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The CAF Red Tail Squadron is comitted to telling the inspirational story of the Tuskegee Airmen and their support personnel.

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#OTD October 17, 1919, Sherman Windham White Jr. was born in Macon, Mississippi.

His parents, Sherman and Nettie, were both teachers. White attended Elmore County Training School in Alabama, then studied at the University of Chicago. He had completed three years of college when he volunteered for Army service and began training to become a pilot.

White reported to Tuskegee in October 1941. The following February, an Alabama newspaper recognized him as the only Black aviation cadet from Elmore County. By May 1942, he had earned his wings with Class 42-E-SE, one of Tuskegee’s earliest graduating classes.

Assigned to the 99th Fighter Squadron, White deployed to North Africa in the spring of 1943. He flew the P-40 Warhawk during the squadron’s first months in combat.

On July 2, 1943, White took off from Tunisia in a P-40L for a bomber escort mission to Sicily. His aircraft was last seen near the island’s southwest coast. He did not return. He was 23 years old.

The circumstances of his loss remain unknown, and White remains unaccounted for. His name is recorded on the Walls of the Missing at the North Africa American Cemetery in Tunisia.

Today, on his birthday, we remember the young college student who left school to become an Army pilot, and whose family never had the chance to welcome him home.

Read more about his life through CAF RISE ABOVE:
https://cafriseabove.org/sherman-w-white-jr/ by @cafredtailsquadron

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Our October newsletter is ready for your enjoyment!

Check out profiles of Tuskegee Airmen and Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP), catch up on all of the news, and see what we'll be up to next. 🤩

Read the entire issue at our link in bio. by @cafredtailsquadron

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Yesterday, we marked the Curtiss P-40’s first flight. Today, we’re following its history with the Tuskegee Airmen, who flew the Warhawk in training and in their first combat missions.

October 14, 1938: The XP-40 prototype makes its first flight. The aircraft enters service before the Army opens military pilot training to Black Americans.

March 7, 1942: Tuskegee’s first five Army pilots earn their wings. Further training prepares pilots of the 99th for combat in the P-40, while mechanics learn to maintain the aircraft they will take overseas.

April 1943: The 99th Fighter Squadron deploys to North Africa under Lt. Col. Benjamin O. Davis Jr. Its P-40s will serve in a campaign that takes the squadron from Tunisia to Sicily and mainland Italy.

June 2, 1943: Flying from Tunisia, the 99th enters combat with a mission against Pantelleria, an Italian island in the Mediterranean.

July 2, 1943: While escorting B-25 bombers over Sicily, Lt. Charles B. Hall shoots down an Fw 190. It is the first credited aerial victory by a Black pilot in the U.S. armed forces. Hall is flying a P-40.

January 27–28, 1944: Defending Allied forces at Anzio, the 99th’s P-40 pilots earn credit for destroying 13 enemy aircraft in two days. Hall accounts for two, bringing his total to three.

July 1944: The 99th joins the other squadrons of the 332nd Fighter Group at Ramitelli, Italy, and transitions to the P-51 Mustang for long-range bomber escort.

The Mustang became the aircraft most closely associated with the Tuskegee Airmen. But the 99th had already spent more than a year in combat flying P-40s, attacking ground targets, escorting bombers, and protecting troops.

Did you know the Tuskegee Airmen flew P-40s? by @cafredtailsquadron

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#OTD in 1938 the Curtiss P-40 made its first flight!

What's the connection to the #TuskegeeAirmen?

📸 Kevin Hong, Sector K Media, LLC by @cafredtailsquadron

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#OTD on October 13, 1942, the 332nd Fighter Group was activated at Tuskegee Army Air Field in Alabama.

The existing 100th Fighter Squadron joined two newly activated squadrons, the 301st and 302nd. Together, they began preparing for combat in a military that still segregated its Black personnel.

Their familiar red-tailed P-51 Mustangs came later. First came months of training in Alabama and Michigan, where pilots practiced flying and gunnery while ground crews prepared to maintain their aircraft overseas.

The group arrived in Italy in early 1944. Flying P-39 Airacobras, its pilots protected shipping, patrolled coastal waters, and attacked ground targets. That spring, the 332nd moved to Ramitelli and took on the bomber escort work for which it became widely known. P-47 Thunderbolts gave way to P-51 Mustangs.

The 99th Fighter Squadron had already fought in North Africa, Sicily, and Italy. By July 1944, it was flying escort missions alongside the other three squadrons.

Every mission depended on work completed before takeoff: engines serviced, weapons checked, aircraft repaired, and supplies available. The group’s history includes the people who performed those jobs alongside the pilots who flew.

October 13 marks the activation of the unit that would become known as the Red Tails. 🤩

🌁: "Soon to be added to the nation's fighting forces will be an all [B]lack aviation squadron, whose members now are in training at Tuskegee Institute, Tuskegee, Alabama. Some of the cadets at the Basic and Advanced Flying School for Negro Air Corps Cadets are shown here, January 23, 1942, lined up for review with Major James A. Ellison returning the salute of Mac Ross of Dayton, Ohio, as he inspects the cadets." ~ Library of Congress by @cafredtailsquadron

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#OTD on October 12, 1944, the Tuskegee Airmen’s 332nd Fighter Group set out in their P-51 Mustangs to attack railroad traffic and other targets between Budapest and Bratislava.

