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Before World War II started for America, the US Army set up civilian pilot training programs across the country. These would then supply a pipeline of trained pilots who could become part of the Army Air Force if and when America joined the war (before and during World War II, the Air Force was part of the Army). Through a lot of hard work and some high-level intervention, such a program was set up at Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, a school for African-Americans founded by Booker T. Washington and at which George Washington Carver did his great research. Carver died in 1943, so I like to think he knew about the pilot training program and approved of it. The president of the institute during World War II was Frederick Douglass Patterson and his leadership also played a crucial role.
What made the Tuskegee pilot school stand out was that many people in US society and even in the army at that time didn’t believe African-Americans were capable of being skilled civilian pilots, much less military pilots, for whom the required skill level is higher. The pilots who came out of that school and who fought in Europe proved that this opinion was totally wrong. Of course, from a Biblical point of view, this opinion was total nonsense, since the pigmentation level in one’s skin means nothing – we are all sons and daughters of Adam and Eve so are all related.
The book Who Were the Tuskegee Airmen? by Sherri L. Smith tells the story of the approximately one thousand Tuskegee Airmen. It is amazing to me that Smith could tell this complicated story, covering all the important details but in a simple, unbiased way at an elementary school reading level. Pen and ink drawings add to this fascinating story. This book is part of the WhoHQ book series published by Penguin. I would keep my eye out for other titles in this modern series that might also be worth reading, since this title was so impressive. I have visited the simple airfield that the Tuskegee Airmen trained on. It is inspiring that they did so much with so little, achieving a remarkable military record – the 99th Pursuit Squadron and the 332nd Fighter Group, the famous Red Tails of World War II.