Describes Group's Many Triumphs Over Adversity

A standing-room-only crowd gathered at Stennis Space Center, MS on January 17 to hear Robert A. Decatur, one of the 130 remaining Tuskegee Airmen, tell his story of duty, service and perseverance in a Martin Luther King (MLK) Jr. Day program.

Decatur joined the U.S. Army Air Corps in 1943 and became one the 966 Tuskegee Airmen. He flew missions in Europe in World War II and in Korea. He became an attorney, judge, professor and an author after his military service. He was the attorney to Martin Luther King Jr., and represented civil rights workers across the South in the 1960s.

Rear Adm. (Sel.) David Titley, commander of the Stennis-based Naval Meteorology and Oceanography Command (NMOC), called Decatur "a true hero" and a "living American legend."

Decatur told the group the story of the Tuskegee Airmen -- their service and the discrimination that stalked them. He pointed out that Tuskegee Airmen-escorted US bombers who flew 1,500 missions in Europe without loss, while the Tuskegee Airmen were not allowed to land in England.

His said his slogan, "Through adversity to the stars," was fitting for the Tuskegee Airmen.

"That says it all about the Tuskegee Airmen because God knows we went through adversity," Decatur said. "At Keesler Air Field for basic training, we were treated like lepers, but we were determined to succeed. We had to succeed."

Commercial airlines would only hire the war-decorated Tuskegee Airmen to be Sky Caps.

"There was more respect given us by the Germans than we received from our white pilots," he said.

The Tuskegee Airmen were named for Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, the black college where they trained and received their wings. The project was considered an experiment because there were no black military pilots.

However, the students demonstrated that, given proper training and the opportunity, they were just as capable as anyone else in the Armed Forces. Their success as combat pilots led directly to the desegregation of the U.S. military in 1948.

"Tuskegee Airmen were in the forefront of the fight for human rights, human dignity," Decatur said. "I'm hoping people will remember what we did and how we did it."

Apparently people remembered. Decatur said that in a tribute for the Tuskegee Airmen, Gen. Colin Powel said: "Upon your backs, I have risen to be the first African-American Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff."

NMOC sponsored the event and invited Decatur, and Titley introduced him. The Naval Oceanographic Office MLK Program Committee organized the event.

(Aero-News thanks George Lammons, Naval Meteorology and Oceanography Command Public Affairs)

FMI: www.news.navy.mil/local/cnmoc/