By Hope O’Brien
GLENDALE – Amid the roar of jets taking off and landing at Luke Air Force Base, members of the Archer-Ragsdale Arizona Chapter of the Tuskegee Airmen gathered Thursday in Hangar 999 for Arizona’s ninth annual Tuskegee Airmen Commemoration Day.
This year’s celebration honored the late Brig. Gen. Charles E. McGee, who was one of the fabled Black aviators of the Army Air Corps during World War II. He died Jan. 16 at 102.
Robert McGee told the crowd that he’s proud of his father’s achievements and the impact he made, which continues to be shared through celebrations like the one at Luke.
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story had an incorrect date for the ninth annual Tuskegee Airmen Commemoration Day celebration at Luke Air Force Base. It was Thursday, March 24. The story has been corrected, but clients who used earlier versions of this story are asked to run the correction found here.
The airmen, he said, “were fighting in two wars, with a double victory. A war against Hitler and the Nazis, but also a war against racism in the United States.”
A handful of Tuskegee Airmen and other World War II veterans also were honored at the celebration.
Before World War II, the U.S. military was segregated, but in 1941, qualified Black volunteers were allowed to train to fly at Tuskegee Army Air Field in Alabama. During the war, these aviators escorted bombers and boasted one of the lowest loss records of bomber escorting units at that time, according to Tuskegee University, which was chosen to train the pilots, navigators and bombadiers because it already had a proven civilian pilot training program.
The fourth Thursday in March was designated as Tuskegee Airmen Commemoration Day by Gov. Jan Brewer in 2013.