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Tuskegee Airmen: American Heroes · Stuff You Should Know

0:01
Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff you Should Know from how Stuff Works
0:04
Speaker 1: dot com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark,
0:14
Speaker 1: and there's Charles W Chuck Bryant, and there's Jerry over there.
0:17
Speaker 1: So this is stuff you should know about the Tuskegee Airman.
0:22
Speaker 1: That's right, one of our Every year we try to
0:25
Speaker 1: do a Black History Month podcast at least one. And
0:29
Speaker 1: uh did mean to keep everyone on suspense this year
0:33
Speaker 1: right here at the end of the month, but this
0:34
Speaker 1: one we were getting this one put together. Yeah, this
0:38
Speaker 1: is a good one. Yeah, and it's uh, I mean,
0:41
Speaker 1: this is what we typically like to do, stuff that's
0:44
Speaker 1: like your very little known history. I would say Tuskegee
0:47
Speaker 1: Airman is is does not fall into the little known category,
0:51
Speaker 1: yet still undersung. I think even after two not very
0:55
Speaker 1: good feature films. Oh did you see any of them?
0:58
Speaker 1: I had? The only one I'm familiar with was um,
1:01
Speaker 1: I think it's just called the Tuskegee Airman, and I
1:04
Speaker 1: kept confusing it with Memphis Bell. Yeah, Tuskegee Airman was
1:08
Speaker 1: an HBO movie with Larry Fishburne and other Malcolm Jamal Warner.
1:13
Speaker 1: I think, yeah, good seeing him, sure always, but uh,
1:18
Speaker 1: I mean that one was okay, but I think better
1:20
Speaker 1: than the Red Tails movie was. Uh yeah, Red Tails
1:23
Speaker 1: just wasn't very good, which is a shame. Sure. But
1:28
Speaker 1: speaking of shame, let's talk about how the Tuskegee Airmen retreated.
1:34
Speaker 1: Just to get started, Um, we should kind of briefly
1:37
Speaker 1: go over like the history of African Americans in the military,
1:41
Speaker 1: because where we really pick up with our story the
1:43
Speaker 1: Inner War period between World War One and World War Two. Um,
1:47
Speaker 1: the military was very much segregated still officially, just like
1:51
Speaker 1: America was. It was law. Segregation was law at the time.
1:55
Speaker 1: But that's not to say that, um, African Americans hadn't
1:58
Speaker 1: served in the military and US previously, uh, in some
2:03
Speaker 1: pretty substantial roles too. Yeah, I mean dating back to
2:07
Speaker 1: like when they were not even considered Americans, Like when
2:10
Speaker 1: when uh, I mean, I keep wanting to say black Americans,
2:14
Speaker 1: but they were not considered that, like during the Revolutionary War, um,
2:19
Speaker 1: on both sides. Actually, as you'll learn in a short
2:22
Speaker 1: stuff about black loyalists, it's interesting that slaves fought for
2:27
Speaker 1: and against the revolution, really interesting all the way up through.
2:32
Speaker 1: And you know, we should do podcasts on a lot
2:34
Speaker 1: of these things, but they fought in the War of
2:36
Speaker 1: eighteen twelve. They fought as the Buffalo Soldiers in many
2:40
Speaker 1: of the conflicts against Native Americans all the way up
2:44
Speaker 1: through World War One, where they joined the army, despite
2:49
Speaker 1: the fact that there was segregation at home and in
2:51
Speaker 1: the military um, notably the Harlem hell Fighters who fought
2:56
Speaker 1: with the French, and even though Americans did not fully
2:59
Speaker 1: recognize that as an accomplishment, the French government did. Ironically, Yeah,
3:03
Speaker 1: if that sounds kind of weird to you, the the
3:06
Speaker 1: American military had an all black regiment and said here,
3:11
Speaker 1: you take them to to France, and France was like, sure,
3:13
Speaker 1: we'll take them, We'll use them and awarded them the
3:16
Speaker 1: Quada Gair for Heroism in combat um, which is like,
3:21
Speaker 1: if you'll remember our Native American code talker episode. France,
3:25
Speaker 1: especially World War One, had kind of a history of
3:28
Speaker 1: awarding and recognizing bravery among minorities that were just totally
3:32
Speaker 1: shown to the United States, you know, yeah, And I
3:35
Speaker 1: mean there was even a study conducted by the Army
3:38
Speaker 1: War College in nineteen five about the fitness and suitability
3:42
Speaker 1: of black soldiers in the military, and it was just
3:45
Speaker 1: it was brutal and racist, and you know, just said
3:48
Speaker 1: the worst things you can imagine about the lack of
3:51
Speaker 1: fitness for a black man to serve for the Americans
3:55
Speaker 1: in the American military. Yeah, and I think this Army
3:58
Speaker 1: War College study was basically just a an official position
4:03
Speaker 1: paper that that summed up the sentiments among military officers
4:10
Speaker 1: and most of the military at the time. Um that
4:13
Speaker 1: they just wanted to get it down on paper. It's
4:15
Speaker 1: like an official position so that that it wouldn't be eroded,
4:18
Speaker 1: that they could say this is the military's official position
4:21
Speaker 1: on black people. And essentially what it said was black
4:25
Speaker 1: people are not intellectually capable of receiving like theoretical training.
4:32
Speaker 1: They they can probably be you know, um worked into
4:38
Speaker 1: uh like combat troops, but it's going to take a
4:41
Speaker 1: lot more effort and you really have to dumb it
4:43
Speaker 1: down and then maybe you can organize them into a
4:46
Speaker 1: combat troop. But really, we don't have high hopes for this,
4:48
Speaker 1: so we should probably just not mess with the whole
4:51
Speaker 1: thing and just keep it in all white military. Yeah.
4:54
Speaker 1: That that was And despite all of this, there were
4:57
Speaker 1: still black soldiers who a achieved in the military, uh,
5:02
Speaker 1: most notably in the reason we bring this Uh, this
5:04
Speaker 1: gentleman up. Benjamin O'Davis sr Uh became the first black
5:09
Speaker 1: general in the U. S. Military. He figures prominently in
5:11
Speaker 1: the Tuskegee Airmen story, and that his son, Benjamin Davis Jr. Uh, Well,
5:18
Speaker 1: we'll we'll tell you what he did, but he figured
5:19
Speaker 1: very prominently in the formation and story of the Tuskegee Airmen. Yeah,
5:24
Speaker 1: he's huge, he's um one of the leading figures, and
5:27
Speaker 1: he gets most of the glory and the press and everything,
5:30
Speaker 1: but there were plenty of others who who served quite valiantly. Yeah,
5:35
Speaker 1: so that that's like the briefest of summations. I definitely
5:38
Speaker 1: think we should do one on the Buffalo Soldiers at
5:40
Speaker 1: some point. Tots agree like, I don't understand why Bob
5:45
Speaker 1: Marley drew that that um line between Prasta's and Buffalo soldiers.
5:53
Speaker 1: I'm not kidding, Like I know that it sounds like
5:55
Speaker 1: a hilarious thing that Josh would say, but I have
5:58
Speaker 1: always always wondered that, like what is he talking about?