Near Tapolca, Hungary, pilots of the 302nd Fighter Squadron spotted an He-111 bomber. Capt. Wendell Pruitt moved in to attack. Two more bombers and seven Me-109 fighters arrived, turning the encounter into a running air battle that lasted about 15 minutes.

1st Lt. Lee Archer shot down three Me-109s in rapid succession. Pruitt destroyed the bomber he had first targeted and another Me-109. By the end of the mission, six Tuskegee Airmen pilots had earned credit for nine aerial victories.

The day also brought a loss. Antiaircraft fire shot down 1st Lt. Walter McCreary’s P-51. He survived, but was captured and became a prisoner of war.

Archer’s three victories brought his wartime total to four. He and Pruitt, fellow pilots in the 302nd, became known as the “Gruesome Twosome.”

📷 Pruitt entrusting his ring to crew chief Staff Sgt. Samuel Jacobs. by @cafredtailsquadron

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#OTD on October 10, 2013, Tuskegee Airman Joseph “Joe” Gomer died at age 93.

Long before he flew fighters over Italy, Joe was a boy in Iowa Falls, Iowa, building model airplanes and working in his father’s janitorial business. When his father died in 1938, people in his community helped fund his education at Ellsworth College. There, he studied pre-engineering and learned to fly in a pasture outside town.

Joe enlisted in 1942 and earned his wings at Tuskegee in May 1943. Assigned to the 301st Fighter Squadron of the 332nd Fighter Group, he flew 68 combat missions over Italy and Germany. He survived a crash landing in a P-39 and enemy fire that tore holes through his P-47.

He also faced segregation within the military he served. Returning home from combat did not spare him that treatment. When he boarded a troop transport in Naples, an officer made him wait until every white passenger had boarded.

Joe stayed in uniform as the military began integrating and retired as an Air Force major in 1964. He settled in Duluth, Minnesota, with his wife, Elizabeth, and their two daughters. His next career was with the U.S. Forest Service, where he received recognition for helping women and minorities gain employment opportunities.

Many of us knew Joe through his visits with CAF Red Tail Squadron and the RISE ABOVE Traveling Exhibit. He spent time with students, answered their questions, and shared what he had experienced. For those young people, the Tuskegee Airmen’s history came with a face, a voice, and a conversation they could remember.

Learn more at https://cafriseabove.org/joseph-phillip-gomer/ by @cafredtailsquadron

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7 days ago

Sometimes when we're out with our Mustang, if we catch her at the right angle, it looks like she's smiling at us.

It's almost like she knows she's been entrusted with carrying on the #TuskegeeLegacy and couldn't be happier about it. 😍

📷 @kw.sagttarii by @cafredtailsquadron

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On This Day, October 8, 1943, Benjamin O. Davis Jr. took command of the 332nd Fighter Group at Selfridge Field, Michigan.

He had just returned from leading the 99th Fighter Squadron in combat in North Africa and Sicily. Back in the United States, he also had to defend the squadron against officers who questioned its performance and wanted it removed from combat. Davis brought the record of the men who had flown those missions to Washington and made their case.

Now he was responsible for preparing a larger group of Tuskegee Airmen for war. The 332nd would deploy to Italy and eventually bring the 99th together with the 100th, 301st, and 302nd Fighter Squadrons under his command.

What do you think he was feeling? by @cafredtailsquadron

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On This Day, October 6, 1944, 2nd Lt. Andrew D. Marshall was flying a P-51 with the Tuskegee Airmen’s 301st Fighter Squadron on a mission against German-held airfields in Greece.

Anti-aircraft fire hit his plane, and Marshall parachuted out. Greek partisans found him, hid him from German soldiers, and helped him get back to his squadron in Italy.

The photograph accompanying this post shows Marshall after his return, telling another pilot what happened. His escape depended on people in Greece taking a considerable risk for an American airman they had never met.

Marshall returned to combat. On December 29, 1944, he disappeared during a bomber escort mission over Germany. He remains missing.

Read more about his life and service at https://cafriseabove.org/andrew-d-marshall/ by @cafredtailsquadron

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11 days ago

Step Inside History with the RISE ABOVE Mobile Movie Theater at Wings Over Western Kentucky!

The fully functional RISE ABOVE Mobile Movie Theater features two compelling original short films, RISE ABOVE: The Tuskegee Airmen and RISE ABOVE: The WASP, sharing the stories of the extraordinary obstacles these heroes overcame to serve during World War II.

Housed in a climate-controlled 53-foot semi-trailer with expandable sides, the theater is equipped with a ramp and hydraulic lift to ensure accessibility for all, comfortably accommodating up to 30 visitors per showing. Its dynamic 160-degree panoramic screen creates the thrilling sensation of soaring in the cockpit above the clouds alongside these historic figures.

The Tuskegee Airmen and Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) were trailblazers who broke barriers in a time of segregation and discrimination. The Tuskegee Airmen were the first Black military pilots in U.S. history, proving courage and skill could overcome systemic prejudice. The WASP were the first women to fly military aircraft for the U.S., paving the way for future generations of female aviators. Both groups not only contributed critically to the Allied war effort during WWII but also challenged societal norms, inspiring lasting change in military service and civil rights.

Come visit us October 10 (10am-4pm). by @cafredtailsquadron

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