TOP GUN

Each unit was to select its top three pilots to represent their ghter group at the rst-ever aerial gunnery meet to be held at Las Vegas Air Force Base, Nevada.

It was o cially called the United States Continental Gunnery Meet, which would later evolve into the USAF William Tell Competition. Other derivatives would include Gunsmoke and Red Flag.

Harvey’s unit, the 332nd Fighter Group, selected 1st Lt. Harvey III, 1st Lt. Harry Stewart Jr., and Capt. Alva Temple. ey were all Black pilots, including the alternate pilot, 1st Lt. Halbert Alexander.

“We met with Col. Davis (Col. Benjamin O. Davis, Jr.), prior to leaving for the competition,” Harvey said. “We chit-chatted, and his nal remark was, ‘If you don’t win, don’t come back.’ And with those words of encouragement, o we went.” e competition for “Top Gun” would prove formidable in the conventional piston category, ying the North American P-51 Mustang and the North American F-82 Twin ese were some of the best pilots and aircraft maintenance teams in the country ying some of the most advanced aircraft in inventory.

It was May 1949.

Mustang.

“And we’re ying the obsolete P-47 underbolt,” Harvey said “It was big, clumsy — and heavy.” e lineup consisted of two mis-sions of aerial gunnery at 12,000 feet,

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Each year, the Air Force Association publishes an almanac citing overall force strength, statistics and such — including all winners of the weapons meet from 1949 through the present day.

“But, each year when that almanac came out, the winner of the 1949 weapons meet was mysteriously listed as ‘unknown,’” Harvey points out. “We didn’t nd out, we, meaning us, the Tuskegee Airmen, didn’t nd out about this magazine until 1995.”

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It was only by chance that Harvey’s

‘That trophy will never be on display’ ey had a photo made with the trophy and it was the last day any of them would see it until more than half a century later.

As winners of the rst Air Force “Top Gun” competition in the piston-engine division, Harvey and his team were brought into a hotel ballroom where the almost 3-foottall stainless steel victory cup sat on a table. at was in 1949.

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