Tuskegee Airmen by Chioma Urama
South County Secondary School
Fairfax County, Virginia
"Your future, good or bad, will
depend largely on how determined you are not to give satisfaction to
those who would like to see you fail."
– Colonel Parrish to the Tuskegee Airmen, 1943.
Our determination molds and shapes who
we are, better yet who we will become. Our determination is the key
to unlocking our own ultimate power. The willpower of our hearts and
minds is limitless. It
can allow us to produce the unforeseeable and to create things that our dreams
could never fully contain.
The Tuskegee Airmen had their humble beginnings
in the southern town of Tuskegee, Alabama. Originally, only 12 cadets
were chosen to participate in the Tuskegee experiment designed to test whether
or not blacks could be successful in aviation. The cadets eagerly began
their training in the classroom, learning the fundamentals of science and engineering. Within
months they were skillfully flying and earned the honor of receiving their
silver wings. However, their quick success did not cultivate a great
deal of faith in them. Finally, after numerous months of waiting, they
received orders to join the war.
The Tuskegee Airmen began shooting down
enemy aircraft within their first week of combat. They were subjected
to flying more strenuous missions than their white counterparts because of
the lack of black replacements. Despite
being wrongfully discredited by several colonels and officers, the Tuskegee
Airmen made it apparent that they were well disciplined and organized. As
the war progressed they became more confident in their combat techniques and
flying abilities. Their skillful aviation techniques led them to the
trying task of escorting bomber planes. They began painting the tails
of their escort planes a bold and proud shade of red and became know as the
"Red-Tail Angels."
The Tuskegee Airmen have the distinction
of flying more types of planes than any other unit in military history. Their
combat record is astounding. They
received 150 Distinguished Flying Crosses, 774 Air Medals, eight purple hearts,
and 14 Bronze Stars. The most astonishing feat of the Tuskegee Airmen
is their statistic of allied bombers lost to enemy fighters: zero.
The accomplishment
of the Tuskegee Airmen encouraged President Truman to enact Executive Order
Number 9981, the first step toward racial integration in America. Their
triumphs have proven to me that anything I desire wholeheartedly I can obtain. Our
own success is determined by how determined we are to succeed.
