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March 23, 1942 Life
 [Table of Contents]
Wax nostalgic about and learn from the history of early
technology. See articles from Life magazine,
published 1883-1972. All copyrights hereby acknowledged.
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Past statue of Booker T. Washington, founder of Tuskegee Institute,
march the vanguard of 400 Negro fliers who will eventually compose the Army's 99th
Pursuit Squadron. Their base will soon be one of nation's top squadron fields. Right:
Capt. Davis.
Cadets in primary training are hazed by older hands who have
completed their solo flights. as at West Point and Annapolis, green cadets at Tuskegee
base must execute orders snappily, do small chores and answer fantastic questions
politely and precisely.
U. S. Army grants commissions to first colored cadets
At Tuskegee, Alabama, March 7, Colonel Frederick V. H. Kimble, U. S. A., pinned
wings on the blouses of five young Negro lieutenants, members of the first graduating
class of the Army's first Negro air school. Since last July they had undergone all
the primary and advanced training to which white Army cadets at Randolph and Kelly
fields are subject. Now they are charter members of the Air Force's 99th (all Negro)
Pursuit Squadron, established last summer at a $2,000,000 airdrome near Alabama's
famed Tuskegee Institute and now developing into one of the Army's biggest training
bases.
Leader of the squadron and No.1 graduate of the air school is Captain Benjamin
O. Davis Jr., West Pointer and son of Brigadier General Benjamin O. Davis, the Army's
first Negro general officer, now on special duty with the War Department in Washington.
White instructors of the 99th agree that their Negro charges, by virtue of exceptional
eyesight, courage and coordination, will prove crack combat pilots. Upon their performance
and promise hang the hopes of additional thousands of aspiring Negro fliers throughout
the land.
U. S. Army's first negro pilots get their wings at Tuskegee,
Alabama Air School.
Cadets sit stiffly on chair edges at dinner in accordance with
Army custom. Captain Davis reviews new cadets undergoing pre-flight training at
base. Flying cadets hear a brief lecture on wind currents from Lieutenant McCune.
Cadets wave goodby to Capt. Davis as he takes off on demonstration flight.
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