6:02
Speaker 1: What's the you know, were they were they rostas or
6:05
Speaker 1: something like that, or is it do they have the
6:07
Speaker 1: spirit of the roster vice versa. I'd love to get
6:10
Speaker 1: to the bottom of that. Alright, let's do it. Okay, alright,
6:14
Speaker 1: I'm excited. So that brings us to World War two. UM.
6:19
Speaker 1: And like you said before, segregation is still, uh the
6:22
Speaker 1: law in the United States. Race racism was rampant, and
6:28
Speaker 1: it still is in a lot of places in this country,
6:30
Speaker 1: but back then very much rampant. Uh. And despite all that,
6:34
Speaker 1: there were still plenty of African Americans who wanted to
6:38
Speaker 1: be in the army and wanted to fly planes. And
6:41
Speaker 1: this was pre Air Force. It was called the uh,
6:43
Speaker 1: the Army Air Corps. Yes, and we should say like
6:47
Speaker 1: this was extremely prestigious to be in the Army. Air
6:51
Speaker 1: Corps was far and away the most prestigious branch of
6:54
Speaker 1: the military, although it wasn't technically its own branch, but
6:57
Speaker 1: the UM. The it was the most prestigious part of
7:00
Speaker 1: the military. UM because it was widely considered and rightfully
7:05
Speaker 1: so you had to be really really sharp, really smart,
7:09
Speaker 1: really quick on your toes, and just really large and
7:12
Speaker 1: in charge. Basically to fly planes in the military. It
7:16
Speaker 1: was still pretty new. It was a fairly new thing,
7:19
Speaker 1: and the whole the whole world, but also the US
7:23
Speaker 1: really looked up to aviators at the time because this
7:26
Speaker 1: is at a time where if you flew across country,
7:28
Speaker 1: you just you just made history kind of thing. So
7:32
Speaker 1: to to UM to be a part of the Army
7:36
Speaker 1: Air Corps, that was a that's a sweet plum right there. Yeah,
7:39
Speaker 1: And so you know, we we move over to Alabama
7:43
Speaker 1: at the Tuskegee Institute in Tuskegee, and this was a
7:47
Speaker 1: place where you if you were a Black American and
7:50
Speaker 1: you wanted to go to college and get a higher education,
7:53
Speaker 1: that was a great place to start. Uh. Founded in
7:56
Speaker 1: one by Lewis Adams and Booker T. Washington UM. And
8:00
Speaker 1: during this period they had something called the Civilian Pilot
8:03
Speaker 1: Training Program, which is it was established basically to get
8:08
Speaker 1: a pool of pilots with experience, uh, people who could
8:11
Speaker 1: train pilots in the United States. And there were black
8:15
Speaker 1: colleges participating in this program, and Tuskegee was one of them. Yeah.
8:20
Speaker 1: The Howard University also had a program. UM. There were
8:24
Speaker 1: also like by this time, there was some UM black
8:29
Speaker 1: aviation history that had been established and it was small,
8:33
Speaker 1: but it was really proud, and rightfully so, because if
8:36
Speaker 1: you were an African American and you said, you know
8:39
Speaker 1: what I really look up to all these pilots too,
8:41
Speaker 1: I want to go be a pilot. The first story
8:43
Speaker 1: you went to got slammed in your face. The next
8:46
Speaker 1: door you went to, slamming in your face. And again,
8:50
Speaker 1: like the idea that black people couldn't learn how to
8:53
Speaker 1: fly a plane, So how are you going to let
8:55
Speaker 1: one fly a plane or try to teach them? What's
8:57
Speaker 1: the point? It's also probably pretty dangerous and expensive. Um,
9:01
Speaker 1: Like you could not as an African American get into
9:05
Speaker 1: a flight school. And so some of these earliest African
9:08
Speaker 1: American pilots in aviation history and like the say, like
9:12
Speaker 1: the twenties, the early thirties, like some of them were
9:16
Speaker 1: self taught. There's a guy, see Alfred Anderson, who taught
9:20
Speaker 1: himself how to fly in land planes because no flight
9:24
Speaker 1: school would teach him, no white pilots would teach him.
9:28
Speaker 1: He had to save up biz own plane and teach himself,
9:30
Speaker 1: and he became a legend. He's known as the father
9:33
Speaker 1: of black aviation in America. Yeah, and there's a like
9:36
Speaker 1: you said, a very small but proud list, Bessie Coleman.
9:40
Speaker 1: It was a black woman who went to France to
9:42
Speaker 1: learn to fly. She was black and Native American yeah,
9:45
Speaker 1: we should, she should get her an episode two. Uh.
9:48
Speaker 1: In NY two, James Banning and Thomas Allen became the
9:52
Speaker 1: first black pilots to fly across the US from l
9:55
Speaker 1: A to New York, and they as well. At least
9:57
Speaker 1: Banning could not go to flight school, so he basically
10:01
Speaker 1: found a white pilot who would give him private lessons,
10:04
Speaker 1: which is pretty remarkable. Um. And the cool thing about
10:08
Speaker 1: this story is they, uh, it cost a lot of
10:12
Speaker 1: money to fly across the country at any point, so
10:15
Speaker 1: they would stop in black communities and raise money basically
10:20
Speaker 1: and say, hey, get you know, donate some cash. You
10:23
Speaker 1: can sign our airplane and that will allow us to
10:25
Speaker 1: buy fuel to get to the next stop as we
10:27
Speaker 1: go across country. Yeah. So they became the first black
10:30
Speaker 1: pilots to fly all the way across the US as
10:32
Speaker 1: a result, which is that's pretty great. But it was
10:36
Speaker 1: like it was, it was stories like this and people
10:38
Speaker 1: like these um who were profiled in the black press
10:41
Speaker 1: at the time that I don't want to say, I
10:44
Speaker 1: guess the press was pretty much segregated at least, but
10:48
Speaker 1: for all practical purposes, African America had its own um
10:53
Speaker 1: pressed and I guess the standard establishment press was just
10:57
Speaker 1: writing stories about white people only, uh or things that
11:00
Speaker 1: related to white people. So African Americans had their own press.
11:04
Speaker 1: So stories of people like this UM spread throughout the
11:07
Speaker 1: country and inspired like whole new generations of pilots. And
11:11
Speaker 1: it also inspired, like you said, the Tuskegee Institute and
11:14
Speaker 1: Howard University and some other private schools like one formed
11:18
Speaker 1: by Cornelius Coffee and Willi Brown in Chicago to actually
11:22
Speaker 1: start training black pilots. And so this is a this
11:26
Speaker 1: is already established by the time the drumbeat, the earliest
11:30
Speaker 1: drumbeat to World War Two started and UM, the the US,
11:35
Speaker 1: led by Franklin Roosevelt, said we need to get the
11:37
Speaker 1: civilian pilot training program going because we need a pool
11:40
Speaker 1: of people who already know how to fly in case
11:43
Speaker 1: we need to turn them into military pilots as well. Yeah,
11:46
Speaker 1: And the the idea here with these uh, with the
11:49
Speaker 1: black journalists and newspapers was here, here's what we want.
