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Pilot and historian straightens out the lies told about Tuskegee Airmen


http://www.amren.com/news/2012/01/facts-about-the-tuskegee-airmen/

From: Bob Powell

Date: July 3, 2008

This letter was not written for publication, but to enlighten you and your staff about some of the errors and misleading information you continue to publish, Perhaps it should be published to set your readers straight.

As a WWII Historian and former 8th AF fighter pilot flying 87 missions over Europe during WWII, I am dedicated to factual reporting about the air war in Europe and aviation in general, and I take issue with the media (and not with just AJC) continuing to publish untrue and/or misleading statements about the Tuskegee Airmen (T/A). Although I have great respect for the pilots and achievements of this WWII Fighter Group, I do not appreciate the continuing repetition of myths and untruths about their military record, the latest example in the obit on Lt. Col Charles Dryden in today’s paper, repeating the same errors which appeared in his obit story a few days ago.

For more than 60 years the myth that they “never lost a bomber they were escorting to an enemy fighter,” was their primary claim to fame!

Then, several months ago, their historian , William E. Holten, announced that his research proved that this was not true, that they had, indeed, lost some 25 bombers to enemy fighters. This myth still gets published occasionally, but far less frequently since he made this disclosure, thank goodness. Lies told often enough tend to become truths in the minds of many. However, it now seems to have been replaced by another false claim, i.e. that the Tuskegee Airmen flew more than 15,000 combat missions. ALSO NOT TRUE!

Their own official records indicate that the T/A only flew 311 missions. Their so-called 15,000 “missions” were actually 15,000 “sorties.” Apparently, none of your reporters know the difference between a “mission” and a “sortie,” so let me define these for you and them. Combat Mission is an assigned flight to accomplish a military objective. This can be flown by one pilot or a squadron or group of pilots flying together. It is recorded as one mission. Combat Sortie. When, for example, 48 or 64 pilots fly together on a combat mission it is recorded as 48 or 64 combat sorties.

The T/A did not fly 15,000+ combat missions, as stated in your articles about the demise of Col. Charles Dryden. They flew 15,000+ “sorties.” To have flown that many “missions” during the time they were in combat in the MTO, they would have had to fly about 25 missions a day every day they were in combat. Do the math. That’s one mission every hour, every day they were in combat. Impossible! Weather alone would have prevented this, not to mention the problem of keeping all of their aircraft flyable every day over that period of time.

FACT: Their official records indicate they flew only 311 missions, a far cry from 15,000 claimed. Please advise your reporters of the difference between a mission and a sortie so that another T/A myth is not appearing in every mention this Fighter group.

The Dryden story also stated that the 99th Squadron of the T/A was “the most successful squadron in American history.” NOT SO! It would be more correct to say they have been the most publicized squadron in American history, however, thanks to a fully-paid public relations staff in Washington, D.C., the only such office of any military unit other than the U.S. Army, Navy, Marines and Coast Guard.

Although I do not have complete combat statistics on all the fighter groups flying out of Africa and Italy (the MTO), I do have the stats on all of the 16 fighter groups flying in the Eighth Air Force over western Europe. And, when these records are compared, the Tuskegee Airmen rank at the bottom of the list despite the fact that they had four squadrons to only three for the 8th AF groups. FYI, and one of the reasons the T/A exploit their 15,000+ sorties (which they call missions) is that on a normal mission they would put up 64 fighters compared to only 48 for the 8th AF groups . And, since they did mostly ground support missions rather than bomber escort missions, the average length of their missions was about half that of the time in the air flown by the 8th AF fighters. Regarding the above mentioned stats, I would be delighted to provide these for your information if requested.

Another gross error in your first story on Colonel Dryden is that the implication that he was, individually, awarded the Congressional Gold Medal recently. ALSO NOT TRUE. Through the efforts of the New York Senator, this medal was awarded to the Tuskegee Airmen, authorizing all Tuskegee Airman to receive this award. It was not awarded for individual achievements, as implied, but for the role played by the T/A in breaking the color ban for pilots, a civil rights accomplishment, not for their military achievements.

Had this award been given for their military achievements alone, it should also have been awarded to each and every other fighter group in WWII whose records exceeded those of the Tuskegee Airmen. In my opinion, this was a “political award” instead of a military award.

No other bomber or fighter units have been awarded this Medal, only Unit Citations. These are facts. Check them out, and here’s to more factual reporting and a better AJC.

Most sincerely,

Robert H. Powell, Jr.

Author/Editor/Historian/Pilot

352nd Fighter Group

1545 Rainier Falls Dr.

Atlanta, GA 30329

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To start, it would have been better if your source for this letter wasn't a website who's goal is to prove that blacks are intellectually inferior to whites.

Also, it's a little hard to believe all the facts of this letter when the author of it misspells the name of the Tuskegee Airmen's historian as "William E. Holten", when his name is William F. Holton.

Nevertheless, I would agree with the intention of this letter that truth is truth. Embellishing an already inspiring story of courage and service with false information is a disservice not only to the men in question, but to all those who served and sacrificed right along with them. I've included several links about the attempts to correct some of the misinformation about the Airmen by their historian Holton and others. By all accounts, they are not trying to diminish what the Airmen did, but just trying to make sure that the truth is respected, in particular the claim that they NEVER lost a bomber they escorted which is the main dispute.

http://www.nbcnews.com/id/16227836/ns/us_news-life/t/wwii-pilot-corroborates-tuskegee-airmen-loss/#.VVgRmfDHnEU

http://www.military.com/NewsContent/0,13319,120399,00.html

http://www.nbcnews.com/id/16158108/ns/us_news-life/t/records-said-dispute-tuskegee-airmen-lore/#.VVgSWfDHnEU

http://archive.decaturdaily.com/decaturdaily/news/061219/unit.shtml

There is no shame in losing some bombers. Thousand were shot down during WWII. I remember seeing this stated at the end of this movie and being skeptical, but then thinking "Why would they say that if it wasn't true...it could be verified". But that was when I was younger and didn't realize that facts and truth aren't always important if they get in the way of a good story. Like in "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance". After Ransom Stoddard tells the truth to a reporter about who really shot Liberty once Tom had died, the editor tears up the notes and refuses to publish the story saying, "When the legend becomes fact, print the legend."

I'm always reminded of that documentary shown on PBS back in the 90's about how the 761st Tank Battalion, made up of black troops, supposedly liberated Dachau and Buchenwald. They had survivors recounting how these black troops burst through the gates with their tanks and shot up the guards to free them. There was even the actor Robert Clary (he played Corporal LeBeau on Hogan's Heroes) claiming he remembered this large black soldier lifting him up and carrying him around on his shoulders.

The only problem was none of it ever happened. The whole thing was made up to fit a political agenda by the film makers. Fortunately, there were still several of the soldiers who were still alive at the time, as well as historians who quickly debunked the documentary, which left the film makers with the only defense being, "who cares if it's true...racism is terrible, blah blah blah".

In particular, I remember hearing one of the black soldiers who came forward to discredit the story say during an interview that the reason he did so was because it made him angry that some white people apparently decided that what he and his comrades did over there wasn't enough. He didn't want their honor and sacrifice diminished by lies, no matter how well-meaning.

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As soon as anyone sees the your user name is black_lies_matter!

Seriously as soon as I saw that I opted to write this and not read anything your wrote.

Think about it ... your cleaver little name shows the world you are a first class A Hole and nobody reads your little racist rant ... even if it is totally scholarly (w which we all know is not the case).

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