The Story behind the Tuskegee Airmen

The Tuskegee airmen are the result of the efforts of the Civil Rights Division and African American men that wanted to be a part of the fight for America’s freedom. They finally won that battle in 1941 and set out for the next fight. Tuskegee was a segregated trial airbase to see if having African Americans as pilots would work. The men enrolled at Tuskegee had to go through a six month training camp, where a white man would only have to be in for about 1-2 months.
Even with all of the extra trials that they had to go through, 1000 men graduated from Tuskegee before the end of the war and 450 of those brave men went across the sea to fight in the war. Their leader was a man by the name of Benjamin O. Davis Jr. He bravely lead these men into battle for a good portion of the war before returning stateside to Tuskegee to help train the next line of pilots. After his return to war he took control of the squadron and began to fulfill his callings and eventually became the first African American General in World War II and was presented the Distinguished Flying Cross for Bravery and Leadership.
Even though these men where normally greatly outnumbered, through over 200 missions under heavy fire, they never lost a single bomber. All together they shot down 111 enemy aircraft and another 150 on the ground. They sank one destroyer and 40 boats and barges. They also knocked out more than 600 railroad cars and only lost 150 men who died in war or accidents.
They were the first key footsteps to an integrated military and lead the way to leadership positions for anyone that was not a white man in America.