11:53
Speaker 1: You know, there's the V for victory slogan and campaign.
11:56
Speaker 1: Let's start up something and get the word out called
11:59
Speaker 1: the double V campaign, which is basically victory in Europe
12:03
Speaker 1: but also for black soldiers, victory at home and trying
12:07
Speaker 1: to make a dent and discrimination and racism. If we
12:10
Speaker 1: go over there and we can fight and we can
12:13
Speaker 1: fly planes and serve our country, maybe that might make
12:17
Speaker 1: a difference when we come back home that we were
12:20
Speaker 1: you know, distinguished with our military service. So that was
12:24
Speaker 1: a double V campaign trying to get victory at home
12:27
Speaker 1: against racism as well as in Europe on the ground
12:29
Speaker 1: with the military. And none of this might have happened
12:34
Speaker 1: had it not been for one Eleanor Roosevelt. And maybe
12:38
Speaker 1: we should take a break there. Yeah. What does Eleanor
12:42
Speaker 1: Roosevelt have to do with all this? We'll find out
12:45
Speaker 1: in just a minute, all right, Chuck. So, I mean,
13:06
Speaker 1: I'm just gonna say it, Eleanor Roosevelt, give it up. Yeah, man,
13:10
Speaker 1: I mean she was a great lady in a lot
13:12
Speaker 1: of ways. But uh, what she did in the case
13:15
Speaker 1: of the eventual Tuskegee Airmen was she visited Tuskegee. Um,
13:21
Speaker 1: they had a training airfield called Moten Field m O
13:24
Speaker 1: t O N. Yeah. Because remember this is like they're
13:27
Speaker 1: they're they're flying program that they already established. Yeah, so
13:31
Speaker 1: she visits, Uh, she's watching the pilots take off, fly
13:35
Speaker 1: around land, and she was like, good argue in one
13:39
Speaker 1: of those planes. That is a bitch in Eleanor Roosevelt man,
13:44
Speaker 1: And they said sure, So she went up with an
13:46
Speaker 1: African American pilot. She she went up with that, see
13:49
Speaker 1: Alfred Anderson, the self taught father of aviation. Yeah, and
13:52
Speaker 1: everything went great and she had apparently a good time,
13:55
Speaker 1: went back home and got in her husband's ear and
13:59
Speaker 1: was like, Hey, these these guys can fly planes. They're
14:01
Speaker 1: doing a great job. They're fit for military service. So
14:05
Speaker 1: let's let's get this thing going in earnest And he
14:07
Speaker 1: did so, uh in January. So here's the thing. This
14:12
Speaker 1: is what I'm on clear on, Like it's it's doubtless
14:16
Speaker 1: that Eleanor Roosevelt played a role in making sure that
14:20
Speaker 1: this this actually happened, that that um African American pilots
14:25
Speaker 1: were eligible to fly for the US military, the Army
14:29
Speaker 1: Air Corps. Right, But the timing of it I can't
14:33
Speaker 1: quite suss out either. The US military said, yeah, we're
14:38
Speaker 1: going to establish a black pilots training program at Tuskegee
14:43
Speaker 1: UH in January nine, and then Eleanor Roosevelt showed up
14:47
Speaker 1: a couple of months later to make sure that this
14:49
Speaker 1: actually happened, or she showed up and then they established it.
14:53
Speaker 1: I can't quite suss that out, but either way, she's
14:56
Speaker 1: a pretty cool lady, Like she went down and saw
14:58
Speaker 1: for herself and then came back and said, hey, we
15:02
Speaker 1: really should make this happen. Or she knew that this
15:05
Speaker 1: was happening but also could see people just dragging their feet,
15:08
Speaker 1: so she went down to shine light on the whole
15:11
Speaker 1: prosper the project, and uh, it kind of took off
15:14
Speaker 1: from there. I feel forgive the pun. Either way, she
15:18
Speaker 1: she played some sort of pretty cool role in getting
15:20
Speaker 1: it going. Yeah, and when it first started, there was
15:24
Speaker 1: sort of a joint affair between Tuskegee and the Army
15:26
Speaker 1: Air Corps as far as uh providing funding and equipment personnel.
15:31
Speaker 1: They all sort of chipped in a little bit. Um.
15:34
Speaker 1: There were flying a few different planes for training, one biplane,
15:38
Speaker 1: the Steerman PT seventeen. Eventually they were able to move
15:42
Speaker 1: over to the Tuskegee Army air Field a few miles
15:45
Speaker 1: away from Moten Field, where they had access to the
15:47
Speaker 1: P forty Warhawk, and then they were like now we're
15:50
Speaker 1: talking right, But also, I mean the initial primary training
15:55
Speaker 1: at motion field was this kind of quasi university military training,
16:01
Speaker 1: almost like an r OTC air training program. And then
16:04
Speaker 1: once you graduated from primary, you moved over to the
16:07
Speaker 1: Army field and you were full on on a military
16:09
Speaker 1: base in military life. Yeah, and this like this, this
16:14
Speaker 1: wasn't the first time that black pilots tried to apply.
16:19
Speaker 1: Like pre Tuskegee, they were applying. Recruits were applying and
16:23
Speaker 1: getting rejected every time they tried to get into the
16:25
Speaker 1: Air Corps. Eventually the N double A CP got involved,
16:29
Speaker 1: a lawsuit was filed UM. And even after that, when
16:33
Speaker 1: they started admitting black men into the Air Corps, it
16:37
Speaker 1: was ten cadets every five weeks, so they were you know,
16:42
Speaker 1: it looks like they were purposefully just sort of stymying
16:46
Speaker 1: the process through red tape and bureaucracy to still not
16:49
Speaker 1: allow them to train. Yeah. And initially so that that
16:52
Speaker 1: lawsuit UM was by a Howard University student named Yancey
16:56
Speaker 1: Williams who wanted to be a just straight up Army
16:59
Speaker 1: Air Corps cadet, and the N double A CP back
17:03
Speaker 1: back the lawsuit UM, and the result was apparently the
17:08
Speaker 1: military saying, okay, we'll just start to segregated all Black
17:12
Speaker 1: Pilot program where the n double a CP and most
17:15
Speaker 1: black leadership wanted just integration in the Army Air Corps.
17:19
Speaker 1: So they were like, okay, fine, we'll take it, but
17:23
Speaker 1: we're not like, this is not what we were going for,
17:26
Speaker 1: but we'll take this. It's better than nothing. I guess, yeah,
17:30
Speaker 1: that's that's probably a good way to put it. Um.
