From Air Force Magazine:
Retired Brig. Gen. Charles McGee, one of the last surviving members of the Tuskegee Airmen who flew 409 combat missions in World War II, Korea, and Vietnam, died on Jan. 16. He was 102.
McGee, the son of a preacher, was born in Cleveland, on Dec. 7, 1919. A life-long leader, he earned the distinguished Eagle Scout award in his youth and continued to inspire throughout his three-decade military career and beyond.
He enlisted in the U.S. Army on Oct. 26, 1942—one day after his wedding—and earned his pilot’s wings on June 30, 1943. McGee flew his first combat mission on Valentine’s Day 1944, then assigned to the 301st Fighter Squadron, 332nd Fighter Group, in Italy.
During World War II, McGee flew the Bell P-39Q Airacobra, Republic P-47D Thunderbolt, and North American P-51 Mustang fighters, escorting B-24 Liberator and B-17 Flying Fortress bombers over Germany, Austria, and the Balkans. He had already flown 137 combat missions by the time he was promoted to captain.
Just under a year after deploying to Italy, McGee returned to the United States in December 1944, teaching other aviators how to fly the North American B-25 Mitchell bomber at Tuskegee Army Air Field, in Alabama, where he remained until 1946 when the base closed.
He then served as the base operation and training officer at Lockbourne Air Field in Columbus, Ohio, before being assigned to an air refueling unit.
During the Korean War, McGee was promoted to major. He flew 100 more combat missions in the P-51 Mustang and was assigned to the 67th Fighter Bomber Squadron. In Vietnam, then-lieutenant colonel McGee flew another 172 combat missions, this time in the McDonnell RF-4 reconnaissance aircraft.
McGee retired on Jan. 31. 1973, as a colonel, having accumulated more than 6,300 flight hours. President Donald J. Trump promoted him to brigadier general during a Feb. 4, 2020, ceremony in the Oval Office, then later honored him during his State of the Union address.
Read the whole thing.
If you are not aware of the record of the Tuskegee Airmen, theirs is a remarkable legacy; it continues today. They fought racism here at home to fight fascism abroad, and the fight did not end with World War II. They marked their aircraft with a distinctive red tail, giving them a nickname of legend.
Segregation in the U.S. military had been policy — until Harry Truman ended it in 1948. Blacks were routinely relegated to lesser roles and kept from higher ranks despite proving again and again they could fight and lead as well as anyone.
While the Tuskegee Airmen were a breakthrough in World War 2, there was a precedent. Eugene Bullard left America for Europe as a young man, and served as a fighter pilot for the French in World War 1— and that was just one element in a career that sounds like a movie plot. He is honored in the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force and is still regarded by the French as a hero as well.
George Lucas got the Tuskegee Airmen story into a film in 2012.
John Ridley, a longtime Morning Edition commentator and the writer of the Red Tails screenplay, tells NPR's Renee Montagne that when the Tuskegee Airmen were finally sent to an overseas duty post, they were flying what you might call the jalopies of the U.S. Army Air Forces — planes "plucked from Uncle Sam's junkyard," in the words of one airman in the film.
"They weren't given very good assignments, they weren't given very good material, they weren't expected to do anything at all," Ridley explains. "And of course, their history proved that they exceeded all expectations."
Once the Red Tails finally saw active combat, Ridley says, their white superiors were astounded by the levels of skill and discipline the Airmen displayed — especially when compared with pilots in all-white units.
"They weren't innately better, but [the Red Tails] had trained so much longer because no one wanted to assign them [to combat]," says Ridley. "When they got the opportunity, they were among the most trained pilots in the air."
Having proven themselves, the Airmen were quickly upgraded from their junkers to fly state-of-the-art P-51 Mustang fighters — and they were assigned to more challenging missions, including escorting heavy B-17 bomber planes to their targets.
The Red Tails were the best thing to happen to bomber crews.
"The large planes would have 10 to 11 men onboard, and there were bomber trains of maybe 100 B-17s," Ridley says. "You're talking about a thousand men in the air, and at the time they were losing 20, 30 or 40 of these [planes] per mission. You can imagine what that was doing to the psyche on the homefront."
Part of the reason so many planes were shot down was the escorts' tactics. U.S. pilots were trained to pursue German fighters, leaving the bombers open to attack.
In the movie, as in real life, the Red Tails do things differently. In the film, Col. A.J. Bullard (Terrence Howard) warns his men not to chase glory by going after the German planes.
"We count our victories," he tells them, "by the bombers we get to our targets, by the husbands we return to their wives, by the fathers we get back to their children."
That speech could be a pep talk from an officer to his men in just about any war film. But in this case, it's a black officer challenging his men to protect white pilots — many of whom were disdainful of their shepherds.
Ridley says the Red Tails' approach made a dramatic difference.
"It was huge. It was a different way of fighting, and it changed the course of the war."
NPR has a 2006 account from Alexander Jefferson of Detroit, Michigan on serving in the Red Tails, flying in combat, and on being a POW in WW2.
On this day it is fitting to remember the lives of McGee and his fellows. Their legacy is still honored; their example still one to emulate.
The Air Force has found a way to honor the Red Tails.
Boeing's [and Saab] T-X design will be designated T-7A in Air Force service, and will bear the name Red Hawk, said Acting Secretary of the Air Force Matthew Donovan at the 2019 Air Force Association’s Air, Space, and Cyber Conference in National Harbor, Maryland, on September 16.
The T-7 designation is a logical follow-on from the T-6 Texan II in the trainer category, while the name has been chosen to honor the Tuskegee Airmen—the African Americans who trained during World War II in Tuskegee, Alabama, and notably went on to form the 332d Fighter Group that saw action in the Mediterranean theater flying P-40s, P-39s, P-47s, and P-51s. A bomber group with B-25s was also formed but did not see combat.
Donovan was accompanied on stage during the announcement by Colonel Charles McGee, one of the original Tuskegee Airmen and a veteran of more than 400 combat missions in World War II, Korea, and Vietnam.
“The name Red Hawk honors the legacy of the Tuskegee Airmen and pays homage to their signature red-tailed aircraft from World War II,” said Donovan. “The name is also a tribute to the Curtiss P-40 Warhawk, an American fighter aircraft that first flew in 1938 and was flown by the 99th Fighter Squadron, the U.S. Army Air Forces’ first African American fighter squadron.” That unit currently flies the T-1A Jayhawk in the multi-engine training role at Randolph AFB, Texas.
Ave Atque Vale General McGee.