THE LEGENDARY RED TAILS

It’s not unusual for military formations to have to fight for the resources they need, or perhaps convince hidebound superiors of the validity of new technologies or techniques. Few, however, have ever faced a fight such as the African-American Tuskegee Airmen had to undertake to justify their very right to exist and serve their country.

Despite the “self-evident” facts declared in 1776 that “all men are created equal”, the United States of America was riven with racism and prejudice in the 1940s. Segregation was normal in many areas and was rigidly, often violently enforced. African-Americans and other minorities were treated as second-class citizens, with the same nominal rights as white Americans but the clear understanding that they were not the same. Black troops had fought well from the American Civil War to World War I, but bigotry led to moves in the 1920s to limit Black military involvement. Even as America rebuilt its armed forces in the late 1930s, and war in both Europe and the Far East loomed, this vast pool of manpower was dismissed as fit for little more than menial work. When the Civilian Pilot Training (CPT) programme was established in 1938 to train some 20,000 college students for a year as civil pilots to be a ready-made reserve in wartime, it was limited to whites only. It