African American Fighter Pilots, 1941-1943
From Benjamin O. Davis, Jr. Benjamin O. Davis, Jr., American: Autobiography. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1991. 82-83, 90, 98-100.
In organizing the 99th Pursuit Squadron, the Air Corps made a positive effort to avoid the worst aspects of segregation by creating an authentic and highly professional flying unit, similar in all respects to white pursuit squadrons except for the color of its personnel. In March 1941 the Army called for volunteers on a first-come, first-serve basis for the squadron, which was to be composed of 35 pilots and a ground crew of 278 men. . . .
Looking back, it seems clear to me that the Air Corps set and maintained high qualification requirements for the 99th. The corps made a conscious effort to select the best black aircraft maintenance, armament, communications, and supply people that the basic training centers could produce. Black enlisted people already in the service were undoubtedly selected because of their high qualifications and expressed desire. The cream of the crop of black enlisted personnel was available at the time, and from personal experience I can attest that the people assigned to the squadron were highly qualified. The requirement for two years of college was later eased as we approached Pearl Harbor and the Air Corps tried to find qualified applicants for pilot training who had not been to college.
I was convinced that my professional future in the Air Corps would have to be based upon my own qualification as a pilot and assuming command of the 99th. On 19 July 1941, General Weaver addressed us at a ceremony at Tuskegee Institute inaugurating the flying training of blacks. "The eyes of your country and the eyes of your people are upon you," he said. "The success of the venture depends upon you. . . . You cannot be inoculated with the ability to fly. . . . The life of a flying student is no bed of roses." . . .
AAF [Army Air Forces] had dodged the deployment decision for many months. Under the original plan, the 99th would have been sent to Roberts Field, Liberia, as part of a task force providing air defense to an important point on our line of communications to North Africa, the Middle East, and China. Apparently, AAF thought it would be appropriate to assign its black fighter squadron to black Liberia to minimize racial troubles. . . . But with the success of the Allied landings in North Africa in November 1942, the need for the air defense of Roberts Field was eliminated. . . .Finally, but also within the bounds of segregation, it was decided to move the 99th to North Africa in the spring of 1943 as a separate squadron in the Mediterranean theater. . . .
While no AAF unit had gone into combat better trained or better equipped than the 99th Fighter Squadron, we lacked actual combat experience. So as we approached our first missions, my own inexperience and that of my flight commanders was a major source of concern. On the other hand, we had averaged about 250 hours per man in the P-40 (quite a lot for pilots who had not yet flown their first missions), and we possessed an unusually strong sense of purpose and solidarity. . . .
Our first encounter with enemy fighters occurred on 9 June. We were escorting a flight of 12 A-20s on a routine bombing mission. as the A-20s came off the bomb run at 3,000 feet, they were attacked by four German Me-109s, which had just taken off from an airfield near the target. Eight of our P-40s stayed with the bombers and escorted them home. The other four turned into the Me-109s, and Willie Ashley damaged one as they quickly departed the area. . . .
On 2 July I led a 12-plane escort of 12 B-25s to Castelvetrano in southwest Sicily. It was on this mission that I saw my first enemy aircraft, an element of two FW-190s and a flight of four Me-109s, far above my part of our formation, which was flying close escort to the B-25s. When the enemy planes dove on the bombers, our top cover turned into them and kept them out of range. During this mission we had our first pilot losses: Lts. Sherman White and James McCullin. We believed at the time that both these pilots had made forced landings along the Silican coast, but regrettably, it did not turn out that way. The loss of fighter pilots was like a loss in the family. On each combat mission, members of the squadron watched the takeoff and were always on hand in large numbers to count the planes as they returned and greet the pilots. On the brighter side of that mission, Lieutenant Hall shot down an FW-190, the first time a black pilot had downed an Axis plane, and damaged an Me-109. All out other pilots returned to base.