The guardian. [volume] (Boston, Mass.) 1901-1960, 1954-04-10
BOSTON
BAKED
BY MABE KoUNTZE

Human virtue demands her
champions and martyrs"
Emerson
THE HEADLINES of Boston
GLOBE of Oct. S, 1885, stare
cOldly from my newspaper files
as l write this column Older
readers will recall the story:
american Pilot Fights Off Two
Flames. Then a report how
Colonel Robinson had flown i'm
portant dispatches to Adds
Ababa, fighting off two Italian
WarplaneS. This was 1885. The
Axis had begun to roll. No Al
lies had accepted the challenge.
Small nations, like Ethiopia,
fought alone.
BROWN CONDOR, Colonel
John c. Robinson, flew his last
humane mission last March
1854. Robinson ended up with
a fatal crash in far away sky
high Ethiopia where he made
world headlines 10 years ago.
Unlike some politicians, Robin
son did not just talk against
dictators. Robinson was actually
one of the first Americans to
90 to the front. Into the fire.
IL DUCE, Benito Mussolini.
was aiding Adolf Hitler in
starting the tragedy of World
War II when Robinson, a quiet
Chicago garage owner, amateur
pilot and plane instructor at
|Tuskegee, volunteered to aid
small African republic courage
ousS trying to halt the Axis
(alone) after Halle SelaSsie had
pleaded before the League of
Nations in vain. Remember?
MUSSOLINI led the Italian
people into a war that proved
disastrous. Most Italians did
not want it. Few Italians APP
proved the bombing of helpless
Philippians. There is grim irony
in the COlOnePs crash. He was
killed with an Italian friend,
fellow flyer, Bruno Bianchi. The
war was forgotten. Together,
Italian and cOlOred, they were
flying a mission of mercy"
flying blood plasma to an in
Jured Ethiopian boy in place
called Nazareth.
THE JUDAH LION of historic
religious Ethiopia, King Halle
SelaSsie, Ias at Colonel Robin
sons bedside at the tragic end.
Here, during these Religious
Weeks of Worship, I wonder
what passed within the mind |
of the King. He had prophecized |
and warned against World War
II, unheeded. He had seen the
Axis destroyed. And here, SYM
bolic, was unity and sacrifice |
shared by two former enemies
buried together. Their last fight |
was Nazareth.
HOLLYWOOD could produce |
few greater true stories than |
that of Col. John C. Robinson |
a crusde to the last. Unrecog-
mixed at home, Roxbury |
and others had agitated for
u. S. recognition for colored |
pilots. His work helped bring
success but he received no U. S.
job. Yet he had combat air ex-
perience before the first colored |
air unit, the Goth, was on paper.
Indeed, Robinson was flying
missions before U. S. paleface
pilots entered the war.
AFRICA, from whence came |
his ancestors, received the Col
onel's final years. He lived in
ETHIOPIA for the last eleven
years after serving as a war
pilot and airforce instructor
during the o-Ethiopian war
He flew $4,000 hours with the |
Ethiopian Airlines in high !
mountain country although he
couldn't hold such jobs at home.
And he flew old, dangerous
planes. The final crack-up came |
in an old Stinson two seat
trainer.
COLORED PILOTS now zOOm-
ing alOft in modern jets and
newer designs, have prOfited
from the silent sacrifice OF
early Tan pilots like Colonel
Robinson and a small symbolic
sepia "sky legion" which in
cluded Hubert Julian, Suicide"
Jones, Bessie Coleman, and
others. And If memorials are
built for American war pilots
Iwould recommend two: Ensign
Jesse Brown, Navy, and Col.
John G. Robinson, Foreign Ser
vice. Both great Americans.