The Tuskegee Airmen - Oral Histories from the Collection of The National WWII Museum — Transcript

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1. 0:04there were some War uh uh reports that
2. 0:08were uh distributed and circulated
3. 0:11around
4. 0:131925 that the
5. 0:16WarHeads had determined that the blacks
6. 0:20did not have the cranial capacity to be
7. 0:23able to do anything like flying an
8. 0:25airplane which was complex or any
9. 0:28mathematical comput ations because the
10. 0:31brains just couldn't handle it you know
11. 0:34the pressure around the country was for
12. 0:37equal opportunity and and equal access
13. 0:40to what was going on and uh although the
14. 0:44Army policy had its doubts U they they
15. 0:49claimed they had facts to support their
16. 0:51situation but we would question what
17. 0:54facts were used uh but uh the Army
18. 0:59because of the pressure and the fact
19. 1:01that the country was getting more
20. 1:02involved in war decided they said to
21. 1:05experiment because they didn't believe
22. 1:08blacks could fly successfully everybody
23. 1:10was in there was gungho I mean everybody
24. 1:13is in that program wanted to see it
25. 1:14succeed because well it was an
26. 1:17experiment is what they called it the
27. 1:18Tuskegee experiment to see whether the
28. 1:21black guys can fly and fight in aircraft
29. 1:24and that so it was a challenge to us you
30. 1:27know to go in there and to see that the
31. 1:28program was a
32. 1:33success the day was very
33. 1:36long from 5: in the morning to 10: at
34. 1:41night and that was six days a week and
35. 1:45if we had bad weather and miss a flying
36. 1:48day then we have to fly on Sunday we
37. 1:52started flying in the spring of
38. 1:551944 with 72
39. 1:57Men We graduated
40. 2:01uh on the 20th of November in
41. 2:041944 with 36 the U Training Site
42. 2:08selected was near Tuskegee Alabama which
43. 2:12meant going south and certainly the uh
44. 2:16social activity and opportunities were
45. 2:19quite quite different you know some of
46. 2:20the guys were going to Montgomery or a't
47. 2:23going to
48. 2:25Atlanta
49. 2:26and you'd hear the horror stories about
50. 2:30the problems they would have with the
51. 2:32police and the sheriffs and
52. 2:35the everybody hassling them and we were
53. 2:38coming from the party and just outside
54. 2:41the burning Hammer something we stopped
55. 2:43by a policeman and he said you know
56. 2:47stopped us pulled us over
57. 2:49and for no reason at all just cuz yeah
58. 2:52where your [ __ ] going and I told him
59. 2:55we're not [ __ ] we're officers of the
60. 2:57United States Army aircore and he pulled
61. 2:59his pist alive and put it to my temple
62. 3:01said [ __ ] you say one more word and
63. 3:02I'm going to blow your goddamn brains
64. 3:04out we're on a little Old Road out there
65. 3:07and he'd have done it just like that I
66. 3:09mean he was he was standing there
67. 3:10trembling with a gun at my
68. 3:14temple oh maybe about 4 5:00 in the
69. 3:18morning they come in and wake you up and
70. 3:20uh you get up and go go to a
71. 3:24briefing while you were in your briefing
72. 3:27you'd hear the bombers taking off the
73. 3:28bombers would be flying off over going
74. 3:31out on the mission and then about 9:00
75. 3:34or something like that we'd get in the
76. 3:36planes and uh Rondevu with the bombers
77. 3:39someplace over the target we we would
78. 3:42meet the bombers at the first points
79. 3:44where they felt they would be under
80. 3:45attacked by uh enemy aircraft some
81. 3:50days flackwood get so
82. 3:54thick the old saying was so thick you
83. 3:57could walk on it uh when they put it up
84. 4:01they would blanket the sky and it would
85. 4:04extend as much as a half
86. 4:08mile they'd fire we change
87. 4:12position they' adjust and miss us again
88. 4:16but it was like Russian
89. 4:19Roulette once in a while they get
90. 4:23lucky and poof you got there and the
91. 4:27airplane is gone uh I happened to be my
92. 4:30flight was element was dispatched to to
93. 4:35fight off S we were I remember started
94. 4:38out at about 26,000 ft and and the
