guished itself over North Africa, Sicily and Anzio,
joined three other Black squadrons: the 100th, 301st
and 302nd. These four squadrons, designated as the
332nd Fighter Group, comprised the largest fighter unit
in the 15th Air Force. From Italian bases they also de-
stroyed enemy rail traffic, coast-watching surveillance
stations and hundreds of vehicles on air-to-ground
strafing missions. Sixty-six of these pilots were killed in
aerial combat while another thirty-two were either
forced down or shot down and captured to become
prisoners of war.

These Black Airmen came home with 150 Distin-
guished Flying Crosses, Legions of Merit and the Red
Star of Yugoslavia.

Other Black pilots, navigators, bombardiers and
crewmen were trained for medium bombardment duty
and were joined by 332nd combat returnees and
formed into the 477th Composite Fighter-Bomber
Group (flying B-25s and P-47s). This group never en-
tered combat because of the surrender of Germany and
Japan in 1945. Significantly, the 477th's demands for
parity and recognition as competent military profes-
sionals combined with the magnificent war record of
the 99th and the 332nd led to a review of the U.S. War
Department's racial policies.

For every Black pilot there were ten other civilian or
military Black men and women on ground support
duty. Many of these men and women remained in the
military service during the post-World War II era and
spearheaded the integration of the armed forces in the
U.S. Air Force in 1949. That the "Tuskegee Experi-
ment" achieved success rather than the expected failure
is further recorded by the elevation of three of these
pioneers to flag rank: the late General Daniel "Chap-
pie" James, our nation's first Black Four-Star General;
Lieutenant General Benjamin O. Davis, Jr., USAF, Re-
tired; and Major General Lucius Theus, USAF, Retired.

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