17:33
Speaker 1: But the program starts up in earnest. However few cadets
17:37
Speaker 1: they were allowing. It started to build up. These men
17:39
Speaker 1: are getting trained. Um men from the north came down
17:43
Speaker 1: and this is you know, this is an Alabama during
17:45
Speaker 1: the Jim Crow era, and there are there's one documentary
17:50
Speaker 1: called They Fought Two Wars, which basically was like, you know,
17:53
Speaker 1: they're getting trained, they're serving their country, and then they
17:55
Speaker 1: go out like on the weekend maybe for a little
17:58
Speaker 1: R and R and then met by the southern whites
18:01
Speaker 1: of Alabama who basically, you know, treated him exactly how
18:05
Speaker 1: you would expect. There was even a petition to end
18:08
Speaker 1: the program just because they were like, there are so
18:10
Speaker 1: many black men in our town. Now, we don't want
18:13
Speaker 1: them in our community, right, Surely something bad will happen
18:16
Speaker 1: to our community. Because of this, there was also apparently
18:19
Speaker 1: at least one incident where black military police were disarmed
18:24
Speaker 1: by white locals around Tuskegee civilians Yeah, who just refused
18:29
Speaker 1: to recognize that they had any authority over them whatsoever,
18:32
Speaker 1: military police or not. UM. And the at the time
18:37
Speaker 1: this this happened early on, the commander of the UM
18:41
Speaker 1: of the base, UH Ellison, James Ellison, Major James Ellison,
18:45
Speaker 1: was UM. He protested very loudly and very vocally and
18:49
Speaker 1: said this is messed up. I won't stand for this.
18:52
Speaker 1: And they said, hey Ellison, UM, yeah, we need somebody
18:56
Speaker 1: who is on the side of the recruits, but maybe
18:58
Speaker 1: not quite so much of a true believers. So you
19:00
Speaker 1: come over here with us and we're gonna relieve you
19:02
Speaker 1: of your post. And instead they brought in a guy
19:05
Speaker 1: named Colonel Noel Parrish, and he was maybe a little
19:09
Speaker 1: less gung ho about civil rights and equality and desegregation. UM.
19:15
Speaker 1: He very much withstood and stood up with the segregationist
19:21
Speaker 1: policies of the military. He didn't fight against it, but
19:24
Speaker 1: within this framework he's very much credited for UM being
19:29
Speaker 1: very fair, very even handed UM and giving like full throated,
19:36
Speaker 1: legitimately good UM quality training to these black recruits at Tuskegee,
19:42
Speaker 1: like he wasn't. They weren't getting um like subpar or
19:47
Speaker 1: or less than adequate training compared to their white counterparts elsewhere.
19:52
Speaker 1: They were getting just as good training to be trained.
19:55
Speaker 1: Like he was taking it seriously and he was being
19:57
Speaker 1: fair about it. So um, he's he's suspected for for
20:01
Speaker 1: that to to have overseen this, um this this project,
20:05
Speaker 1: I guess fairly, rather than he very easily could have
20:09
Speaker 1: gone to the other side and just dragged his feet
20:12
Speaker 1: to or put up unnecessary roadblocks and obstacles too, but
20:15
Speaker 1: he didn't. Yeah, And one of the uh, I guess
20:18
Speaker 1: you could call it one of the silver linings of
20:20
Speaker 1: the segregation in the military was there was already a
20:25
Speaker 1: ninety nine pursuit Squadron was already established, which were black
20:29
Speaker 1: cadets to get training on maintenance and tech support for UH,
20:35
Speaker 1: for the for the air patrol. So they were already
20:37
Speaker 1: in place. So by the time Tuskegee gets rolling and
20:41
Speaker 1: these cadets are being sent in to learn to fly,
20:43
Speaker 1: they were like, let's just give them the ninety nine
20:46
Speaker 1: pursuit squadron. So it was basically an all black unit,
20:50
Speaker 1: from the maintenance, to the to the technical support to
20:53
Speaker 1: the pilots that were training. Obviously not the instructors. But
20:57
Speaker 1: I get the feeling, you know, from research at that
20:59
Speaker 1: lent Um some sort of uh kind of led to
21:04
Speaker 1: camaraderie and that they had their own guys on the
21:07
Speaker 1: ground and training you know, oh yeah, yeah for sure.
21:10
Speaker 1: I mean like it was an basically an all black
21:12
Speaker 1: squadron and not all the commanders um or trainers were
21:17
Speaker 1: white like that. My favorite guy, chief Alfred Anderson UM,
21:22
Speaker 1: he was the ground commander in chief that self taught
21:25
Speaker 1: father of aviation he UM. He was the head of
21:29
Speaker 1: the ground commanders at Tuskegee. So there was a mixed
21:32
Speaker 1: But one of the things I think you kind of
21:35
Speaker 1: hit upon that gets overlooked is when you talk about
21:37
Speaker 1: Tuskegee and the Tuskegee Airmen, UM, you're talking about four
21:42
Speaker 1: hundred to five hundred ish pilots fighter pilots typically UM
21:48
Speaker 1: that are thought of as a Tuskegee airman. But there
21:51
Speaker 1: were so many more people that made up like this
21:54
Speaker 1: whole project, this whole movement basically UM that I think
21:58
Speaker 1: there was something like twelve housing, like people trained in
22:02
Speaker 1: aviation through the that that are really technically Tuskegee airmen.
22:09
Speaker 1: They they are considered um so and they get overlooked
22:12
Speaker 1: a lot because the fighter pilots get all the glory.
22:15
Speaker 1: But I mean these are all these people played a
22:17
Speaker 1: huge significant role in the whole thing. Yeah. So we
22:21
Speaker 1: mentioned uh at the onset the first African American general
22:24
Speaker 1: Benjamin O'Davis Sr. And that his son figured prominently. So
22:28
Speaker 1: that's Ben Jr. Uh, he comes in. He went to
22:32
Speaker 1: he followed in dad's footsteps. He went to West Point, where,
22:36
Speaker 1: you know, despite it was sort of like a Lord's
22:38
Speaker 1: of Discipline sort of seen there. Oh man, I forgot
22:41
Speaker 1: about that book. Yeah, man, that was good. Good movie. Um,
22:44
Speaker 1: I make brutal to watch, but a really good movie.
22:47
Speaker 1: But Davis basically went to West Point, didn't give him
22:51
Speaker 1: a roommate, made him eat by himself. Uh. They say
22:55
Speaker 1: that he was like literally not spoken to by anybody
22:59
Speaker 1: unless they absolutely had to speak to him. Yet he
23:01
Speaker 1: persevered through all this. He graduated and uh went to
23:06
Speaker 1: teach at Tuskegee instead of going to command for enlisted troops.
23:11
Speaker 1: So it was a bit of serendipity that he ended
23:14
Speaker 1: up there. I think kind of right. At the same time,
23:17
Speaker 1: this Air Corps began, which is really really kind of cool. Yeah,
23:20
Speaker 1: one of the first things he did was um as
23:22
Speaker 1: he was I think he became the commander of the
23:24
Speaker 1: ninety nine Pursuit Squadron. Um. He also was one of
23:28
Speaker 1: their first graduates. He was in the first class to
23:30
Speaker 1: graduate from flight school there. So, um, I don't know
23:36
Speaker 1: that he had much flight training prior to that, but
23:39
Speaker 1: he went and learned it. Became pretty distinguished as a
23:41
Speaker 1: pilot either way. But he he was immediately assigned the
23:47
Speaker 1: ninety pursuit squadron. He was in charge of it, which
23:50
Speaker 1: is pretty cool, right. So um as the as the
23:53
Speaker 1: um the Tuskegee Airman started to distinguish themselves, which we'll
23:58
Speaker 1: talk about more in a minute. Um Davis kind of
24:02
Speaker 1: became distinguished as well because he was leading the whole show. Yeah,
24:06
Speaker 1: and you know, he he had been through West Point.
