Robert Decatur, Tuskegee airman, has died

[The Straight Story]

Robert Decatur, Tuskegee airman

BILOXI, Miss. – Former Tuskegee Airman Robert Decatur, who went on to become a judge and civil rights lawyer, has died. He was 88.

Decatur died at his home in Titusville, Fla., on Aug. 19, according to the Newcomer Funeral Home. He was to be buried at Biloxi National Cemetery with full military honors.

He was one of the original Tuskegee Airmen, the country’s first black military pilots and crew, who fought overseas during World War II but faced discrimination when they returned home.

In 2007, Decatur was among the surviving airmen who received the Congressional Gold Medal.

He spent 25 years as a probate judge in Ohio and taught at six law schools.



http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2009/sep/06/david-avadon-illusionist/

[JohnnyLib2]

1. RIP

Pioneers in so many ways....

[sarge43]

2. CAVU, sir and thank you.

RIP:patriot:

[Captain Hilts]

3. Those guys rocked.

"I get my orders from General Arnold, who gets his orders from General Marshall, who gets his orders from Eleanor Roosevelt, so, these boys are gonna fly combat."

Commanding officer of the Tuskegee Army Air Corps base

[sarge43]

4. The bomber crews they protected loved them.

They didn't screw around or show boat. They did the job and kicked some serious ass. They were professionals.

[Captain Hilts]

5. They spent such a ludicrously long time training in the USA - to keep them out of combat -

that they were far more highly trained than the other units there.

Yes, the bomber crews loved the red tails.

[sarge43]

9. They also knew they had a lot to prove and they did, many times over. n/t

[MsKandice01]

6. Wow...in his day

He was GORGEOUS.

[Vidar]

7. RIP Airman Decatur.

[teamster633]

8. Salute!

[RagAss]

10. Rest in Peace !

[sixmile]

11. His story was embellished, say comrades

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/florida/orl-tuskegee-airman-090309,0,177272.story

snip

Because of his stories of heroism, the Arkansas chapter of the Tuskegee Airmen is named in his honor.

But his death last month in Titusville at age 88 did not lay to rest the contention of fellow Tuskegee Airmen that Decatur's legendary life was largely his own creation.

"He included himself as one of those heroes, and he wasn't," said John Gay, president of the Orlando chapter of Tuskegee Airmen Inc., an association created in 1972 to honor the first black pilots trained in Tuskegee, Ala., during World War II.

Decatur's embellishments were repeated over the years in articles ranging from a 2004 cover story in Onyx magazine to an Aug. 22 obituary in the Orlando Sentinel.

The record shows that Decatur was a Tuskegee cadet in 1944 but did not complete pilot training. He did not graduate from flying school and never flew in combat. He was not Laurence Fishburne.

"Mr. Decatur was not the model for the character, nor were the six or seven others who have claimed to be over these last 14 years," said Joan Williams, whose late husband, Robert, wrote the movie's screenplay and based much of it on his experiences as a Tuskegee pilot.

The impersonation of war heroes is so prevalent that Congress passed the Stolen Valor Act of 2005 to crack down on men who gave themselves medals they never earned. To many of these men, the glory of their imaginations makes up for shortcomings in their lives.

"The more you exaggerate, the more acclaim you get, and the more acclaim you get, the better it feels," said Alan Keck, an Orlando psychologist.

snip