2008 Student Essays - Northwest Region Winner

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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.