DFW Tuskegee Airman Chapter

Welcome to Claude R. Platte Chapter !

History has a way of identifying, polishing, and confirming a nation’s true heroes. Consider that in the year of 1942, America had already declared that this great nation was at war. It was a time when all of our man power and resources were being poured into the war effort. Women were working in jobs that previously belonged to men.

But our military began an experiment that was designed to fail. This experiment would prove once and for all that African Americans could not fly complicated, expensive fighter planes, they thought.

But contrary to a War College study and its false conclusions, a small group of pilots in Tuskegee, Alabama began to fly and change the course of history.

Our own bomber pilots changed their attitudes and started calling them Red Tail Angels. We know them now as the Tuskegee Airmen that never lost a bomber that they were escorting. But the whole story has not been told.

What is happening in the Chapter

The 332nd Today!
Click on the link below to see the website for the 332nd Air Expeditionary Wing, the on-going USAF wing whose origins started with our Tuskegee Airmen. Go to: http://www.af.mil/history/332ndaew.asp

New Tuskegee Airmen Documentary:
"Flying for Freedom"
Few stories to come out of WWII are as dramatic and heart wrenching as the stories of a select group of Black men who stood up to the system in order to fight for the country they loved.
Flying for Freedom provides a sobering inside look at the changing face of racism during a time when the Black soldiers and heroes of WWII returned home to an America not ready to accept them as equals.
<click here to read more>

Tuskegee Airmen to Meet Here
Tuskegee Airmen Inc., the organization that honors the legendary black men who made history in World War II as military aviators, will hold its national convention here Aug. 21-25, 2007.
<click here to read more>

Airmen to be Honored
Nearly 400 black World War II pilots, including several from the metropolitan area, will receive the nation's highest civilian honor March 29 when the Congressional Gold Medal will be bestowed upon them.
<click here to read more>

Transportation Safety Board hosts Airmen!
In recognition of African-American History Month, TSA at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) hosted several events in February, including a visit by two members of the famed Tuskegee Airmen, the first group of nearly 1,000 elite African-American military fighter pilots during World War II.
<click here to read more>

Tuskegee Airmen Gold Medal Bill Signed Into Law
(Washington, DC) - The legislation conferring the Congressional Gold Medal on the Tuskegee Airmen in recognition of their heroism in World War II was signed into law, Congressman Charles Rangel announced.
<click here to read more>

CLAUDE R. PLATTE D/FW TUSKEGEE AIRMEN CHAPTER INC.