Tuskegee Airmen plan next mission — cultivating a new generation of Black aviators

By LINDA F. HERSEY STARS AND STRIPES • August 14, 2024



This 1943 photo shows Tuskegee pilots who were recent graduates from training with the Army Air Corps program in Alabama. Tuskegee Airmen included not only pilots but also navigators, bombardiers, support staff and all personnel who kept the planes in the air. (Tuskegee Airmen archives)

WASHINGTON — Nearly 1,000 Black pilots trained at Tuskegee Army Airfield in Alabama during World War II, with nearly half of them eventually deploying overseas to fly patrol and attack missions.

Russell Nalle, a former Army officer, was among them — the first Black aviators in the U.S. armed forces known as the Tuskegee Airmen.

“I was a young guy, and it was an exciting adventure. I wouldn’t have missed that experience for anything,” said Nalle, 103, who recalled strafing enemy aircraft and knocking a freight train from its tracks as he piloted a twin-engine fighter plane over Germany. He was 25 years old.

The pioneering pilots of the World War II unit now number only three. And as Tuskegee Airmen Inc. gathers Thursday through Saturday for its annual convention in Crystal City, Va., to honor the original members, the national nonprofit looks to focus on its mission to cultivate the next generation of Black aviators through hands-on education programs.

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