Black History
Historic “Tuskegee Airmen” Custom Tribute Displaying Twenty Seven Different Members Pilot’s Signatures
Handsome Custom “Tuskegee Airmen” Signature Display of 27 Tuskegee Airmen’s Ink Signatures on Individual 5” x 3” Cards, Double Matted, Choice Extremely Fine.
The very first African-American United States Army Air Force aviators are known as the “Tuskegee Airmen” (Operational Units 1941-1946). Nicknamed “Red Tails” or “Red-Tail Angels”. This impressive large Custom Display measures 32” x 40” being comprised of 27 Different Tuskegee Airmen’s Ink Signatures, each written on individual white cards, some bearing dates, unit numbers or places. Outer mat corners lightly bumped yet will be covered when framed. These were carefully acquired over time and gathered for placement within this important Tribute Display. Each Signature Card has been double matted and placed in consecutive rows. At middle is a 14” x 10” copy photo of the first 12 Tuskegee Cadets being reviewed by Major James A. Ellison, in 1941. Individual Airmen Signers include:

“Dabney Montgomery, John Leahr, Wendell Freeland, Utha Knox, Charles Lane, Henry Moore, Ed Tillman, Haldane King, James Sheppard, Washington Ross, Vernon Hopson, Eugene Derricotte, Les Williams, Jack Bryant, Charles McGee, Wilfred DeFour, Buford Johnson, Oliver Goodall, Richard Rutledge, John Mulzac, Fred Johnson, Herndon Cummings, Roy Richardson, Claude Platt, William Surcey, Lloyd McKeethen, and Harvey Alexander”.

All Black military pilots who trained in the United States trained at Moton Field, the Tuskegee Army Air Field, and were educated at Tuskegee University, located near Tuskegee, Alabama. 450 pilots were sent overseas, 66 were killed in action and 32 were captured. Overall, this unique display is in very nice condition and ready for custom framing and display. A great World War Two related Black History tribute to those heroic pilots.
The Tuskegee Airmen is the popular name of a group of African-American military pilots (fighter and bomber) who fought in World War II. Officially, they formed the 332nd Fighter Group and the 477th Bombardment Group of the United States Army Air Forces. The name also applies to the navigators, bombardiers, mechanics, instructors, crew chiefs, nurses, cooks and other support personnel for the pilots. They were the first blacks to fly and fight in war and fight in the Air Force.

All black military pilots who trained in the United States trained at Moton Field, the Tuskegee Army Air Field, and were educated at Tuskegee University, located near Tuskegee, Alabama. The group included five Haitians from the Haitian Air Force, and one pilot from Trinidad.

Although the 477th Bombardment Group trained with North American B-25 Mitchell bombers, they never served in combat. The 99th Pursuit Squadron (later, 99th Fighter Squadron) was the first black flying squadron, and the first to deploy overseas (to North Africa in April 1943, and later to Sicily and Italy)

The 332nd Fighter Group, which originally included the 100th, 301st, and 302nd Fighter Squadrons, was the first black flying group. The group deployed to Italy in early 1944. In June 1944, the 332nd Fighter Group began flying heavy bomber escort missions, and in July 1944, the 99th Fighter Squadron was assigned to the 332nd Fighter Group, which then had four fighter squadrons.

The 99th Fighter Squadron was initially equipped with Curtiss P-40 Warhawk fighter-bomber aircraft. The 332nd Fighter Group and its 100th, 301st and 302nd Fighter Squadrons were equipped for initial combat missions with Bell P-39 Airacobras (March 1944), later with Republic P-47 Thunderbolts (June–July 1944), and finally with the aircraft with which they became most commonly associated, the North American P-51 Mustang (July 1944). When the pilots of the 332nd Fighter Group painted the tails of their P-47s and later, P-51s, red, the nickname "Red Tails" was coined. The red markings that distinguished the Tuskegee Airmen included red bands on the noses of P-51s as well as a red rudder; the P-51B and D Mustangs flew with similar color schemes, with red propeller spinners, yellow wing bands and all-red tail surfaces.

The Tuskegee Airmen were the first African-American military aviators in the United States Armed Forces. During World War II, black Americans in many U.S. states were still subject to the Jim Crow laws and the American military was racially segregated, as was much of the federal government. The Tuskegee Airmen were subjected to discrimination, both within and outside the army.