Segregated Skies : : All-Black Combat Squadrons of WW II
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1. Beginnings -- 2. Training -- 3. Testing and Proving -- 4. Home Front/Battle Front -- 5. The 332nd Fighter Group -- 6. The 477th Bombardment Group--Frustration and Confrontation -- 7. Climax and Victory -- 8. Aftermath -- 9. Summary and Retrospect.
When the United States Army Air Corps, responding to pressure, opened its ranks to blacks in July 1941, it formed four fighter squadrons exclusively composed of black men. Known as the Tuskegee Airmen, these squadrons represented the total number of blacks who saw action in United States combat aviation in the Second World War. Compiling the operational and combat history of the Tuskegee Airmen, Stanley Sandler examines the history of these pioneer black units--from their early training at Tuskegee, Alabama, to aerial combat in the European theater. He reveals how the squadrons and the fighter group, disadvantaged by inexperience and intense national scrutiny, succeeded in compiling impressive combat records. Ultimately, Sandler states, the Tuskegee Airmen would lead the United States Air Force toward racial parity in the post-war era, years ahead of American society itself. Sandler draws on oral interviews, the units' official records as well as those of the Army and the Army Air Forces, and the federal government archives. He describes blacks' early noncombatant roles in the Army Air Corps--grave registration, housecleaning, supply, and transport. He details the eventual inclusion of black men in combat aviation, beginning with the 99th Pursuit Squadron, whose members were the first blacks to enter American military aviation, as well as the 332nd Fighter Group.
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SERIES
Smithsonian history of aviation series.
PUBLISHED
Washington, D.C. : Smithsonian Institution Press, c1992.
Year Published: 1992
Description: xv, 217 p. : ill. ; 24 cm.
Language: English
Format: Book
ISBN/STANDARD NUMBER
1560981547 (alk. paper)
9781560981541 (alk. paper)
1560989173 (pbk.)
9781560989172 (pbk.)
SUBJECTS
United States. -- Fighter Squadron, 99th -- History.
United States. -- Fighter Group, 332nd -- History.
United States. -- Composite Group, 477th -- History.
United States. -- Army Air Forces -- African American troops.
United States. -- Army Air Forces.
United States. -- Composite Group, 477th.
United States. -- Fighter Group, 332nd.
United States. -- Fighter Squadron, 99th.
World War (1939-1945)
World War, 1939-1945 -- Aerial operations, American.
World War, 1939-1945 -- Participation, African American.
Aeronautics, American military.
Military participation -- African American.
History.