24:09
Speaker 1: He knew what the deal was. He was like, he
24:12
Speaker 1: knew that there was a lot more riding on this
24:13
Speaker 1: than just forming an air squadron. He was like, black
24:16
Speaker 1: people all around the country are looking at us, They're
24:19
Speaker 1: banking on our success. Um, we have to like we
24:24
Speaker 1: have to be better than the best, UM, and so
24:27
Speaker 1: he was really tough. He tough but fair, but he
24:30
Speaker 1: would not put up with with anything that took away
24:32
Speaker 1: from their ultimate goal, which was to be the best
24:35
Speaker 1: airman in the country, black or white. Um. Apparently there
24:40
Speaker 1: were black pilots who would wash out of the program
24:42
Speaker 1: that historians say, like, you know, if that was a
24:46
Speaker 1: white pilot, that he would have been allowed to keep going.
24:49
Speaker 1: Like that's how high the standard was that Davis set
24:52
Speaker 1: for the Tuskegee Airman, Right, Well, it wasn't just Davis,
24:55
Speaker 1: I think. I think they were saying like they were
24:58
Speaker 1: unfairly not given their wings, whereas a white pilot elsewhere
25:03
Speaker 1: in another base undergoing training wouldn't have washed out. So
25:08
Speaker 1: some of the pilots that that did wash out probably
25:11
Speaker 1: did because they were being held to unfair racist standards,
25:16
Speaker 1: not necessarily by Davis, but by some of the white
25:18
Speaker 1: commanders and trainers. You see what I'm saying. Yeah, but
25:21
Speaker 1: I saw where Davis was very quick to give someone
25:24
Speaker 1: the aust if they didn't think they were living up
25:26
Speaker 1: to their position. Yeah. So the upshot of that, though, Chuck,
25:30
Speaker 1: was that, UM, the people who graduated from this program
25:36
Speaker 1: at Tuskegee were really really good pilots. I mean really
25:41
Speaker 1: good pilots. They were just held to, whether fair or unfair,
25:45
Speaker 1: higher standards. They had to prove themselves more than say,
25:48
Speaker 1: their white counterparts at other bases, and so the ones
25:51
Speaker 1: who actually did manage graduate were just as good as
25:55
Speaker 1: it got. But what's said is for the people who
25:58
Speaker 1: washed out, they might not have washed out of some
26:01
Speaker 1: of the other programs, like if they had been white
26:04
Speaker 1: elsewhere in another program. Um. So that and of itself
26:08
Speaker 1: is kind of demoralizing. But what really getches when you
26:11
Speaker 1: step back and realize, like the the the men who
26:15
Speaker 1: were going through pilot training program were the face of
26:20
Speaker 1: black America, and so not only were they being watched
26:24
Speaker 1: by you know, um, by racists whites and supportive whites too,
26:30
Speaker 1: but but say from racist whites to just watch for
26:33
Speaker 1: them to fail. I think Henry L. Stimpson, who was
26:36
Speaker 1: the Secretary of War, said sure, we're going to give
26:39
Speaker 1: him a shot, but I expect nothing less than disaster
26:42
Speaker 1: to be produced by this. And I think he met
26:44
Speaker 1: like literal disaster, like planes crashing everywhere kind of thing.
26:48
Speaker 1: So not only did you have like that kind of
26:51
Speaker 1: observation going on you at all time. You also carried
26:54
Speaker 1: with you the hopes and dreams and expectations of Black America,
26:58
Speaker 1: and not just Black America something big, in amorphous and
27:01
Speaker 1: vague like that, but your family and your church group
27:05
Speaker 1: and your community back home. We're all like pulling for
27:09
Speaker 1: you but also really expecting everything from you. And if
27:13
Speaker 1: you graduated, that was huge, and if you washed out,
27:16
Speaker 1: I'm sure that was equally huge in the other direction. Yeah.
27:19
Speaker 1: So March uh two was when the first class of
27:23
Speaker 1: cadets graduated. Um, it would take another like four months
27:27
Speaker 1: or so five months to get enough pilots, you know,
27:30
Speaker 1: graduating through the program that they were a full fighter squadron.
27:35
Speaker 1: And the early results you know they were. There were
27:40
Speaker 1: very high ranking US officials that were pretty impressed early on,
27:43
Speaker 1: including that Secretary of War Stimpson that you you talked
27:46
Speaker 1: about that predicted disaster. Yeah, he had a change of heart. Yeah,
27:49
Speaker 1: he visited Tuskegee and said, the outfit looks as good
27:52
Speaker 1: as any I've ever seen. Major General James Julio said,
27:55
Speaker 1: from results so far obtained to believe that the squadron
27:58
Speaker 1: will give an excellent account of itself in combat. And
28:01
Speaker 1: that it would be a credit to its race and
28:03
Speaker 1: two Americans everywhere. Um. And despite this, it still took
28:08
Speaker 1: a long time to get the full confidence to actually
28:12
Speaker 1: send them into the theater of war in Europe. Well. Yeah,
28:15
Speaker 1: and I don't even know if it was confidence. I think, well,
28:17
Speaker 1: I guess it was confidence in a way. But there
28:19
Speaker 1: were other commanders of at the time they call them
28:22
Speaker 1: air forces, where it was like squadrons and groups just
28:26
Speaker 1: put together like a huge mass of of UM. Air
28:29
Speaker 1: Corps subdivisions were called air forces at the time, So
28:33
Speaker 1: if you were running the show in an air force,
28:34
Speaker 1: you'd be like, I don't want them, I don't want them.
28:36
Speaker 1: And all of them were saying I don't want them.
28:38
Speaker 1: They couldn't give them away, so they were just stuck
28:41
Speaker 1: in America, while um, the United States had already joined
28:44
Speaker 1: World War two and was all fighting in places like
28:47
Speaker 1: North Africa and the Mediterranean. Yeah, and I think, you know,
28:51
Speaker 1: I don't know if this is confirmed, but some say
28:54
Speaker 1: that Eleanor Roosevelt got in her husband's ear once again. Uh.
28:58
Speaker 1: And finally, in what April ninety three, they got their
29:03
Speaker 1: first orders thee to go to North Africa. Uh. In
29:06
Speaker 1: nineteen forty three, which was what is up like two
29:09
Speaker 1: years after the first graduated class. So you know the
29:13
Speaker 1: upshot to this though, is they're still training this whole time,
29:16
Speaker 1: right right, They're just getting better and better in training.
29:18
Speaker 1: But can you imagine like having to sit around and
29:21
Speaker 1: wait waiting for the order to get out there? Yeah?
