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A "60th Anniversary
of the First Tuskegee Airmen Fighter Pilots
Commemoration" will be held by the
Black Hollywood Education and Resource Center,
in association with the Los Angeles Chapter
of the Tuskegee Airmen Inc., to recognize
the first Tuskegee Airmen Fighter Pilots
and honor some of the surviving members
of the 99th Fighter Squadron--the trailblazing
Tuskegee Airmen. The first five Tuskegee
Airmen were awarded their wings on March
6, 1942, after training at Tuskegee Army
Airfield on the campus of Tuskegee Institute,
in Alabama.
Honorees include: William
Campbell, Charles R. Dryden, Herbert E.
Carter, William R. Thompson, Spann Watson,
John W. Rogers, Elmer D. Jones, Bernard
S. Proctor, Roger "Bill" Terry,
and Hiram Little, Sr.
The "60th Anniversary
Commemoration of the First Tuskegee Airmen
Fighter Pilots" is also intended to
remove the veil of invisibility that has
kept the heroic accomplishments of the Tuskegee
Airmen from the pages of popular history.
These black fighter pilots, in the face
of racism, became known and feared by the
Germans as "Schwartze Vogelmenschen"
(Black Birdmen) and as the "Fighting
Red Tail Angels" to the American bomber
crews they protected, and racked up an impressive
combat record in the skies over Europe and
North Africa. Flying more than 200 missions
as fighter escort on long-range bombing
raids, the Tuskegee Airmen never lost a
bomber to enemy fighters. They flew more
than 15,000 combat sorties in 1,5000 missions
and destroyed more than 600 enemy aircraft.
Of the 992 black aviators trained at Tuskegee
Army Airfield, 66 were killed in combat
and 32 were taken as prisoners in Germany.
Reception-Friday, March
8, 2002, 7 to 10 p.m., tickets $50 Community
Day, Saturday, March 9, 2002, free admission
Meet and greet the Tuskegee Airmen, 11 a.m.
to 5 p.m. ·
Panel Discussion with
Tuskegee Airmen, 1 to 2:30 p.m. ·
West Coast premiere screening of the Alabama
Television Production documentary, "The
Tuskegee Airmen," 3 to 5 p.m.
California Science Center, Exposition Park,
Los Angeles
The "60th Anniversary
of the First Tuskegee Airmen Fighter Pilots
Commemoration" is sponsored by the
Black Hollywood Education and Resource Center,
The Los Angeles Chapter of the Tuskegee
Airmen Inc., the California Science Center,
the Office of Assemblyman Roderick Wright,
and Northop Grumman. Actor William Allen
Young ("Moesha" and "Any
Day Now") will serve as master of ceremonies
for the Commemoration.
Founded in 1996, the
Black Hollywood Education and Resource Center
is a nonprofit, public benefit organization
designed to advocate, educate, research,
develop, and preserve the history and future
of Blacks in film and television.
For more detailed information
about the "60th Anniversary of the
First Tuskegee Airmen Fighter Pilots Commemoration,"
call (323) 957-4747; write BHERC at 1875
Century Park East, Suite 600, Los Angeles,
CA
90067-2199.
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