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February, 1942          51

Air Corps

There was a time, as late as Christmas, 1940, when the War Department was refusing all applications of Negro youths who wanted to enlist in the U.S. Army air corps and fly and fight for their country.

Prior to October, 1940, the War Department was writing all colored applicants that they could not be accepted. During the hectic pre-election campaign, Negro voters became so insistent in their protests that the department softened its letters to say that "at the present time" there were no vacancies. Later its recruiting offices were instructed to accept and hold on file applications from Negroes, as there "might be a change."

In March, 1941, the change was announced. An official statement said Negroes would be recruited first for ground work as mechanics. Afterwards would come the formation of the 99th pursuit squadron, to be based at a new flying field at Tuskegee Institute, Ala.

The mechanics - more than 250 - were trained at Chanute field, Rantoul, Ill. In August they were moved to Tuskegee, and the first class of Negro air cadets began training there. In January the ground crew strength at Tuskegee was 390 men, with perhaps 200 more men assigned there for general military duty.

The rate of training for Negro air cadets is limited: 10 to 12 being started each five weeks. The course lasts 30 weeks, so that the first cadet has not yet finished and been commissioned as a lieutenant in the air corps. Chief complaint of Negroes is that a segregated flying field limits their young men and that in the giant program of training 100,000 pilots, their youth ought to be admitted to all air training bases.

[[image - black & white photograph of Judge William H. Hastie and Lt. Col. David L. Neuman]]
[[caption]] Judge William H. Hastie, civilian aide to the Secretary of War, who advises on all matters affecting the Negro soldier, is shown here with Lt. Col. David L. Neuman (left) on a tour of Ft. Belvoir, Va., December 9, 1941 [[/caption]]

[[image - black & white photograph of Capt. B.O. Davis, Jr., and Lt. Carl Luetcke, Jr., standing near a plane]] 
[[caption]] Capt. Benjamin Oliver Davis, Jr., of Washington, D.C., the only Negro graduate of West Point now in service, and Lt. Carl Luetcke, Jr., of San Antonio, Texas, commandant of Aviation Cadets, photographed at the training field of the 99th pursuit squadron at Tuskegee Institute, Ala. Capt. Davis, who graduated from West Point in 1936, is the son of Brigadier General B. O. Davis, Sr.[[/caption]]