Air Force pioneer dies at 89
First African-American general in AF,
Tuskegee Airmen commander loses battle with Alzheimer's disease
Gen. Benjamin O. Davis Jr., the Air Force's first black general, died July 4 at Walter Reed Army Medical Center here of Alzheimer's disease at age 89.
Davis, promoted to the rank of general by President Bill Clinton on Dec. 9, 1998, is recognized for his role in breaking the color barriers in both the Army and Air Force.
Born Dec. 18, 1912, in Washington, Davis was the son of an Army cavalry officer. At age 14, following a flight with a barnstorming pilot at Bolling Field, he decided he wanted to fly.
Davis' long battle with military racial segregation began in 1932 when he became only the eighth black to enroll at West Point. In an attempt to force him to quit, upperclassmen ordered other cadets to give him the silent treatment. During his four years at West Point, Davis never had a roommate, never shared a tent when in the field and ate his meals in silence.
The young cadet persevered.
When he received his diploma and commission in 1936, he was only the fourth black cadet to graduate, ranking 35th in a class of 276. Following graduation, he joined his father as one of the few black officers in the Army.
The newly minted second lieutenant tried to follow his dream of flying, applying for flight school with the recommendation of the West Point superintendent. The Army, however, accepted no blacks into its air corps in any capacity -- flying or support. What followed was an assignment to the infantry as the commander of a segregated service company at Fort Benning, Ga.
Two years later, he became an ROTC instructor at the all-black Tuskegee Institute of Alabama. He served briefly at Fort Riley, Kan., as aide to his father, Brig. Gen. Benjamin O. Davis Sr., the first black to earn a general's star.
When President Franklin Roosevelt ordered the creation of a flight training program for blacks at Tuskegee, then-Capt. Davis was selected to lead the first class of 13 student pilots -- thereby becoming the first Tuskegee Airman.
But first, Davis had to fight through that first segregation breakthrough; he had to take two flight physicals because the first doctor he saw, who had not heard about Roosevelt's directive, failed him for a disease he never had -- epilepsy.
Davis and the four others who graduated March 7, 1942, from Tuskegee's first class, formed the nucleus of the 99th Pursuit Squadron. With Davis in command, the 99th completed its combat training, then waited until the spring of 1943 before a warfighting command would accept the unit.
The 99th flew its first combat mission June 2, 1943, with then-Lt. Col. Davis in the cockpit of the lead P-40 Warhawk.
Promoted to colonel, Davis returned to the United States to form and take command of the 332nd Fighter Group. The 332nd, which ultimately consisted of the 99th, 100th, 301st and 302nd squadrons, became known as the "Red Tails" and achieved a combat record unmatched in World War II -- no Allied bombers under their protection were downed by enemy fighters.
By war's end, the 332nd was credited with 111 downed enemy aircraft, another 150 destroyed on the ground, 600 boxcars and other rolling stock destroyed or disabled, and a German navy destroyer and 40 other boats and barges sunk.
Lt. Gen. Ira Eaker, deputy commanding general of the Army Air Forces, selected Davis to command the 447th Medium Bombardment Group as it prepared for action against the Japanese. Shortly after Davis took command, the 447th became a composite group, as two of its B-25 Mitchell squadrons disbanded and were replaced by fighter squadrons.
The Japanese surrendered before the 447th saw action in the Pacific theater.
Davis was known as a rigid disciplinarian, but that enabled the men under his command to persevere during the still-segregated post-war years.
Davis did not believe active protest was the way to defeat segregation. Called to testify before a board of general officers to determine the best use of blacks in the U.S. military, Davis attacked segregation and its inherent inefficiency. The men under his command, and blacks in general, he said, could have been used much more effectively in combat had they been assigned according to ability rather than by race.
As stirring as Davis' testimony was, it was not his words that helped end segregation in the military, it was his performance.
Air Force leaders recognized that the men and units led by Davis in World War II served as capably as any line unit. Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Hoyt Vandenberg announced the racial integration of the U.S. Air Force in April 1948, making it the first military branch to do so.
In the years following desegregation, Davis ultimately rose to the rank of lieutenant general, retiring from active duty Feb. 1, 1970.
Following his military retirement, Davis served as safety director for Cleveland, commanding the city's police and fire departments. He later became director of civil aviation security and was named by President Richard Nixon as assistant secretary of transportation, where he helped cut the number of airline hijackings in the United States from 34 to zero in less than two years.