29:24
Speaker 1: So UM, some of the first assignments they got when
29:28
Speaker 1: they were running sorties off of North Africa. Um, they
29:33
Speaker 1: were there was an island called Panatella, I believe into
29:38
Speaker 1: a knee cap Uh it's Pantalaria, Pantellaria. Wow, that was
29:45
Speaker 1: way off, Thank you for correct Yes, Um, Pantellaria was
29:49
Speaker 1: occupied by the Italian Army and they gave up. They
29:53
Speaker 1: surrendered the island without any ground forces having to land
29:56
Speaker 1: because the Tuskegee airmen were bombing them so bad. They
29:59
Speaker 1: were sent dive bombing campaigns. And that usually consists of
30:03
Speaker 1: attacking a ground position, whether it's like um, some sort
30:07
Speaker 1: of transport like transport planes and an airfield or rail
30:13
Speaker 1: cars or um, you know, gas or water, infrastructure, just
30:17
Speaker 1: stuff to make the enemy rather uncomfortable or unable to
30:21
Speaker 1: operate in this place that they've occupied. Um. And it
30:25
Speaker 1: very rarely, uh requires any kind of aerial dog fighting
30:30
Speaker 1: like we think of with fighter fighter pilots. It's more
30:33
Speaker 1: just attacking the enemy where they are rather than trying
30:37
Speaker 1: to battle for domination of the skies. That's what a
30:39
Speaker 1: dog fight is, It's what um fighter to fighter combat is.
30:44
Speaker 1: So this is different. So you're not gonna encounter other
30:47
Speaker 1: fighters typically, so you're not gonna have as many kills.
30:49
Speaker 1: They don't count like blowing up a set of rail
30:52
Speaker 1: cars as a kill, you have to shoot another fighter
30:55
Speaker 1: plane out of the sky, and that's what they really
30:58
Speaker 1: count when you're a fighter pilot it. But if you're
31:00
Speaker 1: not being assigned those kind of sorties, you're not gonna
31:04
Speaker 1: rack up kills like that. So everybody understood this. This
31:07
Speaker 1: was fine, But apparently somebody was talking to the press
31:11
Speaker 1: back in America and ended up getting a story out
31:14
Speaker 1: of Time magazine that questioned the ninety nine fighter squadrons
31:19
Speaker 1: bravery because they've been flying all sorts of authorities, But
31:23
Speaker 1: where were all their kills? All these other white pilots
31:26
Speaker 1: had all these kills, Where was the Tuskegee Airmen's kills?
31:29
Speaker 1: And the the context of that wasn't put into that
31:32
Speaker 1: that magazine. So what the rest of America read was
31:35
Speaker 1: the Tuskegee Airmen or cowards. And all of a sudden,
31:38
Speaker 1: Benjamin O'Davis Jr. Finds himself being called back to Washington
31:42
Speaker 1: to explain why his squadron are being called cowards in
31:46
Speaker 1: the national press. That's right, so let's pick that up
31:49
Speaker 1: right after this message, because things changed in January. All right,
32:14
Speaker 1: So the Tuskegee Airmen are over there, uh doing these
32:19
Speaker 1: um you know, they're dropping bombs. They did get a
32:22
Speaker 1: little bit of um fighter to fighter action, but not enough,
32:26
Speaker 1: you know, to toward the press off. Uh. This is
32:29
Speaker 1: despite the fact that they had virtually um you know,
32:33
Speaker 1: they were still segregated. You know. What they usually did
32:35
Speaker 1: was say, here, let's mix in these uh, these new
32:39
Speaker 1: guys with some experience guys, and they can sort of
32:42
Speaker 1: mentor them and help them out. Because it was segregated,
32:44
Speaker 1: they kept them separate. And yet they still persevered through
32:47
Speaker 1: all this. Uh. Like you said before the break, Davis
32:50
Speaker 1: comes home to the US to sort of battle these reports. Uh.
32:55
Speaker 1: And then things took a real change. In January. There
32:58
Speaker 1: was a uh patrol unit of twelve planes flying over
33:03
Speaker 1: on CEO and they spotted these German fighters. Um, just
33:07
Speaker 1: like like Maverick and Goose and Top Gun although they
33:11
Speaker 1: were just training, right battle and top Gun right, No,
33:16
Speaker 1: there wasn't a battle, but they did engage that MiG
33:19
Speaker 1: Remember he flew upside down and flipped him off and
33:21
Speaker 1: took a polaroid. So dumb. So we're doing a sequel
33:25
Speaker 1: to that, you know, like a sequel with Tom Cruise
33:28
Speaker 1: and really yeah, yeah, and it's exactly what you would think.
33:33
Speaker 1: It's Tom Cruise is now the veteran instructor and a
33:36
Speaker 1: and a young Maverick comes under his watch, and I
33:42
Speaker 1: don't even know, I'm not even sure, but it's I'm
33:44
Speaker 1: sure it's one of those deals where you know, Cruise
33:46
Speaker 1: gets to say, like I was you. Yeah, I'm gonna
33:51
Speaker 1: toss Christian Navarro's hat in the ring. How about that?
33:54
Speaker 1: I think they've already cast it, but uh, you never know.
33:58
Speaker 1: Maybe maybe we've got some whole chuck and we're just influence. Yeah, Christian,
34:02
Speaker 1: if you're listening, we we're rooting for you, my friend. So, uh,
34:06
Speaker 1: they see these German fighters, these twelve planes, and they're like,
34:09
Speaker 1: let's go get them fellas. Uh, and they get into
34:12
Speaker 1: a dog fight, pretty legendary dog fight, and they record
34:15
Speaker 1: five kills in about four or five minutes, no losses,
34:19
Speaker 1: no losses. That's a big one too, Yeah, And it
34:21
Speaker 1: was a very big deal for the ninety nine after that.
34:25
Speaker 1: And this was like after these reports had come into
34:27
Speaker 1: the US. They weren't like they were fairly dejected, but
34:31
Speaker 1: that made him hungrier than ever. And this is why
34:34
Speaker 1: they sort of flung themselves headlong into this attack and
34:38
Speaker 1: they made the news and they became known all of
34:40
Speaker 1: a sudden as these pilots that would really go after
34:43
Speaker 1: the Germans. They have a high kill rate, and it
34:47
Speaker 1: was a big deal. Yeah. So there's two other things.
34:49
Speaker 1: So not only um were they were they not being
34:52
Speaker 1: assigned missions typically that would rack up high kill rates,
34:55
Speaker 1: so how can you criticize them for that? But secondly,
34:58
Speaker 1: when they were in North afric in their first assignment,
35:01
Speaker 1: they were given really old, really obsolete planes and they
35:06
Speaker 1: were um when they did engage German UH fighter pilots,
35:11
Speaker 1: they were out out classed as far as the planes
35:15
Speaker 1: are concerned. And they were still taking out Germans and
35:18
Speaker 1: dog fights, so like they had a lot going against
35:22
Speaker 1: them and still managed to prove themselves and then something
35:25
Speaker 1: really big change. They got transferred over to the UM
35:29
Speaker 1: I believe, the fifteen Air Force and the nine hundred
35:36
Speaker 1: first and the three hundred and second, the four Tuskegee
35:39
Speaker 1: UM fighter pilot squadrons were all brought together under the
35:43
Speaker 1: three hundred and thirty second Fighter Group under the command
35:46
Speaker 1: now of Benjamin O'Davis Jr. Is a colonel at this
35:49
Speaker 1: point yep who and then placed under the fifteen Air
35:54
Speaker 1: Force and the Benjamin O'Davis Jr. And the guy who
35:59
Speaker 1: headed up fifteen their force. They they had the same
36:03
Speaker 1: philosophy for the kinds of assignments that the Tuskegee Airmen
36:07
Speaker 1: would be carrying out from now on, which were bomber escorts,
36:10
Speaker 1: and it was don't leave the bomber squadron. Like when
36:14
Speaker 1: you're escorting bombers, that's the point. You don't you don't
36:17
Speaker 1: peel off and chase after any other jets that are
36:20
Speaker 1: like any German jets that are coming towards you. And
36:23
Speaker 1: there were German jets, but German fighter planes, UM, And
36:26
Speaker 1: you don't chase them away. You just stay with the bombers.
