Bush Signs Bill Awarding Tuskegee Airmen
Congressional Gold Medal
By David Pluviose
A bill awarding the Tuskegee Airmen the Congressional Gold Medal swept through the U.S. Congress essentially unopposed and has been signed into law by President Bush. The bill received unanimous approval in the Senate and passed 400-0 in the House of Representatives. A medal ceremony is expected in coming months, and it couldn’t come too soon for the few surviving airmen, many now in their eighties.
“There are many that are still with us; there are some that are very frail, some that are still very active but were running out of road,” says Cora M. “Tess” Spooner, president of Tuskegee Airmen Inc. “Expediting this has not been easy, but thank God, it’s gotten done.” Tuskegee Airmen Inc. is an umbrella organization composed of the airmen and their numerous supporters in 50 chapters nationwide.
The Tuskegee Airmen were a group of about 1,000 Black pilots making up the segregated 99th Fighter Squadron and 332nd Fighter Group of the Army Air Corps during World War II. Their exploits during the war are legendary, especially considering that the prevailing military attitude at the time considered Blacks incapable of aviation and unfit for leadership positions.
Known as “Red-tailed Angels” to the White bomber crews who sought their protection, the Tuskegee Airmen who served as escort fighters never lost a U.S. bomber to enemy attack — a distinction no other unit shared. On 15,553 combat sorties and 1,578 missions, the airmen destroyed 261 enemy aircraft, damaged 148 others and picked up nearly 1,000 military awards in the process. Their stellar performance is credited for motivating President Harry S. Truman to order the desegregation of the U.S. armed forces in 1948.
“Lately, we’ve been getting a lot of credit for things; I call it ‘late payment.’ At the time, I personally didn’t think I was changing society. I was just doing my job,” says Tuskegee Airman Lee Archer, who is credited with shooting down five enemy planes during the war.
