Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, March 4, 1995 TAG: 9503060049
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: FREDERICKSBURG LENGTH: Long
In the old photograph, the handsome soldier is smiling, posing next to a fighter plane with ``Kitten'' painted on the side, in honor of his wife.
There is no wartime swagger in his smile, although as a World War II fighter pilot, Charles McGee had every right to brag.
But bragging could get a black man in trouble in 1944, even if that black man was wearing a U.S. Army uniform and fighting as well or better than the white men who gave the orders.
Even now, as one of only a few pilots white or black who flew combat missions in three wars, McGee, 75, does not brag.
``I'm pretty thankful just to be here,'' he said over lunch the other day.
McGee was surrounded by other men in their 70s, all of them survivors of a war overseas and another war at home.
``You could say that one of the things we were fighting for was equality. Equality of opportunity. We knew we had the same skills, or better,'' McGee said.
McGee, of Kansas City, and 24 other black former combat pilots met in Fredericksburg this week, some for the first time since they left the military.
``We've got a million stories,'' McGee said with a grin. ``It's amazing how much you remember. It's like hitting a recall button when you see these faces.''
Fifty years ago the faces, like McGee's in the old black-and-white photo, were earnest and unlined. They belonged to the very first black pilots to go overseas, the eager vanguard whose accomplishments won the grudging respect of white superiors and led the military to integrate ahead of the rest of American society.
``We had a very unique set of hurdles to surmount,'' said William R. Melton, of Los Angeles. ``Our main protection was a hell of a sense of humor.''
Forced to admit blacks in 1941, the Army Air Corps didn't know what to do with them. Their crude training field near Tuskegee Institute in rural Alabama was brushed off as the ``Tuskegee Experiment'' by Pentagon commanders.
``The Army thought then that blacks weren't smart enough to fly airplanes. They thought we would all fail,'' said former pilot Harry Sheppard of Arlington.
The Tuskegee Airmen, as the 900 who trained there came to be called, drilled and drilled for years, as white commanders passed them over for combat duty.
``They didn't know what they were creating,'' chuckled Sheppard.
Better educated than many of their white counterparts and far better trained, the black pilots turned out to be among the best the Army produced in that war.
Led by a stern black lieutenant general whose West Point classmates had refused to speak to him for four years, the first Tuskegee Airmen finally got a chance to fight in June 1943.
Over the next two years, black pilots shot down nearly 600 enemy airplanes.
And in 200 missions escorting the big, vulnerable American bombers, the all-black 332nd Fighter Group didn't lose a single bomber. It is a record unequaled by any fighter group in any war anywhere, said Melton, who is writing a book about the pilots.
About 450 black pilots fought overseas. Sixty-six were killed, and 33 taken prisoner. One of the POWs was Alex Jefferson, who said his German captors were shocked to find a black face under his aviator's mask.
For all their heady success, the black pilots faced continuous reminders that the Army, and their country, believed they were inferior.
And after the war, they returned to an America whose zeal to defeat oppression abroad had done nothing to ease segregation and discrimination at home.
After 181/2 missions and nine months in German camps, Jefferson got no hero's welcome in Detroit.
``I couldn't find a job. With a master's degree in organic chemistry, I became an elementary-school science teacher,'' he said.
In 1972, several of the original pilots formed an association that sponsors reunions and a traveling museum.
Their gathering last week was like meetings of any bunch of old warriors. They teased, took pictures, renewed old rivalries and friendships.
``We were the only blacks, so we were always together. We went through everything together, all the way through,'' McGee said. ``And here we are still.''
This gathering is the first time many of the pilots have seen one another in decades, and they know for some it probably will be the last. One of the pilots who planned to attend died in June, and a few others declined the invitation because of poor health. Since then, books and a Broadway play have told the Tuskegee Airmen's story. Both Home Box Office and filmmaker George Lucas are planning projects about the pilots. Back from a now-famous excursion over Italy in January 1944 in which the Tuskegee pilots downed 12 German planes, those pilots could not have entered the base officer's club.
The accomplishments of the Tuskegee Airmen faded, and for decades few Americans even knew they existed, Melton said.
``We knew what we had done, and sure the resentment was there,'' Jefferson said. ``But we were just so goddam busy trying to make things meet, we were too busy to be very vocal.''
by CNB