12 Dec 2018 - Tuskegee Airmen

12 Dec 2018
Another cold night and frosty morning at Maxwell Air Force Base FamCamp, but nice and toasty inside! 

  I made some phone calls first thing this morning before we headed out.  I have a leaking seal on our RV toilet ball that I need to replace.  Normally I would simply order the parts on Amazon and have have them in a couple days but that becomes a bit more of a challenge when on the road.  It can be difficult to get deliveries when camping on military bases, but I found one of the parts locally and the other will be at a local dealer tomorrow. 

A couple more phone calls I made had to do with the potential for a government shutdown.  I called the next two campgrounds and asked if they were getting any indications from their leadership whether their FamCamps would be impacted during a partial shutdown should that happen.  The Navy campground said there would be no impact.  I am surprised they would say that.  The representative at the Air Force campground said they would check further and get back with me. 

So, phone calls done, lets go to Tuskegee AL, home of the famous Tuskegee Airmen, which is about 45 minutes east towards Atlanta GA.  The Tuskegee Airmen  National Historic Site is the location of Moton Field where African-Americans back in 1941 began pilot training.  This was a time when they were told they were not capable, not good enough to be pilots.  Segregation and discrimination was rampant and they wanted to prove themselves even though America did not necessarily want them to succeed.  Long story short, not only did they become very capable pilots but they excelled during World War II over 17,000 African-Americans served under the 332d Fighter Group as not only pilots, but mechanics, communications specialists, armament specialists, medical personnel,  cooks, administrative personnel and all the other specialties that served in the Army Air Corps. 

The National Park Service has done an outstanding job preserving Moton Field and the buildings involved with training the Tuskegee Airmen.  The two hangars, the bath/locker house, the skyway club, the auxiliary storage shed, the warehouse/vehicle storage building and the air traffic control tower all remain. 

As you enter the facility and walk from the huge parking lot, you follow a walking trail which takes you along a series of educational signs and down to what would be the "main gate". 

The guard house location

The old main gate

We walked along down the old dirt road which led to Hangar #1. We passed the 'ghost' location of two buildings,  the cadet house and the army supply building.  The National Park Service has erected tubular structures where the buildings used to stand and provided information about the buildings as if they were here.

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Past these two buildings was Hangar #1. 

Inside we watched a short video that explained more bout the Tuskegee Airmen and their training.  We then entered the hangar where we found beautiful displays including a Stearman PT-17 aircraft as well as Piper Cub 13.

There were also displays of the parachute maintenance area and many of the other areas:

Maintenance room

Supply room

Cadet Waiting Room

'War' Room

Link Trainer 

Parachute displays

In 2021 the America the Beautiful quarter will feature the Tuskegee Airmen

We walked over the hangar 2 and watched a very informative movie and then walked out into the exhibit area.  The centerpiece of this area was the iconic P-51 Mustang with the distinctive Red Tail, Duchess Arlene. 

The replica of this aircraft is on static display in front of the 132d Wing Air National Guard base in Des Moines.  Iowa has close ties with the Tuskegee Airmen as 12 Iowans were members of the famed Tuskegee Airmen. 

Many of our Iowa Air National Guardsmen who served in the Iraq campaign were assigned to the 332 Air Expeditionary Group, with lineage to the 332d Fighter Group of the Tuskegee Airmen.

Lastly, the air traffic control tower at Moton Field has been preserved and you can climb the tower and see the view. 

The take-away to this visit is an increased appreciation of the struggles the Tuskegee Airmen and other African Americans in the military faced.  Not only did they have to fight for the right to fight for their country, they had to fight the enemy in combat in the skies of Europe, but then when they returned home they had to continue to fight their fellow countrymen for equal rights in America.  The museum display this as the 'Double V':  Fighting for Victory at Home and Abroad.