Doctor Curmudgeon “Off We Go Into the Wild Blue Yonder.”
By Diane Batshaw Eisman, M.D. FAAP Doctor Eisman is in Family Practice in Aventura, Florida with her partner, Dr. Eugene Eisman, an internist/cardiologist
Imagine that you are in training with the United States Air Force. As part of your education, you will see a video about the Tuskegee Airmen.
And you wonder, “Who were they? Why is this important? Why is this part of our education?”
At the brink of World War II, the United States Armed forces remained segregated.
If you were a young black man who dreamed of serving your country as an Air Force pilot—no chance.
The War Department had refused to allow the enlistment of black men as aviators.
Then the Pittsburgh Courier, Chicago Defender, and other newspapers joined the NAACP in an intensive lobbying campaign.
Finally in 1941 President Roosevelt issued an executive order to train black men in Tuskegee, Alabama. These pilots were later represented in World War II as the 477th Bombardment Group, 332nd Fighter Group, and the 99th Fighter Squadron. The Tuskegee Airmen were taught basic and advanced military flying and were commanded by a Captain, Benjamin O. Davis jr. The War Department considered their training to be an experiment. In those days, black men were not considered fit enough for the Army Air Corps.
Captain Davis and the Tuskegee airmen proved how wrong the War Department was.
These pilots flew fighters and bombers in the European Theater. They fought in major battles in Italy, North Africa and the Mediterranean.
The Tuskegee group was assigned to the 15th Air Force, but they operated as a separate, racially segregated unit. The Tuskegees, flying their P-51 Mustangs, escorted bombers of the 15th Air Force on long range missions into enemy territory. And their success rate of completing a mission was greater than any other escort group of the 15TH Air Force.
In addition to being bomber escorts, these courageous pilots flew combat missions, engaging in dogfights with German planes.
Commanded by Davis, the Tuskegee 332nd fighter Group earned more than 150 Distinguished Flying Crosses. In combat, the Tuskegee airmen flew over 15,000 sorties, shooting down 112 Luftwaffe planes and destroying 273 enemy aircraft on the ground. Davis became a general and among his awards were two air Force Distinguished Service medals, Army Distinguished Service medal, Silver Star, Distinguished Flying Cross and the Legion of Merit.
This African American military group included their Tuskegee support group of navigators, crew, mechanics, nurses, and cooks.
President Barack Obama once wrote that his “career in public service was made possible by the path heroes like the Tuskegee Airmen trail-blazed” and so the surviving Tuskegee pilots and support crew were invited to attend his inauguration.
(EDITOR’S NOTE FROM GALAHAD, DOCTOR CURMUDGEON’S SIBERIAN HUSKY COUSIN. “IT IS INTERESTING TO NOTE THAT IN SICILY AND NORTH AFRICA, THESE AIRMEN FLEW IN SECOND-HAND P-40S THAT WERE HARD TO MANEUVER AND MUCH SLOWER THAN THOSE OF THE LUFTWAFFE.)
Dr. Curmudgeon suggests “Bitter Medicine”, Dr. Eugene Eisman’s story of his experiences–from the humorous to the intense—as a young army doctor serving in the Vietnam War.
Bitter Medicine by Eugene H. Eisman, M.D. –on Amazon
Doctor Curmudgeon® is Diane Batshaw Eisman, M.D., a physician-satirist. This column originally appeared on SERMO, the leading global social network for doctors.
SERMO www.sermo.com
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