Tuskegee airmen - interesting Jamaican connection

Thursday, January 26, 2012

Dear Editor,

Last Saturday CNN aired interviews conducted by anchor Fredricka Whitfield with living legends of the famous and admirable group of black pilots known as the Tuskegee Airmen of World War 11.

Enlisted in the 332nd Fighter Group, 447 Bombardment Group of the segregated US Army Air Corps, the Tuskegee airmen were the crew of African-American pilots in the Tuskegee training programme who, though faced with segregation and kept mostly on the ground during the war, were called into duty and delivered decisively for their country.

Of interest, CNN anchor Fredricka Whitfield is the daughter of Mal Whitfield, one of the black pilots who shot down two German fighter planes while escorting a damaged bomber back to base.

What is more interesting is that Mal Whitfield, aka Marvellous Mal, won a gold medal in the 800m final of the 1948 London Olympics, beating our Arthur Wint who took the silver medal in the event. The former black fighter pilot and Ollie Matson, Gerald Cole, Charles Moore of the US Olympic team were shot down by a world-shattering performance of Jamaica's 4 x 400m relay team of Arthur Wint, Leslie Laing, Herb McKenley and George Rhoden at the 1952 Olympic Games.

The success of the Tuskegee airmen in the theatre of war was immortalised in the George Lucas film Red Tails starring Cuba Gooding Jr, soon to be shown in cinemas around the world.

Claude Wilson

jaclaudew@yahoo.com

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COMMENTS (1)

howie J
1/26/2012

George Lucas invested his own money, US$100M, to finance and distribute Red Tails. The main characters are Terrence Howard and Cuba Gooding Jr. According to Lucas, none of the 7 major Hollywood Studios wanted anything to do with a film with majority black actors. As a result, he had to put up an additional US$35M to advertise and market the film, because some Americans, after so many years, still have no faith in the ability of black people and are not willing to get involve in a story which shows their heroism and contribution to America.
Please go out and support this film.

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Tuskegee airmen - interesting Jamaican connection