Aging Tuskegee Airmen Suit Up, Seek to Inspire Former Unit in Iraq

Associated Press ^ | Oct 22, 2005 | Samira Jafari

[Jet Jaguar]

[mainepatsfan]

That was the best movie HBO has ever produced.

[Dustbunny]

How uplifting to read this.

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

They were credited with shooting down more than 100 enemy aircraft and never losing an American bomber under escort to enemy fighters.

That is their unique claim, and a proud one. After all, protecting the bombers and their crews was the reason they were there. What good would it have done to have shot down one more enemy plane - or five of them - at the cost of an American bomber??

[PeteB570]

While Hollywood can mix up and twist anything in history still some good movies to show kids during Black History Month are The Tuskegee Airmen and Glory.

The history of blacks in American History is scattered and piecemeal. Any war that the US fought in yields many stories of the sacrifice of black Americans.

Almost lost to history is the service of the black Regiment from New York, NY that served with the French during the Great War.

No disrespect meant to MLK but there is more to African American history in the US than him.

[Jet Jaguar]

Nodding to that.

[weegee]

I met one of these pilots years ago and it is good to read that they are still being of service to this country.

[PeteB570]

This subject always gets a burr under my saddle.

Our public school system runs the same worn out story every Black History month. Through in the Civil War and I go about nuts.

I'm in North Carolina and very few people know the North occupied most of the northern half of the coastal area for most of the war.

During the war (talking off the top of my head) something like 7 Regiments of USCT (United States Colored Troops) were raised from that area. They included Infantry, Artillery and Calvary. Not a word of that is talked about but where is the "Black Pride"?

Fayetteville, during the CW, had a large section of town that was full of free blacks who worked in professional trades of the day.

The history of the free blacks and those who served in the military has been buried beneath the issue of slavery by the race mongers of today.

How about the mass migration of blacks from the south to the major cities of the north? What were the causes and effects?

Black history in the US is as varied as the people it represents.

[PeteB570]

Through? How about throw.

[Jet Jaguar]

I agree.

[netmilsmom]

I am a homeschooler.
Could you give me some references to these stories that I may use in February?

Maybe a ping to the HS lists?

[Wilhelm Tell]

Those guys are the greatest -- imagine all the obstacles they had to overcome. It is bad enough fighting a foreign enemy -- imagine if your own country is basically against you in addition to that.

[DUMBGRUNT]

Harlem Hellfighters - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harlem_Hellfighters

Harlem Hellfighters is the popular name for the 369th Infantry Regiment, formerly the 15th New York National Guard Regiment. The unit was also known as The Black Rattlers, in addition to several other nicknames.


http://encarta.msn.com/list_blackmilitaryheroes/Black_Military_Heroes.html

[PeteB570]

You can ask the local library for The Black Phalanx by Joseph T Wilson and Men of Color by William Gladstone.

A search of Bennie J McRae, Jr will bring up a number of Civil War links (some broken) on colored Regiments.

I've got to get to work and I'll get back with some more leads later.

[mewzilla]

www.tuskegeeairmen.org

[PeteB570]

You beat me to it. There was an article on them a while back in the American Legion magazine.

[SJSAMPLE]

Yes on "Glory", one of the best "war" movies EVER MADE.
No on "Tuskegee Airmen". Too simplistic and lousy dialogue.

[netmilsmom]

Thanks!

[highlander_UW]

God bless them, both for their earlier service to this nation as well as their bravery in supporting the troops now.