Tuskeege Airmen appreciation thread.

[maveric]

What a great story and one of most highly decorated units during WWII.

[LostInAnomie]

1. Weren't they the ones that the government infected...

... with syphilis and then didn't tell them.

[maveric]

2. That was later, after the war.

A grateful government thanking its fighting men.

[salin]

5. the lack of recognition at the time... the dreadful treatment

... not a great moment in American history for the American Govt - but takes nothing away from the honor deserved by the airmen.

[Silverhair]

10. You have your facts completely confused.

See my post of explanation. It took me only about five minutes of googling to find the truth.

[realisticphish]

4. yeah

a fact that many choose to overlook

of course that doesnt impact the pilots' bravery


:hippie: The Incorrigible Democrat

[Silverhair]

11. Wrong. They were NOT part of the "experiment." See my other post. NT

[petronius]

6. No

There is no relationship between the two. And, FWIW, no one was deliberately infected; treatment was withheld from men who were already infected. (I say that in the interest of historical accuracy only - not that it excuses anything...)

[Silverhair]

9. NOT TRUE!!! And especially no connection to this unit.

The truth is that from 1932 (Well before the formation of the "Tuskegee Airmen") until 1972, 399 Black-Americans in and around Tuskegee were denied treatment (Without their knowledge or consent.) for syphilis in a study of the disease. That Blacks should be singled out for the study is as abhorrently racist as Hitler's Germany. The full story of this may be found at: http://hsc.virginia.edu/hs-library/historical/apology/

The gov't did not deliberately infect anyone.

The Tuskegee Airmen were not involved in the study as they were treated by US Army medical, NOT by Macon county health officials.

The Tuskegee Airmen (99th Fighter Squadron) were trained in a base near Tuskegee AL. The greatest tribute to them is that during their entire war service, they NEVER lost a single bomber they were escorting to enemy fighters.

THE ONLY CONNECTION BETWEEN THEM AND THE STUDY IS THAT BOTH SHARE THE WORD "TUSKEGEE" IN THEIR NAME.

[NightTrain]

3. HBO made a film about them circa 1996.

Very, very good movie! :thumbsup:

[Wcross]

7. They never lost an escorted bomber to enemy aircraft......

That is one hell of a record. I seem to recall the Germans refered to them as the "red tailed devils" (Their P-51's had the tail painted red).
The story is not what they did in combat, it is how they overcame the obstacles to get there.

From one grateful American....Thanks!

[Silverhair]

12. How they did it.

Their commander issued a simple, but effective order. They were to break off pursuit of enemy fighters once the fighters were leaving the bomber stream. All other fighter units would continue to pursue the fleeing German fighters, thereby leaving the bombers unescorted and subject to attack by other Nazi fighter units. The 99th, instead of allowing themselves to be drawn away, would return to the bomber stream in time to chase off other attacking Germans.

They had over 200 bomber escort missions.

Of course, they also had to have had all the other virtues that excellent fighter pilots had. They flew over 15,000 combat sorties, (A sortie is one mission by one plane. Two planes = two sorties, or one plane twice is two sorties.)destroyed over 1,000 German aircraft, and won over 150 Distinguished Flying Crosses. About 450 airmen were in the 99th. Remember, those awards were granted in a time of racism toward blacks, so they had to have REALLY earned those DFCs.

The unit also earned two Presidental Unit Citations. In one mission, on March 24, 1945, they managed to bag three of the new ME-262s. That was a German jet fighter. In June of 1944, one of their pilots managed to SINK a German destoyer by strafing it. No other pilot in the war ever managed to do that. (He hit something very vital and the destroyer exploded.)

Here is an excellent site to read about them and see some pictures:
http://tuskegeeairmen.org/MainFrameset.htm

[teryang]

8. How unfortunate the way they are being exploited

...at the Superbowl today.

[KG]

13. also, due to the racist attitudes that kept them from operational

status for several years, they entered combat as one of the most highly trained units in the ETO.

[Silverhair]

14. Try several months, not years.

WWII, European theatre only lasted about 3 and 1/2 years. Several years would have taken them past the entire war. They entered combat in 1943, about the time frame that USA weight began to be really felt in the war. However, bias did keep them in obsolete P-40s in ground attack missions for longer than they should have been doing that, and even when they got P-51's they still had to prove themselves more than other units did.