page_title: Tuskegee Airmen
section_title: Legacy and honors
hierarchical_section_title: Tuskegee Airmen / Legacy and honors
caption_attribution_description: English: Tuskegee Airman Tech. Sgt. (Ret.) George Watson Sr. is presented the Purple Heart medal by Congressman Christopher Smith and Col. Gina M. Grosso, Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst commander, May 10 here. He received the medal for injuries he sustained more than 66 years ago after a German air raid on his encampment near Naples, Italy. (U.S. Air Force photo/Wayne Russell)
context_page_description: The Tuskegee Airmen
  were a group of primarily African-American military pilots and airmen who fought in World War II. They formed the 332nd Expeditionary Operations Group and the 477th Bombardment Group of the United States Army Air Forces. The name also applies to the navigators, bombardiers, mechanics, instructors, crew chiefs, nurses, cooks and other support personnel.
  All black military pilots who trained in the United States trained at Griel Field, Kennedy Field, Moton Field, Shorter Field and the Tuskegee Army Air Fields. They were educated at Tuskegee University, located near Tuskegee, Alabama. Of the 922 pilots, five were Haitians from the Haitian Air Force and one pilot was from Trinidad. It also included a Hispanic or Latino airman born in the Dominican Republic.
  The 99th Pursuit Squadron was the first black flying squadron, and the first to deploy overseas. The 332nd Fighter Group, which originally included the 100th, 301st and 302nd Fighter Squadrons, was the first black flying group. It deployed to Italy in early 1944. Although the 477th Bombardment Group trained with North American B-25 Mitchell bombers, they never served in combat.
context_section_description: On 29 March 2007, the Tuskegee Airmen were collectively awarded a Congressional Gold Medal at a ceremony in the U.S. Capitol rotunda. The medal is currently on display at the Smithsonian Institution. The airfield where the airmen trained is now the Tuskegee Airmen National Historic Site.
  Thurgood Marshall, the future Supreme Court justice, got his start defending Tuskegee bomber trainees. The 477th Bombardment Group was formed in 1944 to extend the so-called "Tuskegee experiment" by allowing black aviators to serve on bomber crews. The aim was to send pilots—many of them veterans of the original Tuskegee fighter group—back to the States for training on B-25 bombers. While in Indiana, some of the African-American officers were arrested and charged with mutiny after entering an all-white officers' club. Marshall, then a young lawyer, represented the 100 black officers who had landed in jail as a result of the confrontation. The men were soon released (although one was later convicted of violent conduct and fined).
  Robert W. Williams Jr., a Navigator/Bombardier in the 477th Bombardment Group, became a Judge in the First Judicial District, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.  In 1979, he was elected to the Commonwealth Court, an appellate court, and the first African American to serve on that court.  In 1985, he resigned from the court to run for the District Attorney of Philadelphia County.  He was the first African American to successfully become a city wide candidate for that office.
  Other members of the Tuskegee Airmen have made contributions in the world of business. Eugene Winslow founded Afro-Am Publishing in Chicago, Illinois, which published Great Negroes Past and Present in 1963.
  Daniel "Chappie" James Jr. started his career in the early 1940s at Tuskegee, joining the Army Air Corps in July 1943. After the war ended, James stayed in what became the Air Force and flew missions in both Korea and Vietnam. In 1969, James was put in command of Wheelus Air Base outside of Tripoli.
  Four Tuskegee airmen went on to become generals. For keeping his cool in the face of Qaddafi's troops, James was appointed a brigadier general by President Nixon. However, he was not the only Tuskegee graduate to make flag rank. James followed in the footsteps of Benjamin O. Davis Jr., the original commander of the 332nd Fighter Group and the first black general in the U.S. Air Force. Another Tuskegee aviator, Lucius Theus, retired a major general after dedicating most of his 36-year career in the Air Force to improving the military's bureaucracy, helping to implement a direct deposit system for service members. In 2019, at 100 years old, Colonel Charles McGee was promoted to honorary Brigadier General.
  In 2006, California Congressman Adam Schiff and Missouri Congressman William Lacy Clay Jr., led the initiative to create a commemorative postage stamp to honor the Tuskegee Airmen.
  The 99th Flying Training Squadron flies T-1A Jayhawks and, in honor of the Tuskegee Airmen, painted the tops of the tails of their aircraft red. On 1 August 2008, Camp Creek Parkway, a portion of State Route 6 in south Fulton County and in the City of East Point near Atlanta, Georgia, was officially renamed in honor of the Tuskegee Airmen. The road is a highway that serves as the main artery into Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport.
  The Heinz History Center in Pittsburgh presented an award to several Western Pennsylvania Tuskegee veterans, as well as suburban Sewickley, Pennsylvania dedicated a memorial to the seven from that municipality. An exhibit was established at Pittsburgh International Airport in Concourse A.
  On 9 December 2008, the Tuskegee Airmen were invited to attend the inauguration of Barack Obama, the first African-American elected as President. Retired Lt. William Broadwater, 82, of Upper Marlboro, Maryland, a Tuskegee Airman, summed up the feeling. "The culmination of our efforts and others was this great prize we were given on Nov. 4. Now we feel like we've completed our mission." More than 180 airmen attended the 20 January 2009 inauguration.
  In July
caption: Congressman Christopher Smith presented the Purple Heart Medal to Tuskegee Airman Tech. Sgt. (Ret.) George Watson Sr. with then Col. Gina M. Grosso, Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst commander in 2010
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