. When he was just 13, he took a ride with a barnstorming pilot at D.C.’s Bolling Field, cementing his desire to become a pilot. He was determined to follow his father into military service and fight for equal inclusion for African Americans.ĭavis Jr. The elder Davis, his military career stymied by segregation, instilled in his son a deep desire to fight for the end of the practice. moved around often, experiencing the racism and bigotry faced by African Americans across the country. As a child of a military family, Davis Jr. Army at the time, and would eventually become the first African American General Officer in the entire U.S. Davis, Sr., was one of only two black officers in the U.S.
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