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January 19, 2012

Black Commercial Pilots Will Sponsor Screenings of “Red Tails”

The Organization of Black Aerospace Professionals (OBAP) will host screenings of “Red Tails” when the movie opens on Friday nationwide.

Westchester, Ill.-based OBAP will host students in Dallas/Ft. Worth, Houston, Louisville, Ky., Apple Valley, Calif., and Memphis, Tenn., for ““Red Tails,” a film by director George Lucas about the Tuskegee Airmen, an elite group of African-American pilots trained in the 1940s. “Red Tails” refers to the color of their planes' vertical stabilizer or vertical tail.

The airmen were pioneers in equality and integration of the Armed Forces. The term ”Tuskegee Airmen” refers to all who were involved in the Army Air Corps program to train African Americans to fly and maintain combat aircraft. The Tuskegee Airmen included pilots, navigators, bombardiers, maintenance and support staff, instructors, and all the personnel who kept the planes in the air.

The primary flight training for the airmen took place at the Division of Aeronautics of Tuskegee Institute. Air Corps officials built a separate facility at Tuskegee Army Air Field to train the pilots. The Tuskegee Airmen not only battled enemies during wartime but also fought against racism and segregation, thus proving they were just as good as any other pilot. Capt. Benjamin O. Davis, Jr., was chosen to lead the outfit because he was one of only two black line officers in the Army -- the other was his father.

Capt. Davis was a West Point graduate whose leadership skills and personal strength in overcoming racism helped make him an effective combat leader. He would eventually become the U.S. Air Force's first black general.
OBAP, formerly known as the Organization of Black Airline Pilots, was founded in 1976 to enhance, advance, and promote educational opportunities in aviation.

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