6-29-19 Montgomery and Tuskegee, AL

One of our days here was occupied by mundane household activities including laundry and a bit of shopping, then caulking a few leaks around the shower door.  Another day was burned up by half at Urgent Care to inspect a growth Rob developed on his elbow.  Turns out it’s a type of bursitis and requires a wrap, nothing serious so he’s good.

Yesterday, we took a trip to Moton Field where the Tuskegee Airmen took their basic training.  “You can have anything you want if you want it bad enough,” they say.  The Tuskegee Airmen proved it with their achievements against all odds.  It was supposed, back in the early 1900s, that black people lacked the mental and physical capacity, talent and courage to master aviation skills.  A few had a dream that would not die and persisted.  With the required year or two of post-high school education in hand, many from the Tuskegee Institute where they studied aviation science, they applied and, finally, due to pressure from Congress, the press and the NAACP, were accepted for the Civilian Pilot Training program.  Integration was out of the question, however, and Tuskegee’s Kennedy Field was selected for elementary pre-flight training of black cadets.  During this time, Moton Field was under construction and was named for the President of Tuskegee Institute (after Booker T. Washington). 

Dr. Robert Moton

Moton Field became the basic training center for black pilots.  Of the 13 in the first class of cadets, only 5 successfully survived the rigorous programs and earned their wings in 1942.  They wanted it bad enough.  In total over the years, out of 2,500 applicants, 992 became pilots.

Parachutes were hung from the hangar
rafters to dry so as not to cause
deterioration of the fragile silk.

Besides piloting skills, the cadets underwent intense training as mechanics, ground crew, learning detailed maintenance and packing of the fragile silk parachutes, navigation, gunnery and the usual unrelenting physical routines common to military regimens.  Pilot training took place in the dependable Stearman PT-17 biplane.  After completion of the CPT program, the cadets moved along to Tuskegee Army Air Field for advanced training in the P-51 Mustang, the plane they would fly in WWII.  Their job as members of the 99^th Pursuit Squadron was to escort and protect bombers.  To distinguish their fighter group, they painted the planes’ wingtips and tails red and became known as “The Redtails.” 

Rob reads the spec plate:
 "The compression ratio is surprisingly
 low, he says, 5.6:1!"  Shocking!

Stearman PT-17 bi-plane

North American P-51 Mustang "Redtail"

Their logo became a double “V,” for victory at home (against racism) and victory abroad.  The pilot’s mantra as dictated by trainers such as Daniel “Chappie” James, who became a highly-decorated General, was that he dare not fail and he dare not leave his bomber’s side, no matter what.  The 99th served heroically until the end of WWII, a total of 1,578 missions in which 66 were KIA, 32 were taken POW and 13 are MIA.

There are many hands-on displays.  I was
challenged to pack a parachute.
No problem!

Moton Field is now the home of the Tuskegee Airmen Museum.  Hangers 1 and 2 contain artifacts, pictures, plaques and stories that kept us busy for hours.  We climbed the stairs into the original tower to view the airstrip which is still used for general aviation.  A thoughtful, sobering experience.

Hangar 1

Original tower

Hangar 2

Rob found a great little funky restaurant, the Capitol Oyster Bar, which looks like an old fishing shack. 

The wooden patio and its cover out back are built around great big trees.  It was a fun place to eat out picnic-style starting with appetizers of oysters and alligator tails.  Rob was then served two whole fried catfish while I had a basket of fried shrimp and fries washed down with a cold Leinie’s Summer Shandy.  Delicious!  Afterwards, we got home just in time to hunker down against another red cell thunder storm directly overhead.  Today, we are off to the FL gulf coast.