The efforts to remain true to their memories despite the orders that sometimes confuse when President Donald Trump removes federal diversity, equity and inclusion programs as members of the pioneering Black Air Force have passed away at the age of senior citizens.
Colonel James H. Harvey III (101) was one of the last few airmen and support crews, proving that Tuskegee’s 332nd Fighter Group could fight World War II and years later.
He became the first black jet fighter pilot in South Korea’s airspace during the Korean War, and became the one embellished after 126 missions. He was one of four Tuskegee airlines to win the first U.S. Air Force gun meeting in 1949, a pioneer of today’s US Navy “Top Gun” school.
“They said they didn’t have the ability to operate aircraft or heavy machinery. We were inferior to the whites. We didn’t have anything,” Harvey said. “That’s why we showed them.”
Shortly after Trump took office in January, the Air Force removed a new recruiting training course, including Tuskegee Airlines video.
The removal sparked bipartisan outrage and the White House’s outrage over what Secretary of Defense Pete Hegses described as “malicious implementation” of Trump’s executive order.
The Air Force quickly reversed the course.
Announced the reversal, Air Force Secretary General David Albin said in a statement that the first removal was because, like other agencies, services had to move Trump’s executive order quickly and adhere to “a vagueness, slow, no foot drugs.”
The video was shown to the military as part of a DEI course filmed during basic military training. The Tuskegee Airmen photo was one of tens of thousands of images in the Pentagon database that were flagged for deletion.
“I thought there was progress in the area, but obviously it wasn’t,” Harvey said.
“I’ll tell him to his face. It’s fine,” he said. “I tell him, ‘You’re racist’ and see what he’s saying about it. What can they do for me?
The Tuskegee Airmen unit was founded in 1941 as the 99th Tracking Squadron based at the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. On the 99th, they became the 332nd fighter group. By the end of the war, over 400 enemy aircraft had been destroyed or damaged in North Africa and Europe during the war, and sank German destroyers.
Of the 992 Tuskegee Airlines trained as pilots in 1942, 335 were deployed, 66 were killed in action and 32 were shot down, 32 became war prisoners.
DEI stands for diversity, equity and inclusion, and focuses in particular on fostering an equitable environment for businesses and schools in historically marginalized communities.
Two months after the airline gunners won the propeller-led rank in 1949, the US Air Force was absorbed by a combined black and white airline, black and white, by other units.
It has been almost half a century to acknowledge the final achievements of 332nd. Successful air bombing and shooting capabilities in a shootout at current Neris Air Force Base in Nevada.
For decades, winners were listed as “unknown” and their trophies were missing.
“We beat them all,” Harvey said. “We weren’t supposed to win anything because of the skin color.”
Harvey trained during World War II, but was not deployed to battle before the war ended. In Korea, he flew the F-80 shooting star jet fighter and won medals, including the famous flying cross.
He retired as Lieutenant Colonel in 1965 and received an honorary promotion to Colonel in 2023.
In 2020, Trump promoted another of Charles McGee, the last surviving Tuskegee airline, to brigadier general. McGee passed away in 2022 at the age of 102.
Harvey still considers the Air Force gunshot competition as his greatest achievement.
Their lacking trophies were soon discovered in the museum store.
“We were good and they couldn’t take it from us,” Harvey said. “We were fine and we’ll repeat it until I die.”
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