95. 4:44aircraft tried to make a pass through
96. 4:46the bomb stream we we forced them to
97. 4:50turn turn away and of course the pilot
98. 4:54realizing they were under
99. 4:56attack this pair happened to take a dive
100. 5:00for the ground they could do different
101. 5:01things they might try to Loop or do
102. 5:04anything on you they just happened to
103. 5:06take a dive for the ground and I was
104. 5:09able to get on his tail of course my
105. 5:11wingman is keeping my tail clear and the
106. 5:15plane say as he tried to he was jinking
107. 5:20as we say to avoid try to avoid me
108. 5:23getting a bead on him which wasn't easy
109. 5:26but it's happened and say fortunately he
110. 5:28made a turn that allowed me to get the
111. 5:31right lead and and U and good firing on
112. 5:35the aircraft and caused him to crash one
113. 5:38of my German
114. 5:41friends he used to say when he saw us
115. 5:44coming he saw it was red
116. 5:47tail and he would call over the radio
117. 5:49here come the Blackbirds let's get the
118. 5:51hell out of
119. 5:57here and when the war ended
120. 6:00and we came back to the
121. 6:04States the most amazing thing I re I
122. 6:07remember this for the rest of my
123. 6:09life we were coming down the Gangplank
124. 6:12getting off the
125. 6:14boat now there were more blacks on the
126. 6:17boat coming back CU they brought our
127. 6:19group back
128. 6:22together and they had a
129. 6:24sign at the bottom of the gang
130. 6:28plank White to one side colored to the
131. 6:31other side so I had enough hours and all
132. 6:35to qualify for an airline pilot job and
133. 6:39so I got out and hoped to get into
134. 6:43Airline flying but nothing ever happened
135. 6:46I applied and applied and applied but
136. 6:48there would nobody to have our black
137. 6:50pilots during that time so and I left
138. 6:53the service in 47 went to
139. 6:57school and after a year
140. 7:00my old Commander Colonel
141. 7:03Davis talked me into coming back in the
142. 7:05Air
143. 7:07Force so I went back again I helped
144. 7:11integrate the Air Force in
145. 7:141948 I was one of the first four guinea
146. 7:17pigs the Air Force really made the
147. 7:21decision that they needed to use People
148. 7:24based on their training and experience
149. 7:26and where needed not the color of their
150. 7:28skin and the four of us were sent to
151. 7:32keyler we had the biggest
152. 7:36challenge
153. 7:38uh combat
154. 7:40veterans with no privileges off the
155. 7:45base General Lawrence who was the
156. 7:48Commanding General
157. 7:51there called everyone on the base
158. 7:54together told him that we were
159. 7:57coming and he told him
160. 8:01they
161. 8:02would respect
162. 8:05us and anybody who did not respect us
163. 8:08would be court and Marshall on base we
164. 8:11didn't have any
165. 8:16problems I don't think there's a more
166. 8:18positive
167. 8:20thing than in
168. 8:231948 when Harry
169. 8:25Truman signed executive nor 9981
170. 8:29directing the
171. 8:32military to study the integration
172. 8:37program that was carried out I mean the
173. 8:40military has changed his style of
174. 8:42teaching and everything and I know that
175. 8:46uh white guys go through training and
176. 8:48they learn you know about segregation of
177. 8:50what it was like and all that sort of
178. 8:52thing and I think that it's part of our
179. 8:55history everybody should know what it
180. 8:57was like and understand it and so
181. 9:00understand that we were able to overcome
182. 9:02a lot of these things and we progressing
183. 9:04and when you can look up and see a black
184. 9:07president in the United States so I I
185. 9:10think that shows that progress has been
186. 9:12made a lot of it I don't know if we felt
187. 9:16that's what we were trying to do at the
188. 9:18time but uh it certainly has resulted in
189. 9:23that in that we have
190. 9:26proven beyond the shadow of a doubt
191. 9:30that we have capabilities that so many
192. 9:33people did not think we had so uh it
193. 9:38it's opened up doors that uh allow
194. 9:42talents to come forth to be beneficial
195. 9:46to the world