Tuskegee Airmen

From the December 18, 2008, Chicago Tribune.

One of Indiana's last surviving Tuskegee Airman, Quentin Smith, 90, will get the chance to go to Washington, DC to be at the Obama inauguration with lots of help from friends. After the war, he was on the Gary, Indiana, city council and principal of a school.

Walter Palmer, 89, of Indianapolis, can't go because of his battle with stomach cancer.


From Danny Westmont's column in the Dec. 14, 2008, Seattle Times.

There are six surviving Tuskegee Airmen in the Seattle area.

Bill Holloman II remembers coming back from Europe by boat in the fall of 1945 after flying 19 combat missions. The 21-year-old landed in New York and seeing signs "Whites to the right. Coloreds to the left." "I saw that and knew I was back in the good ol' USA."

During the war, 994 pilots and 15,000 ground personnel trained at Tuskegee Army Air Field in Alabama. All were black in the segregated US Army at the time.

Westmont spoke with four of the survivors.

George Hickman, 84
Bill Booker, 86, in poor health
Perry Thomas, 85
Edward Drummond, 82
George Miller, 82

Holloman became the Air Force's first black helicopter pilot and flew combat missions in three wars" World War II, Korean War and Vietnam War. "I always say we were fighting two wars. The war against Hitler and the race war at home. Both were to preserve democracy."

Definitely Heroes of the Highest Caliber. --DaCoot