I hope to have an interview with some Tuskegee Airman here soon from the Philadephia Chapter . One followed up with a long career in the Airforce and had some interesting experiences in the Artic to relate. In addition one of the ground crews serving in Italy will be a profile as well.
Approximately 450 pilots went overseas to fly P-39, P-40, P-47 and P-51 fighter aircraft in combat. During World War II, 66 pilots were killed in action and another 32 became prisoners of war or 21% of the deployed pool. Never losing a bomber that they were assigned to escort, they came to be asked for as their reputation spread. They and their ground crews often had to stay longer in the field as there were not enough replacements in the pipeline to relieve them. The AAF still being a segrgated force did not allow for intergration until 1947. The bomber crews with their B-25's were in the final stages of working up and would have been deployed had the war not ended with Japan suddenly.
Crew Chief / 332 Fighter Group
" SSGT Henry L Moore
Italy 1944/45 2Lt William M Cousins 100th Fighter Squadron
Sargent Leo Harold McCauley, 367th squadron, 96th service squadron was one of the many unsung but vital members of the units serving with the aircraft maintenance groups in Italy. Without these men, the Tuskegee pilots and their aircraft could not have performed their duties in the outstanding manner in which they did. Surviving bomber crews owe as much to these men as they do the pilots who escorted them safely over the most heavily defended targets in Europe. He ended his Military career on November 1st, 1945 and returned hoem with an honorable discharge. He worked for McDonald Douglas after the war. He passed away in 1995
Photo supplied by his grandaughter Gail
Links to other Tuskegee Airman sites:
Tuskegee Fact site of Dwayne Holt..Source of unit insignias
American Visionaries .Tuskegee site ...government site very well done
Tuskegee Airman Ground Crews 96th Service Group
Joseph Gomer Tuskegee Airman as written by his daughter
Tuskegee Airman National Site
US Wings Site for patches (seen above) and jackets
Some Books on the Subject including one By James L Peck. African American pilot who flew in Spains civil war.
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