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"The Shepherd" by Troy White www.starduststudios.com First Lt. Charles P. Bailey keeps watch over a squadron of B-24s from the 451st Bomb Group as they cross the Alps en route to Germany during the summer of 1944. Lt. Bailey and his P-51C Mustang, "My Buddy", were part of the 99th Fighter Squadron, 332nd Fighter Group based at Ramitelli, Italy. One of the famed Tuskegee Airmen. Charles Bailey flew 133 missions with the 99th, then returned to Tuskegee as an instructor after completing his tour of duty. He was awarded a Distinguished Flying Cross on May 12, 1945. He passed away in April 2001. |
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As the DAV-sponsored B-25
bombers Panchito and Special Delivery soar the skies above
our nation, they celebrate the spirit and courage of the thousands of men
who made aviation history during World War II. Among them were the
Tuskegee Airmen who flew bombers, not fighters, and took a defiant stand
to end segregation in the military. �The DAV is dedicated to
ensuring the service and sacrifice of all veterans are remembered by a
grateful public,� said Washington Headquarters Executive Director David W.
Gorman. �As we salute African-American History Month in February, we pay
tribute to the men and women who not only fought for freedom, but also for
respect and equality.� During World War II, the famed training field at Tuskegee, Ala., turned out more pilots than it had planes. Of 992 pilots who graduated, 450 served overseas in four fighter squadrons. Many of the remaining pilots were assigned to the 477th Medium Bombardment Group, which was later made into the 477th Composite Group which included, P-47 Thunderbolt fighters, complimented by B-25 Mitchell bombers. Activated on Jan. 15, 1944, at Selfridge Army Air Field in Michigan, those in the unit had high hopes, but were given little in the way of training or support. Howard
Baugh, a member of DAV Chapter 17 in Richmond, Va., flew combat mis�sions
in Italy and returned home to train bomber crews at Tuskegee. �I had an
opportunity to expand my experience by getting checked out in a two-engine
airplane�the B�25�so I took advantage of that,� he said. �Then I became a
B-25 cadet instructor, and later the director of that training program. I
enjoyed it.
�We flew the AT-6 in basic,
and then went to the B-25,� Broadwater said. �It�s pretty hard to make the
switch from an AT-6 to a B-25. The
AT-6
was pretty junky and was fairly flimsy.
When Broadwater joined the
477th squadron in August 1945, only a few
days before the war ended, he was surprised to find B-25D models, less of
a plane than he had trained on. �The squadron wasn�t very effective in the
beginning because it wasn�t doing much training,� he said. �Then the Army
decided to get the squadron ready for combat in the Pacific. Much changed
in the last few months of World War II. �I had just turned 19 when
I joined the squadron, and I just wanted to fly,� said Broadwater. �As
soon as the war was over, there was a considerable cut in flying activity.
We couldn�t get in our hours.
One of the early problems of the 477th Bombardment Group was that the Army Air Corps had trained many African-American pilots but failed to offer necessary navigation and bombardment training to man a B-25 bomber. While pilots were in great supply, navigators and bombardiers were nearly nonexistent until well into the war. When the squadron was formed in January 1944, it was authorized 128 navigators and bombardiers, yet nine months later, it had just 23, and only half of the 176 pilots authorized.
