Tuskegee Airmen 'Red Tails' pilots honored with Florida monument
Source: Reuters
BY BARBARA LISTON
ORLANDO, Florida Mon Nov 11, 2013 6:54pm EST
(Reuters) - A handful of the few surviving Red Tail military pilots, considered the elite of the Tuskegee Airmen who overcame racism and fought in World War Two, journeyed to Orlando, Florida on Monday to witness the unveiling of the first U.S. monument in their honor.
Only 33 of the original 356 Red Tail pilots survive, and six of them, mostly in their 90s, attended the Veteran's Day ceremony.
The Red Tails, or Red Tail Angels, from the 332nd fighter group, got their name from white combat pilots after the black airmen painted the tails of their aircraft crimson. Their job was to escort the combat pilots on bombing missions from bases in Europe.
The group, trained in Tuskegee, Alabama, was sent to Italy in February 1944 under the command of a black officer, Colonel Benjamin O. Davis Jr., said Lieutenant Colonel Leo Gray, one of the youngest surviving Red Tails at age 89.
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Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/11/11/us-usa-tuskegee-redtails-idUSBRE9AA11420131111
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I am glad at least a few of them were around to see it unveiled. It was long overdue. To my brothers in arms. 
In 1941, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt flew with one of America’s first black pilots, Charles Alfred Anderson, over Tuskegee, Alabama. Mrs. Roosevelt’s flight was well-publicized, and it demonstrated to the public and the military that African Americans could be competent pilots. Shortly after the flight, the Tuskegee flight training program for black pilots was established. This photograph is in collections of the Smithsonian Institution and was provided to the Roosevelt Library by Maxwell Air Force Base. (Titled “C. Alfred Anderson” via National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution, SI Neg. No 90-7010)
http://fdrlibrary.wordpress.com/tag/tuskegee-airmen/
