This is a wonderful story!

GOOD STUFF

I had no idea there were that many still alive. Good for them!

Proud

They were tough characters. I worked a the post office (in Champaign ratfood) and there was a guy who had been a gunner with them. He disliked wimpy Nam Vets!

I read a few years back that they actually began their training at Chanute before shipping south.

This is a wonderful honor for these American pioneers and heroes.

The court martial that these guys successfully fought for entering a white officers’ club is not nearly as well known as it should be. Lots of great characters, including Coleman Young and lead defense attorney Thurgood Marshall.

On 19 March 1941, the 99th Pursuit Squadron (Pursuit being the pre-World War II descriptive for “Fighter”) was activated at Chanute Field in Rantoul, Illinois.[3] Over 250 enlisted men were trained at Chanute in aircraft ground support trades. This small number of enlisted men became the core of other black squadrons forming at Tuskegee and Maxwell Fields in Alabama.

My dad was stationed at Chanute briefly. Would have been a couple years later.

Yea, you know they had a huge Navy Training Corps at the U of I? I think the diesel school was under the stands at the stadium.

I didn’t know that. Funny, you don’t think of Navy training in a landlocked state.

Naval Air Station Glenview so not necessarily landlocked completely.

Chicago Pile-1 (CP-1) was the world’s first artificial nuclear reactor.[4] CP-1 was built on a racquets court, under the abandoned west stands of the original Alonzo Stagg Field stadium, at the University of Chicago.

From wiki

Must be something attractive about stadiums.

Brings to mind the old title/author joke

Under the Grandstands by Seymour Butts

I’ve heard that the floor of Lake Michigan is still littered with the wreckage of planes used for training during WWII.

And tennis courts. I have some recollection that the research reactor at UIUC is in close proximity to the old clay tennis courts.

They had a lot of space with really high ceilings and pretty decent security options.

Digg it.

Thanks, SaltinWound, I didn’t know they had been court-martialed. They had the best defense, that’s for sure. Most of what I know about them is from the program on PBS (frontline?).

Raven @ 9, thanks for that info. 8 months before WWII declared, huh?
I’ll have to read up on them. I’m so happy they are being recognized while they are alive. It won’t make up for the abusive discrimination they have endured, but can lift their spirits some.

Woo hoo Lisa! Thanks for your oh so thoughtful post and you have cheered me up considerably – had been in the doldrums since the announcement of homeboy & long time former congresscritter Leon Panetta to “head” the CIA – aghhhhhhhh.

Happy to be of service. The kind folks at FDL have given me this spot La Figa to be able to write a range of stories that hopefully will be thought provoking, but will serve to pull us out the doldrums (in most cases)–poke around on the archives and you’ll find everything from squirrels to Blago burgers as well as some heavier stories. And thanks for reading!

Wonderful news and I hope it is not lost on people that the date of the inauguration falls the day after the observance of MLK Jr’s birthday and right before the beginning of Black history month in February.

They actually engineered the incident, it was a sophisticated operation, coordinated with the black newspapers of the day.

Great story, thanks for posting it.

things have changed significantly

Segregation has Come Undone! Things are working out!
Thanks for the Very Good News:)

The father of a friend of my brother was one of the Airmen, and I never knew about them when in HS, and did not know he was a pilot until reading his obituary. I am deeply saddened to find out too late that a great man passed without many of us knowing of his efforts to protect this country in spite of the hate that many spit in his direction. Clark Tibbets was a man unknown to me, but I celebrate his life and the quiet efforts he made as a sacrifice to this country, and the great impact he had on his children–none of them listed in ANY police log!! They are a testimony to his wisdom (along with his wife!) and the instruction that that education is the key to progress. God bless Clark Tibbs!

Seconded.

Thanks Lisa.

Fine story, thanks for writing about it.

Those airmen were tough, undaunted men not disheartened by negative actions towrds them, very unlike people in these modern days who brawl, shoot or kill at the least provocation or disappointment (not to say the war hardships).
If the Tuskegee airmen live nowadays maybe they would get drunk or use narcotics to stay happy, but see their photos, they were so optimistic, because what? They felt they had done something useful in their lives, something great done to make them proud of. And of course they still believe in God in those hard days (unlike the spoiled modern city youths nowadays)