Between October 1944 and
January 1945, 84 new navigator�bombardiers and 60 new pilots joined the
squadron, but the unit remained undermanned and only partly trained. The
477th was moved in March 1945 to Freemen Army Air
Field near Seymour, Indiana, only to be ordered back to Godman in
April. At
Freeman Field there were two separate officers� clubs�one for white
supervisors and trainers, and one for black trainees. On April 3, 1945,
dissatisfied officers from the 477th Bombardment
Group� including future Detroit Mayor Coleman Young�were arrested
when they attempted to enter the white officers� club. After the dust had
settled, 103 African-American officers had been arrested, charged with
insubordina�tion and ordered to face court mar�tial proceedings. The court
martial charges were quickly dropped against 100 officers. Charges against
two of the three remaining officers were subsequently dropped, but one
officer was convicted. In late May 1945, General
Henry �Hap� Arnold, the Commander of the Army Air Corps, ordered all white
officers in the 477th replaced with African-Americans and put Colonel
Benjamin 0. Davis, Jr. in command. Plans were written to send the unit,
now a composite Group of B-25s and fighters, to the Pacific to fight in
the war against Japan. The 477th never had the opportunity to prove itself
in com�bat. When Japan surrendered, the group was still at Godman Field. As the Army Air Corps
shifted to a peacetime footing, many of the Tuskegee Airmen and veterans
of 477th began leaving the service. The 477th was to be the last
segregated bomber squadron in what became the Air Force in 1946. It was
transferred to Lockbourne Army Air Base near Columbus, Ohio, on March 13,
1946, and later designated the 332 Fighter Wing. In 1948, President Truman
signed Executive Order No. 9981, directing equality of treatment and
opportunity in all of the United States Armed Forces. As African-American
officers were transferred to desegregate white Air Force squadrons, the
477th faded into nonexistence. But the legacy of the
Tuskegee Airmen of the 477th Bombardment Group lives today wherever
Panchito and Special Delivery fly. For Broadwater, Baugh and
all the other bomber crews who served with honor and fought against
discrimination, the climb to equality was a long, tough one. After World War II,
Broadwater left the service and immediately bought an Army surplus PT-23
Fairchild training aircraft for his own use. He worked for the Federal
Aviation Administration until his retirement, and always kept flying. Baugh remained in the Air
Force, retiring on June 30, 1967, as a Lieutenant Colonel. During his
military career, he flew more bombers, including the jet-powered B-57
Canberra and B-66 Destroyer. �The jets made all the difference in the
world,� said Baugh. He added an F-15 Eagle to his resume in 1977 and an
FA�18 Hornet of the Blue Angles in 1998. In 1995, at the urging of
Congress, the Air Force notified 15 of the 103 officers charged in the
1945 Freeman Field incident that their
personnel records were purged of the charges. The lone officer convicted
had the decision reversed and his record cleared. �It took 50 years for
justice and equality to catch up to the men of the 477th Bombardment
Group,� said Gorman. �In that time, they continued to serve our nation
with courage and integrity.�
At Balad Airbase, Iraq, Capt. Mark Fersti (/eft) explains an unmanned aer�ial vehicle�s ground control station to Tuskegee Airman retired Lt. Col. Lee Archer (sitting), retired Lt. Co/ Robert Ashby (back right) and retired Col. Dick To/iver (leaning on the chair). The Tuskegee Airmen are here to meet deployed 332nd Expeditionary Operations Group Airmen and obseive operations. The Army created the Tuskegee Airmen unit in 1941
DAV magazine, January/February 2006 |
William
Broadwater, a member of Chapter 17 in Camp Springs, Md., was trained to
fly B-25s. He first flew the PT-17 Stearman, AT-6 Texan and finally the
B-25. Others flew the two-engine AT-b Wichita trainers, which cadets
called the �Bamboo Bomber� because it was made of wood covered with
neoprene, a synthetic rubber. He graduated to the B-25-J models, the same
as Panchito and Special Delivery. �The B-25-J was a pretty
neat aircraft,� he said. �It had 14 guns on it.
�I was
totally disappointed that I was flying a bomber instead of a fighter. I
voiced my objections loudly. I wanted to be a fighter pilot.�
�We
were a low-altitude attack group,� he said. �We flew at tree�top level,
firing guns. But the squadron was short of ammunition, so we got little
training with live firing. My greatest thrill in a B-25 was trying to
barrel roll it. I never quite got it completely over. The guy who did roll
one popped all the rivets. The B-25 was an agile airplane, but you didn�t
want to roll it.