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Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton

Mr. Speaker, I rise to ask the House of Representatives to join me in recognizing the Tuskegee Airmen for their excellence in aviation, their courage, and their role as trailblazers for equality. On January 20, 2012, the movie ``Red Tails,'' which depicts the story of the Tuskegee Airmen, debuted nationwide.

The story of the Tuskegee Airmen, as they would become known as, begins long before they fought in World War II. Their first fight began at home, against racial discrimination. Prior to WW II, the U.S. Army Air Corps prohibited African Americans from serving as pilots, because the U.S. government believed that African Americans were incapable of flying an airplane. In October 1940, President Franklin Roosevelt ended the ban on African Americans serving as pilots in the Air Corps. However, it was not until January 1941, in response to pressure from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the Chicago Defender and other African American newspapers, and only one day after Howard University student Yancey Williams threatened to sue the Secretary of War because the Air Corps still had not accepted any African Americans pilots, that the War Department created an all-black squadron in Tuskegee, Alabama, the U.S. Military was racially segregated at the time. Soon thereafter, the Airmen received a visit from First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. During the visit, she asked Charles ``Chief'' Anderson, the head of the program, ``Can Negros really fly airplanes?'' Chief Anderson replied: ``Certainly we can; as a matter of fact, would you like to take an airplane ride?'' Mrs. Roosevelt accepted and upon landing, she turned to Chief Anderson and said, ``I guess Negros can fly.''

By the spring of 1941, the training of the first group of Tuskegee Airmen, the 99th Fighter Squadron, commenced. The squadron consisted of 13 African American men, all of whom were college graduates and had earned their pilot licenses prior to serving in the Air Corps. The Airmen trained under difficult conditions, from overcrowded classrooms and airstrips to racist officers. In 1943, the Airmen were sent to North Africa, and Europe to fight. In their first mission, they managed to shoot down six German aircraft.

The Tuskegee Airmen were known as the ``Red Tailed Angels'' because of the red paint on the propeller and tail of their planes. In all, approximately 990 men graduated from Tuskegee's pilot training program but only 450 of them were sent overseas for combat assignments. These heroes managed to destroy over 409 German airplanes and 950 railcars, trucks, and other vehicles. The Airmen flew, 1,578 missions over Europe and North Africa, escorted more than 200 bombing missions, and were the first to sink a battleship using only machine guns, remarkable accomplishments for a group of men whom the military thought could not fly. In total, the Red Tails were awarded 150 Distinguished Flying Crosses, 744 Air Medals, 8 Purple Hearts, and 14 Bronze Stars. The accomplishments of these brave soldiers helped pave the way for President Harry Truman's decision to integrate the military in 1948. In 2007, several decades after they completed their last mission, President George W. Bush presented the Congressional Medal of Honor to the Tuskegee Airmen, a well-deserved recognition for a group of men who had to fight two battles, one at home and another abroad.

Not surprisingly, there are currently 31 Airmen living in the D.C. Area. Residents from the District of Columbia, particularly students from Dunbar High School, the-then segregated public high school for black students here, were selected in a disproportionate number as Tuskegee Airmen.

I ask the House to join me in honoring the accomplishments of the Tuskegee Airmen and in thanking them for their service.