Tuskegee Airmen plan next mission – training a new generation of black pilots

WASHINGTON – During World War II, nearly 1,000 black pilots trained at Tuskegee Army Airfield in Alabama; nearly half of them were eventually deployed overseas to fly patrol and attack missions.

Russell Nalle, a former Army officer, was among them – the first black aviators in the US armed forces, known as “Tuskegee Airmen”.

“I was a young guy and it was an exciting adventure. I wouldn’t have missed the experience for anything in the world,” said 103-year-old Nalle, who recalled shooting enemy planes and knocking a freight train off the tracks while flying a twin-engine fighter plane over Germany. He was 25 years old.

The unit’s pioneering World War II pilots number just three today. And while Tuskegee Airmen Inc. meets Thursday through Saturday in Crystal City, Virginia, for its annual reunion to honor the original members, the national nonprofit wants to focus on its mission to develop the next generation of black pilots through hands-on educational programs.

“There are not many African-Americans or people of color among the pilots. We want to change that,” says Jerry Burton, president of Tuskegee Airmen Inc.

Black pilots make up only about three percent of all commercial pilots in the United States and two percent of Air Force pilots, he said.

“I remember from my own childhood in the 1970s that many young people didn’t know that these opportunities existed for African Americans,” Burton said.

But the remaining pilots from Tuskegee will be conspicuously absent from this week’s meeting. None of them can travel due to their advanced age, organizers said.

“Maybe next year,” said Nalle, who lives in Detroit and uses a wheelchair.

Retired Brigadier General Enoch “Woody” Woodhouse II, 98, who enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Corps in 1944 and served as an auxiliary with the Tuskegee Airmen, will be there, along with about 35 teenagers who participated in educational programs run by the Tuskegee Airmen Inc.

“We take inspiration from the past, but keep an eye on the black pilots of the future,” said Burton.

Lt. Col. Shelton Ivan Ware, 101, who served as a mechanic with the Tuskegee Airmen, is also expected to attend, he said.

Burton and other convention organizers said they are focused on inspiring a new generation of pilots through math and science camps, flight academies and drone certification training at local branches of the Tuskegee Airmen Inc.

The nonprofit organization funds youth programs through sponsorships, donations, membership fees and licensing agreements. The branches also help students finance their college education through the Tuskegee Airmen Scholarship Foundation.

More than 500 teenagers and adolescents take part in the camps and flight academies every year. The programs range from an introduction to aviation and space travel to practical training for aspiring pilots and drone operators.

“These are extremely successful and popular ventures,” Burton said.

The organization leverages partnerships with other nonprofits and government agencies. A partnership between the city of New Orleans and Tuskegee Airmen Inc. recently created a flight academy for underprivileged youth, he said.

Nalle said he sees a promising future for young black men and women who choose careers in aviation that were unattainable in the 1940s and 1950s.

Black pilots today do not face the same obstacles that ended his flying career after the war, Nalle said.

“I was rejected as a commercial pilot. That wasn’t called or perceived as discrimination at the time. It was part of the culture at the time,” he said. “But joining the military was different. I got to see the world. I couldn’t have asked for anything better than learning to fly an airplane.”