LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Tuskegee Airmen: African Americans
built 238 days ago
The story of the Tuskegee Airmen and their exemplary record is virtually unknown to most Americans. Few scholarly works deal with the history of the airmen and their primary flight training at Moton Field. Consequently, National Park Service historians consulted various primary and secondary sources such as military records, newspapers, photographs, documentaries, books and film footage.
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The purpose of the airmen archive will be to collect and preserve as part of a national effort, the history of the Tuskegee Airmen, who broke the race barrier for African Americans in military aviation. They advanced race relations through their integration of the WWII-era U.S. Army Air Forces and compiled a combat record unsurpassed in military history. The airmen, trained as fighter pilots, flew combat missions as bomber escorts in the European theater and never lost a bomber to enemy aircraft. Altogether 992 pilots graduated from the Tuskegee airfield courses; they flew 1,578 missions and 15,533 sorties, destroyed 261 enemy aircraft, and won over 850 medals.
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This action produced the first African-American combat pilots, who became known as the Tuskegee Airmen of the 99th Pursuit Squadron. Colonel Benjamin O. Davis Jr., son of the first African-American general, who became a general himself in 1965, came out of this squadron.
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