Talking ‘Twin Victories’, new generation speaks

Story of Tuskegee Airmen recounted at Commerce City event

BY SCOTT TAYLOR STAYLOR@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

For now, Gabrielle Martin, speaks for her father as well as herself.

“Here we are in 2023, and we are still talking about getting recognition for the Tuskegee Airmen,” Martin said. “You talk about ghting the war. ey had to ght just for the right to be there.”

Martin is the daughter of Capt. Robert Martin, retired, one of the original Tuskegee Airmen, a group of 932 ghter and bomber pilots and their support crews who trained at Tuskegee Army Air eld in Alabama during World War II, breaking records, making history and creating a legacy. Her father died in 2019.

Speaking to a small group Feb. 23 at the Commerce City Civic Center for the city’s Black History Month commemoration, Martin talked about growing up as the daughter of a Tuskegee Airman.

“ ey fought to serve their country and when they came home, they came home to a life of service,” Martin said. “ ey were teachers, instructors. Many stayed in the military to earn higher ranks so they could teach others. Many made a military career, something they could be proud of.” e group was invited to speak by the city’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion group. Mayor Pro-Tem Jennifer Allen- omas, a member of Commerce City’s DEI group, brought her father, a former City Councilor — who represented the same seat his daughter now holds — and a retired member of the U.S. Air Force himself.

She was joined by Daphne Rice-Allen, daughter of Price D. Rice, another member of the Tuskegee Airmen, and by John omas of Longmont, a re-enactor for the Denver-based Hubert L. “Hooks” Jones Chapter of the Tuskegee Airmen, Inc.

While omas spoke of their experiences in a deeply segregated U.S. during World War II, based on interviews and conversations with original members, the daughters gave more personal accounts of growing up; learning about their fathers’ sacri ces, what it all meant and how it a ected them.

Twin Victories ey all spoke of twin battles the soldiers needed to ght, against an enemy in war but also against bias and discrimination at home. e unit had an excellent combat rating, was highly praised by military commanders and earned six Distinguished Unit Citations while its members earned 96 Distinguished Flying Crosses.

Formed near the start of World War II, the Tuskegee Airmen’s rst class of 13 cadets began service in July 1941 in deeply segregated Alabama. ey grew to include nearly 1,000 personnel — the group includes pilots but also ground crew and support sta — and served with distinction. Of that group, 355 ew some 1,500 missions in Europe between 1942 and 1946. e pilots were mostly African American and were the rst aviation unit of their kind during a time when the U.S. military was still racially segregated and many U.S. states still had Jim Crow laws on their books.

But members got the sense that they were never meant to succeed. Re-enactor omas explained how the 332 Air Group had trained on used and outdated equipment and monitored closely, with any infraction grounds for washing out of the program. ey could not practically leave the base, since it was located in the heart of Jim Crowe south.

When they nally were deployed, they were given unnecessary missions at rst. ey’d come up to their objective — a bridge to be blown up or a beach to patrolled — to nd that other pilots, their white counterparts, had already completed the mission.

“We said give us something to do, something we can be proud of,” omas said.

But they found their role, protecting the vulnerable, slow-moving bombers, omas said. e Germans had learned that American pilots, seeking to improve their kill ratios, would leave the bombers vulnerable to engage the enemy ghters. en a second wave of German ghters would take out the bomber, he said. e Army began sending ghters from the Tuskegee Airmen’s 332 Air Group, in their distinctive ghters with red-painted back ends, along.

“Pretty soon, the bombers’ squadron leaders didn’t know we were black,” he said. “ ey just said ‘We Want the Red Tails.’” e unit gained a reputation as “Red-Tailed Angels.” at was brought home as they disembarked from their ship at the war’s end.

Despite their successes, the Army was still segregated and members of the Air Group were not allowed to celebrate with their white peers in the o cers’ clubs.

“ e worst thing was coming back on the troop ship after the war and walking down the gangplank I see two signs,” omas said. “One goes this way, the other turns o , says ‘Colored.’ I put my life on the line every day, just like everyone else.”

Top Secret to Top Gun

In fact, their service was not acknowledged until 60 years later. Much of it was labeled “classi ed” meaning that the servicemen themselves were not allowed to speak of it.

at had not changed four years later in 1949 when the Air Force decided to host a competition for its best pilots. Called Top Gun, the namesake for the Tom Cruise movies, the contest pitted teams of pilots in six skills over the Nevada salt ats that would become Nellis Air Force base. e teams competed in aerial gunnery — plane-to-plane shooting — at 12,000 and 20,000 feet, dive bombing, skip bombing, stra ng runs and ring rockets. eir win, like their service, was declared a classi ed secret and the trophy was boxed up, labeled “Do Not Open” and hidden in a closet. It was discovered in 2004 by a journalist. It, and a plaque commemorating the win, are on display in a trophy case at the Nellis base.

Four pilots from the 332 Air Wing competed — Capt. Alva Temple and 1st Lts. James Harvey, Harry Stewart and Halbert Alexander. ey not only fared well, they won the team competition.

“Of course, it’s in a building that has no direct public access,” Martin said. “You know that sometimes if you call ahead and make arrangements, you can come see it.”

Rice-Allen and Martin said they didn’t know much of their fathers’ service growing up. Rice-Allen said she was in third grade when her father built storage cubbies in the house for the family to store there favorite things — ve cubbies in all, one for her, her brother and her sister and both parents. e children asked their father what he had to put in his cubby.”

“My mother was nudging him, saying ‘You need to tell them. If you don’t I will,’ Rice-Allen said.

He eventually showed them a map he had detailing a bombing mission he’d own to Berlin.

“He was somewhat reluctant,” she said.

Both agreed their fathers pushed them and their siblings to succeed and be the best they could be.

“ e family motto was, you are getting an education so failure is not an option,” Rice -Allen said. “If it doesn’t work the rst time, gure it out and make it happen. And I think that lesson has served me well: Never quit. Figure it out and make it happen.”