Tuskegee Airmen Research Papers

The Tuskegee Airmen

Sophia Smith 8B 4/9/24 Research paper final draft.

The Tuskegee Airmen were a group of all black pilots fighting for equality during World War II. The Tuskegee Airmen had to fight for equality during every step of their creation, training, and use as an active unit. Even as they were continually knocked down, they fought to fly. Their inspiration and success helped bring equality into the world. The Tuskegee Airmen were one of the most important groups in World War II and paved the way for African American pilots, helped to desegregate the military, fight the Nazis, and inspire young African-Americans.

As the interest in flight increased around the 1930’s, many people in the U.S. hoped for the chance to be a pilot

These people were originally split into different groups or squadrons. Sometimes these groups combine and work together. For example, the 332nd fighter group was actually made of four different fighter groups that were combined in February 1944. These groups are the 100th, 301st, 302nd and 99th fighter groups (Unknown B 1). Even though that was a lot of people, that was not the only part of the Tuskegee Airmen. The Tuskegee Airmen are composed of the 33nd fighter group as well as the 477th bombardment group (Unknown B 1). All of those groups added up to about 14,000 people and only 992 of them were pilots. The other 13,008 people include ground personnel, aircraft mechanics, and logistical personnel (Haulman 3). All of these groups and individuals made the Tuskegee Airbase run smoothly and helped to cultivate the notability they deserve. There's so many important people that made up the Tuskegee Airmen and made the groups run with the efficiency that allowed for such a good reputation. Benjamin O. Davis Jr. was the leader of the 99th and 332nd fighter groups and later Commander of the 477th Bombardment group. He was also the son of General Benjamin O. Davis Sr. who was an important army general at the time (Unknown E 4-5). Lt. Colonel Harry Stewart was the recipient of the Distinguished Flying Cross and earned top gun

They flew more than 15,000 individual sorties in Europe and North Africa and earned themselves more than 150 Distinguished Flying Crosses (Unknown D 1-2). Most of these missions were flown in red-tailed P-51 Mustangs, which is why they are sometimes called “Red Tails”(Haulman 4). They did so well that up until a few years ago people thought that the Tuskegee Airmen never lost a bomber. Although that was proven to be false, they did only lose 25 bombers over 200 escort missions which is much better than the average of 46 bombers (Unknown D 4). Unfortunately after they formed the 477th group, shortages in essential supplies as well as people? delayed the deployment of this group until WWII ended and the group was never deployed overseas (Unknown C 6). This, however, did not affect the popularity of the Tuskegee Airmen as a whole. The 332nd fighter group was noted as one of the most successful and well decorated groups in the Army Air Force after it fought in the European Theatre (Unknown C 4-5). This helped to prove the worth of African Americans in the military and the world. This caused the government to crumble the wall of segregation in the military and start the integration of the military. This also proved that the impossible might actually be possible for thousands of young African Americans and inspired them to fight for higher positions. Barack Obama said at his inauguration that his “ career in public service