I had lunch with a Tuskeege Airman today

[Ordie]

My work hosted its annual African American History Month lunch and program. Normally it was an excuse to get out of the office chat with co-workers, and eat some great soul food on the company's dime.

As I entered the lunch room, I immediately saw some great aviation displays of P-51 Redtailed mustangs and an old man in a flight suit standing next to them. After checking the displays I began to chat with the fellow and I come to find out he was one of the original Tuskeegee Airman, Captain Woodie Spears.

Anyway we had a nice chat and told me how he flew 51 missions and was hit by flak over Berlin and bailed out over Poland joined up with the Soviets shortly thereafter. He was also near my grandfathers hometown in Southern Italy during the war and he might have flown over the town several times.

He's now involved in organizing basic summer flight orientation for at-risk youth from Oakland. The Tuskeegee Airmen provides 20 hours of ground school and flight instruction for kids who otherwise get might into trouble in the streets during the summer.

I asked him what was the biggest change in his lifetime. He said during training in Tuskeegee, even black commissioned officers were barred from walking within the University of Alabama campus nearby. Back then everybody thought you were crazy if a black man could become president one day. Today he's amazed at what progress is done, but fears that we're losing our youth.

Anyway he's going to come back in a few weeks and chat with us some more. Overall, I'm privilaged to meet have met Capt. Spears.

Here's an article
http://www.tuskegeeairmen.org/uploads/NowEmbraced.pdf

Here's the flight program
http://www.tuskegeeairmen.org/uploads/youthprograms.pdf

[PrinzEugen]

Congrats Ordie, those guys are part of a passing generation and your indeed lucky to have met him. I can't say that I've read much about them, I saw the movie of course, but that's about it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuskegee_Airmen

[Dominique]

Way back in HS, my AFJROTC instructor mentioned them escorting his bomber unit on several missions over Italy. He had nothing but praise for them. If you're looking for more info on them, there's plenty of stuff floating around on the net, and down at the local library.

[Buckeye67]

Good deal, Ordie. I got to meet Col. Charles McGee this past weekend. It was a real honor.

I have the utmost respect for the WW2 generation, but what the black soldiers and servicemen had to go through was just unbelievable. Not only before and during, but after the war as well.

I'm glad we've moved forward from there. That we have is part of their legacy.

[PrinzEugen]

I found an interesting article on the subject:

At a Black History Month event at Reagan National Airport on Tuesday, the airmen shared their stories. Lt. Col. Walter McCreary was shot down on a strafing mission near Budapest, Hungary. He was captured by the S.S. and held as a prisoner of war.

"The nine months that I spent as a POW, I experienced nothing relative to race, and after I was liberated and finally entered the shores of the United States, then I saw a sign for the first time 'whites only' and 'colored,'" McCreary said.

http://www.nbc4.com/news/15418442/detail.html

[Antimatty]

thats awesome , by the way there was a movie about the tuskegee airmen in case you are interested . starred lawrence fishburn . pretty good movie. i think it was actually called "the tuskegee airmen"