Segregated skies

the long version

When the United States Army Air Corps, responding to pressure, opened its ranks to blacks in July 1941, it formed four fighter squadrons exclusively composed of black men. Known as the Tuskegee Airmen, these squadrons represented the total number of blacks who saw action in United States combat aviation in the Second World War. Compiling the operational and combat history of the Tuskegee Airmen, Stanley Sandler examines the history of these pioneer black units--from their early training at Tuskegee, Alabama, to aerial combat in the European theater. He reveals how the squadrons and the fighter group, disadvantaged by inexperience and intense national scrutiny, succeeded in compiling impressive combat records. Ultimately, Sandler states, the Tuskegee Airmen would lead the United States Air Force toward racial parity in the post-war era, years ahead of American society itself. Sandler draws on oral interviews, the units' official records as well as those of the Army and the Army Air Forces, and the federal government archives. He describes blacks' early noncombatant roles in the Army Air Corps--grave registration, housecleaning, supply, and transport. He details the eventual inclusion of black men in combat aviation, beginning with the 99th Pursuit Squadron, whose members were the first blacks to enter American military aviation, as well as the 332nd Fighter Group.