Tuskegee Airmen

[midnight Target]

My son's girlfriend has a little boy, 10 years old.  He often admires some of my diecast airplanes.

Some time ago I told him that he could have the pony with the red tail if he could tell me why the tail was red. Over the course of the past few months he tried a few guesses..

Cause they had red paint?

So his friends would know him?

Blood? - (one of my favorites )

I guess he decided to do some research because last week he got the airplane.  Now how many 10 year olds have Benjamin O. Davis as a hero?

[GtoRA2]

Nice work on motivating him to learn a bit about history!

[Curval]

I have been trying to organise a small group of kids to learn about WW2, flying and teamwork using AH as the base...much like Slimm50 did with the scout troop.  I will be approaching my Rotarty Club to help out with it, in terms of finding the right kids.  I don't want them to be from good homes...I want them to be "inner city" types.  It is my attempt to get them involved in "something".

My first "class" will simply show the film "Tuskegee Airmen" in the hopes that they will identify a bit with the characters and hopefully get them interested.

[Creamo]

My son's girlfriend has a little boy, 10 years old. He often admires some of my diecast airplanes.

Yikes, yer old. I forget that in bbs banter and will take heed.

Now how many 10 year olds have Benjamin O. Davis as a hero?

1?

Now how many 10 year olds have Snoop Dog as a hero? Lol.

[Mini D]

Cool way to get a child to learn about history MT.  Does he seem interested to learn more about the Tuskagee Airmen?

MiniD

[midnight Target]

Like most kids his attention span is measured in nanoseconds. I just helped plant a seed.

[Mini D]

Hehehe... now you need to casually stumble across the movie at Blockbuster.  Its an excellent mesh of history and hollywood.  Not too far off of the truth, with enough flash to make it entertaining.

MiniD

[Syzygyone]

Well done sir.  Would that there were more like you!
But then again, that's why we became Nightmares, ain't it!

[AKS\/\/ulfe]

When he gets old enough to read through some long books (history as opposed to action packed comics), here are two you should make his mom aware of to buy for him:

"Benjamin O. Davis, Jr." An Autobiography
ISBN: 0-87474-742-2

"Red Tails Black Wings" by John B. Holway
ISBN: 1-881325-21-0

The second book actually reads well for someone aged 14+, as it has enough combat excerpts and varying stories from different pilots of the 332nd. It's a really good book too, I read it twice- second time right after I finished the book.
-SW

[Nifty]

Fantastic story, MT!  I wish someone had done the same for me years ago.  My high school (I graduated 11 years ago, by the way) has a row of photos in the main hallway of distinguished graduates.  Some went out to pro sports, some went into politics, and some had distinguished military careers.  One of the photos on the wall was of a black officer in the USAF in his dress blues and one of him in his younger days in the USAAF with his plane.  I am not sure I ever really read the name on the photo, or if I did it never really stuck with me.  There wasn't a writeup on the photo or anything that you could read, it just had a little name plate under it, so I never knew why that particular photo was up there or what real significance it had beyond someone from my high school flew in WWII.

Anyways, a few years later I did learn a little about the Tuskegee Airmen from one source or another.  Then the movie came out, and I learned some more, but still didn't think about the picture on the wall.  Then earlier this year, our newspaper ran some stories on locals that fought in WWII, and mentioned the guy in the photo in my high school.  Not only did the guy fly for the 332nd, but he continued on to have a very impressive career in the USAF.  

I'm very proud to say that Chappie James and I graduated from the same high school (though in very different circumstances and different buildings.)  I'm proud that my school has a photo of him in the hall, but I'm ashamed they never taught us about him, or even of the Tuskegee Airmen during any history classes.  I'm embarrassed that I didn't know of the connection with my school until just a few months ago.