36:30
Speaker 1: That's your point. And UM that's another thing that's not
36:33
Speaker 1: like you're not going to rack up a ton of
36:34
Speaker 1: kills in that respect. Yeah, I'm sure it was tough, like,
36:38
Speaker 1: especially given their reputation, they wanted to go shoot down
36:40
Speaker 1: German planes and Davis was like, no, man, you gotta like, uh,
36:45
Speaker 1: you gotta be disciplined in these these bombers are under
36:48
Speaker 1: threat and you gotta stick with them and so um.
36:50
Speaker 1: As a result of this, they developed like a really
36:53
Speaker 1: great reputation for for safely escorting bombers to their destination.
36:58
Speaker 1: I mean, if you're part of a bomber fleet, you're
37:01
Speaker 1: flying behind enemy lines to go bomb a city or
37:06
Speaker 1: an oil refinery or something like that. And the purpose
37:10
Speaker 1: of these planes is not to shoot other planes out
37:12
Speaker 1: of the sky. It's to drop bombs. So you need
37:15
Speaker 1: fighter jets to escort you, fighter planes to escort you
37:18
Speaker 1: to these drop sites, and um shoot away any other
37:23
Speaker 1: planes that are going to try to shoot you out
37:25
Speaker 1: of the sky. So it's pretty hairy, but it's also
37:28
Speaker 1: um like you're protecting the bombers. That's the point. So
37:32
Speaker 1: the reputation that they developed Chuck actually became legendary. There
37:36
Speaker 1: was a false, a false myth that generated around it.
37:40
Speaker 1: But one that even when you peel away the myth
37:42
Speaker 1: and look at reality, it's still pretty impressive. Yeah. And
37:46
Speaker 1: the other thing that helped too was in you know,
37:48
Speaker 1: we mentioned that they were flying um, I mean, they
37:50
Speaker 1: weren't obsolete planes, they were just not as good as
37:53
Speaker 1: what they were flying against. Uh. They finally get the
37:57
Speaker 1: fifth one Mustang and they were like, now we're talking dudes,
38:01
Speaker 1: like this is this is go time? Really cool airplane.
38:05
Speaker 1: One of my favorites of all time is that fifty
38:07
Speaker 1: one Mustang. That's the World War two fire plane that
38:09
Speaker 1: everybody thinks of. Yeah, I mean it's it's I want
38:12
Speaker 1: to use words here, I can't use on this show
38:14
Speaker 1: to describe it because I get so excited about it.
38:17
Speaker 1: But it's pretty sweet. So they now finally had and
38:21
Speaker 1: you did mention the jet, you know, the MEU the
38:23
Speaker 1: m E two six two from Germany was the first
38:27
Speaker 1: jet that used in combat like that. And if you
38:29
Speaker 1: look at this thing, it looks like I would rather
38:31
Speaker 1: have the Mustang. This thing looks dangerous to me. It
38:34
Speaker 1: may well have been. I don't know much about it. Oh,
38:36
Speaker 1: you mean to be like the pilot of it, Yeah,
38:38
Speaker 1: I mean it was just an early small jet like
38:40
Speaker 1: I can't. I don't know. It was probably pretty scary
38:42
Speaker 1: to fly, or maybe it was great. I don't know.
38:44
Speaker 1: I'm but the three thirty second Now with their P
38:48
Speaker 1: fifty ones, they start painting there. You know we mentioned
38:51
Speaker 1: the movie Red Tails. That can comes from what they
38:54
Speaker 1: did on their wing. They painted their the tail of
38:57
Speaker 1: their plane red and that they became known for that.
39:00
Speaker 1: It was very distinguishable from the air and there were
39:03
Speaker 1: a lot of bomber pilots who were like, we want
39:05
Speaker 1: these red Tales because these guys are awesome. And some
39:08
Speaker 1: of them didn't even know that they were black pilots.
39:11
Speaker 1: They just knew that they were Red Tails, right. And
39:14
Speaker 1: and again the Red Tails had developed a really good
39:16
Speaker 1: reputation for escorting bombers to their bomb sites. Um and
39:22
Speaker 1: what was their rank? What did they lose? Uh? I
39:25
Speaker 1: know that for many many years they said they never
39:27
Speaker 1: lost a bomber, which is not true. They didn't. One
39:30
Speaker 1: of the newspapers in Chicago, the Chicago Defender, published a
39:33
Speaker 1: story in that of more than two hundred bomber escort missions,
39:39
Speaker 1: the Tuskegee Airmen never lost a bomber. Today is in
39:43
Speaker 1: people not the airmen. But that was the that was
39:47
Speaker 1: the myth that developed that they never lost a bomber.
39:50
Speaker 1: That is basically impossible over something like two hundred missions. Um.
39:55
Speaker 1: But that's the myth that stood for um like fifty
40:00
Speaker 1: sixty years something like that. And then finally in a
40:03
Speaker 1: story and with the Air Force like actually dug in
40:06
Speaker 1: and did the shoe leather work on it and found, um, no,
40:10
Speaker 1: actually they did lose some bombers. They lost something like, uh,
40:14
Speaker 1: I think twenty six or twenty seven bombers, but out
40:17
Speaker 1: of like the two hundreds something missions, that is still
40:21
Speaker 1: a ridiculously small amount. And that other um squadrons and
40:26
Speaker 1: fighter groups in the fifteenth Air Force they average something
40:30
Speaker 1: like forty seven, so almost double what the Tuskegee Airman
40:35
Speaker 1: saw in losses. So they had paltry losses. But yeah,
40:38
Speaker 1: the idea that they just wouldn't have ever lost a
40:41
Speaker 1: bomber is it's it's impossible. You just couldn't not lose
40:45
Speaker 1: a bomber over that many missions. So you know, we
40:49
Speaker 1: all know how World War two ends. UM spoiler alert,
40:54
Speaker 1: the Allies. Uh, the Allies did their job, and so
40:59
Speaker 1: the Tuskegee Airmen start to get sent home like with
41:01
Speaker 1: other troops over the years. And here's the you know
41:05
Speaker 1: that the double V campaign. They were hoping they come
41:07
Speaker 1: home and they are more accepted, and they might even
41:10
Speaker 1: be revered, they might get good jobs, they might become
41:13
Speaker 1: commercial airline pilots. None of those things happened. Very sadly,
41:18
Speaker 1: that did not equate to equality back home, which is
41:21
Speaker 1: one of the troope like black eyes on this country's history.
