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[[image - drawing of WW II aircraft]] AUGUST 19th WRIGHT PATTERSON AIRFIELD DAYTON, OHIO THE TUSKEGEE AIRMEN INC. GREATER NEW YORK CHAPTER 223 E. 58TH ST. BROOKLYN, N.Y. 11203 212-495-3246 PRESIDENT - RAYMOND L. WILLIAMS 1ST VICE PRESIDENT - WENDELL J. WILLIAMS 2ND VICE PRESIDENT - CHARLES R. HOLIDAY RECORDING SECRETARY - CHARLES E. WASHINGTON CORRESPONDING SECRETARY - SADIE HOLIDAY FINANCIAL SECRETARY - HARRY W. BANKS TREASURER - JOHN W. FREEMAN HISTORIAN - MARION LEE CONNELL NATIONAL BOARD MEMBER - RAYMOND L. WILLIAMS ALTERNATE BOARD MEMBER - ROBERT DANIELS SERGEANT-AT-ARMS - WILBERT L. HAWES BOARD OF DIRECTORS ROBERT L. THORNE ROY E. LAGRONE GEORGE WARREN GEORGE S. REED JAMES E. STOKES The Tuskegee Airmen Out of the millions of men who fought in World War II, they were only a handful. But their courage, their sense of duty, and their perseverance wrote a brilliant story of individual and group achievement that even now, more than 40 years later, continues to excite the heart and uplift the spirit. They were the source that would one day inspire the establishment of the Tuskegee Airmen, Inc. They were the young black men whom the Army trained-with no little reluctance-as the nation's first black military flyers at an isolated training complex near the small town of Tuskegee, Alabama, and at the historic Tuskegee Institute. In the beginning, there were no black airmen in what was then the Army Air Corps. It was only after the clouds of war broke over Europe and America began to rearm for her possible entry into the conflict, and angry voices were raised in Black America over the exclusion of her sons as Army Air Force pilots, that the first class of 13 black aviation cadets began training at Tuskegee in July, 1941. The strictest of segregation was the ironclad rule of the military and there was no shortage of critics who said the so-called "noble experiment" was doomed to failure; that black "boys" were never meant to soar in the heavens, let alone engage in combat. The best and the brightest of a generation responded to the Tuskegee challenge and they proved the critics wrong. Many of them washed out, just as many of their white colleagues washed out, [[image]] [[caption]] Pictured are members of the Social Committee: (Left to Right) Front Row: George Bing, Ann Bing, Sadie Holiday (Co-Chairman), Barbara Terrelonge, Ray Williams, President, Dr. Bernice Williams, Ofelia Caution, Ida Van Smith, Marion Connell. Back Row: Charles Washington, Wilbert Hawes, Victor Terrelonge, George Warren, Charles Smith, John Freeman, Wendell Williams (Co-Chairman), Charles Malone, Ronald McQueen, Tolie Caution, Ronald Fenty, Robert Daniels, Charles Holiday. [[caption]] 194
