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  • Escort Excellence

    While the 99th Fighter Squadron continued to fight its way through Sicily and Italy alongside white units, Benjamin Davis returned to the United States to take command of the new 332nd Fighter Group. Another segregated unit, the 332nd included three fighter squadrons -- the 100th, 301st and 302nd --

  • Davis Leads the 99th Into Combat

    Segregation required the 99th Fighter Squadron to have a black leader. After three white officers commanded the squadron, 1st Lt. George S. Roberts became the first black to command the squadron in June 1942. In August 1942, Capt. Benjamin O. Davis Jr. was chosen to lead the outfit overseas. One of

  • Charles Alfred “Chief” Anderson

    A world-famous flier before World War II, Chief Anderson became the first African American to earn a commercial pilot license. In 1940 the Tuskegee Institute hired him as its chief flight instructor to develop its pilot training program. The U.S. Army Air Corps awarded Tuskegee the contract to

  • Training Begins

    Reflecting contemporary American custom and War Department policy of segregation, the Army Air Corps announced the formation of its first-ever black combat unit, the 99th Pursuit (later Fighter) Squadron, in March 1941. The first ground crew trained at Chanute Army Air Field (AAF), Ill., and pilots

  • Political Pressure

    In the late 1930s, President Franklin D. Roosevelt anticipated that the U.S. could be drawn into a war in Europe. His administration began a pilot training program in 1938 to create a reserve of trained civilian fliers in case of a national emergency. African American leaders argued that blacks

  • Tuskegee Airmen

    Reflecting American society and law at the time, the U.S. military remained racially segregated during World War II. Most African American soldiers and sailors were restricted to labor battalions or other support positions. One experiment in the U.S. Army Air Forces, however, demonstrated

  • Disney Pins on Wings

    The Insignia Art of Walt Disney Productions During World War II"The insignia meant a lot to the men who were fighting ... I had to do it ... I owed it to them."  - Walt Disney, 1901-1966 Walt Disney Productions created approximately 1,200 designs during World War II for both American and Allied

  • Women’s Flying Training Detachment

    Meanwhile, under Jacqueline Cochran, a training program for women pilots was approved on Sept. 15, 1942, as the Women's Flying Training Detachment (WFTD). The 23-week training program begun at Houston included 115 hours of flying time. Training soon moved to Avenger Field at Sweetwater, Texas, and

  • Women’s Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron

    The Women's Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron (WAFS), never numbering more than 28, was created in September 1942 within the Air Transport Command, under Nancy Harkness Love's leadership. WAFS were recruited from among commercially licensed women pilots with at least 500 hours flying time and a 200-hp

  • Bombing as a Manpower Problem

    The Norden bombsight served as the U.S. Army Air Forces' primary high-altitude visual bombsight during World War II. In 1939 a journalist exaggerated its accuracy with the claim that it could "drop a bomb in a pickle barrel from 18,000 feet." The claim was exaggerated, but unprecedented accuracy was