41:24
Speaker 1: You know, yeah, um, some of them, I mean yeah,
41:28
Speaker 1: that was it should have just automatically triggered. Well, they
41:33
Speaker 1: shouldn't have This should have never happened in the first place, right,
41:36
Speaker 1: like dragging feet on segregation and making African America jump
41:41
Speaker 1: through these hoops like this, um, rather than just integrating,
41:44
Speaker 1: like making a segregated Air Air Corps squadron first and
41:49
Speaker 1: letting them prove themselves like that and then once they
41:51
Speaker 1: proved themselves still not opening doors or anything like that. Um.
41:56
Speaker 1: It that it should have never happened. But the fact
41:59
Speaker 1: that it didn't happen automatically is pretty pretty shameful. It
42:05
Speaker 1: did they It's not like they weren't successful. Though. They
42:10
Speaker 1: laid the groundwork and they laid the foundation, and they
42:13
Speaker 1: began the momentum for a lot of people, say the
42:16
Speaker 1: civil rights movement that, um, they they what they the
42:21
Speaker 1: groundwork that they laid, the way that they changed America's
42:25
Speaker 1: minds about black people in general, like oh, they actually
42:29
Speaker 1: can fly planes, and oh they can't shoot Germans out
42:32
Speaker 1: of the sky, and oh look at this, they can
42:34
Speaker 1: actually do better at bomber escorts than white counterparts. Right. Um,
42:39
Speaker 1: that change and mentality that they were able to take
42:41
Speaker 1: advantage of in this circumstance and history, that changed everything.
42:46
Speaker 1: So they were very much successful in that. It's just
42:49
Speaker 1: shameful that that they had to just keep fighting and
42:52
Speaker 1: keep pressing on that this was really just the first
42:54
Speaker 1: step rather than the last. Yeah, for sure, But I
42:57
Speaker 1: mean I think that wording is is perfect picked. It
43:00
Speaker 1: was the groundwork, absolutely, the foundation. Foundational groundwork was laid. Um.
43:06
Speaker 1: As for Colonel Davis, he uh after the war in
43:09
Speaker 1: ninety is when Truman ended segregation in the military. Uh.
43:13
Speaker 1: Colonel Davis advised on that integration and had a great career.
43:17
Speaker 1: He retired in nineteen seventy and in very cool was
43:22
Speaker 1: made an honorary General of the Air Force, four star general.
43:25
Speaker 1: So he'd made it to lieutenant general before he retired, UM,
43:30
Speaker 1: and I think a four star lieutenant general, and then
43:33
Speaker 1: Clinton advanced him to general, so he was a four
43:37
Speaker 1: star general of the Air Force after retirement. That's right. Yeah,
43:40
Speaker 1: pretty great story. Yeah, it is a pretty great story.
43:44
Speaker 1: There was also something called the Freeman Field Mutiny, which
43:46
Speaker 1: is kind of happening in the off to the side
43:50
Speaker 1: the UM. The Tuskegee Airman also formed a bombardier group,
43:54
Speaker 1: a bomber group of bomber pilots that never saw any action,
43:58
Speaker 1: but saw a lot of races and segregation in back
44:02
Speaker 1: at home during training. And there was one event that's
44:06
Speaker 1: called the Freeman Field Mutiny where they basically protested segregated
44:10
Speaker 1: officers clubs, segregated and unequal officers clubs. And the way
44:15
Speaker 1: that they protested it um through basically civil disobedience, but
44:19
Speaker 1: in the military at a time when you could be
44:22
Speaker 1: executed for disobeying and direct order, which they were given. UM,
44:27
Speaker 1: they stood up for their civil rights. And that's another
44:29
Speaker 1: way that that another thing that's pointed to as laying
44:33
Speaker 1: the foundation for the civil rights movement, peaceful civil disobedience,
44:38
Speaker 1: and that actually came out of the Tuskegee Airman's story
44:41
Speaker 1: as well. Absolutely good stuff, good stuff. Check. This is
44:45
Speaker 1: a good idea to cover this one. Yeah, I mean
44:47
Speaker 1: this was long overdue. But uh, like I said, I
44:50
Speaker 1: don't think we had an article on the House of
44:52
Speaker 1: Fork site, so we just went out and had it
44:54
Speaker 1: commissioned on our own. Nice work. Uh. Well, let's see.
44:58
Speaker 1: If you want to know more about the Tuskegee Airmen, apparently,
45:01
Speaker 1: go watch a couple of so so movies. There's some
45:03
Speaker 1: documentaries out there. One of them is called They Fought
45:05
Speaker 1: Two Wars, which is perfectly titled. Um. And there's also
45:09
Speaker 1: I think an American experiences a lot of stuff. Start reading,
45:13
Speaker 1: go to Tuskegee, Alabama. Do all that stuff? Okay, yes,
45:17
Speaker 1: And since I said do all that stuff, it is
45:18
Speaker 1: time for listener man, I'm gonna call this, uh the
45:24
Speaker 1: Tits Project. Hey, guys, just listen to the elephant episode.
45:27
Speaker 1: And Josh mentioned that typically groups of birds and deer
45:30
Speaker 1: don't actually know each other like elephants and recognize one
45:34
Speaker 1: from the other. However, I just read an article in
45:36
Speaker 1: a recent Audubon magazine. Um, I know, he said typically,
45:39
Speaker 1: but I wanted to point you towards this study that
45:41
Speaker 1: is really interesting, the with Them Tit project in Britain.
45:46
Speaker 1: It is a very long running study where they're looking
45:48
Speaker 1: at the relationships between tits in Britain and they have
45:52
Speaker 1: found that they run in social groups and appear to
45:54
Speaker 1: have friends. I highly recommend giving a read appearent when
45:58
Speaker 1: these guys must recognize each other. And I actually read it,
46:02
Speaker 1: and that's why I'm recommending it because it's a really
46:03
Speaker 1: great article. It's uh, it's called It's from Audubon Magazine,
46:07
Speaker 1: Audubon dot com or I'm sorry dot org the Surprising
46:11
Speaker 1: connection between Birds, Facebook and other social networks. Very cool article.
46:16
Speaker 1: So that is from Miranda and Duluth, Minnesota. Nice. You
46:20
Speaker 1: can go read that and have fun, fun, fun on
46:22
Speaker 1: the Audubon magazine until Daddy takes your laptop away. Weird.
46:29
Speaker 1: That was great, Chuck. I don't think we can improve
46:31
Speaker 1: on that. So we're just going to say, if you
46:33
Speaker 1: want to get in touch with us, you can um
46:35
Speaker 1: join us on all of our social media networks. UH,
46:39
Speaker 1: go to stuff you should know dot com. It's basically
46:41
Speaker 1: the clearinghouse for links to find us hanging out on
46:44
Speaker 1: the social meds. UH. And you can also send us
46:47
Speaker 1: an email, send it to stuff podcast at that's the
46:52
Speaker 1: AT symbol how stuff works dot com. For more on
47:01
Speaker 1: this and thousands of other topics, visit how stuff works
47:04
Speaker 1: dot com. M h m