Amory

Up to now the myth was that the black man didn't have the agility, the dexterity, physiological or psychological ability to operate something as complicated as an aircraft due to his birth heritage and his cultural background. But these men there over in Anzio [Italy] including myself, demonstrated that race, creed or color has nothing to do with one's ability, if they are properly trained and given an opportunity to demonstrate their training, and this we did. And as a result of that we now have three more squadrons that have been trained in America and they were sent to Italy, so we have the 99th [99th Pursuit Squadron], the 100th [100th Fighter Squadron], the 301st [301st Fighter Squadron] and the 302nd [302nd Fighter Squadron], and which made up the 332nd Fighter Group [332nd Expeditionary Operations Group]. Not only that, but we get a new airplane, the P-47 [Republic P-47 Thunderbolt], and we get a new mission, which was escorting long range bombers which were coming out of North Africa and southern Italy going into southern Europe, bombing logistical targets, oil refineries, manufacturing plants. One mission was 1600 miles from Burma to Italy, Italy to Berlin [Germany], and back, to escort bombers who were going to bomb the Daimler-Benz tank factory there in Berlin. And by now we're flying P-51s [North American Aviation P-51 Mustang], that's the Mustang that everybody fell in love with because it was a top-notch fighter. And in escorting those bombers, the men were so good at protecting them that the bombers started referring to them as the Red-Tail Angels, and that was because for identification we had decided to paint the tails of all fifty-two--all seventy-two of those P-51s red and we were--our symbol was the Red Tails so the bomber pilots called us the Red-Tail Angels. And by war's end, we had destroyed some four hundred German aircraft, 150 or so in the air, another 250 on the ground. We had lost sixty-six men, another thirty-three had been shot down but taken prisoners of war, but we got them back after the war [World War II, WWII] was over. The men had earned some 150 Distinguished Flying Crosses, nearly seven hundred and something air medals and all other such type medals for their performance and proficiency in combat, and Colonel Davis [Benjamin O. Davis, Jr.], by now, had been promoted to a full colonel.$Besides working as an associate dean, I know that you visited troops, different troops. Want to talk about that?$$Well that's what I've been doing primarily, just before retiring from the university [Tuskegee Institute; Tuskegee University, Tuskegee, Alabama] and since retiring, since '85 [1985] up until now.$$Until now, okay (laughter).$$I spend my time trying to inspire and motivate our young people toward aerospace careers, giving them examples of success stories of people who did make that choice and who have done well in it, and what are the advantages and some of the spinoffs. And then trying to help them prepare themselves to be able to make that decision by suggesting that they have to start at least by middle school and take their math and their science and stay academically active and involved if they are going to be successful in this life. And then trying to stay abreast of all the opportunities that are out there for them to help them financially with scholarships and whatever else they might need to get into college, or to get admitted to one of the academies where it won't cost them anything. And I get a great amount of satisfaction when I, four years from a date, see some young person that I know that I had something to do with their decision to, one, pursue an aerospace career and second, that they have finished, they have their degree and they have their rank, or they went to the Air Force Academy [United States Air Force Academy, Colorado] or they went to West Point [United States Military Academy, West Point, New York], and I influenced them in some way toward a [U.S.] military career. And that's what I do now, for my own satisfaction and pleasure.