Tuskegee Airmen: Fighting a war on two fronts

LIMA — They were the best of the best. And when the Tuskegee Airmen proved to the country what they were capable of doing, they brought recognition not only to the United States, but also to their race.All honorable men, several of them came from the Lima area with a desire to serve their country. Among them was Lt. Col. Charles I. Williams, who enlisted to serve in this elite group — a first of its kind.At the time, blacks could not serve in the military. As Williams explained to The Lima News in 2006, “they didn’t want a black man flying in the first place, and they used many ploys to keep us from flying, but we just made them eat crow. We made liars out of them. We were the best.”Indeed, Williams and his co-horts were part of a grand experiment started in 1939, and nicknamed the Tuskegee Experiment. The Army Air Corps began a program to train blacks to fly and maintain combat aircraft. The primary training spot was in Tuskegee, Ala.Upon graduation, they were world-class pilots.And of those pilots, Williams stood out as one of the best. As the local paper reported in June 1943, “when 2nd Lt. Charles Williams, colored, son of Mr. and Mrs. Silas R. Williams of 224 N. Cole St., received his wings last April 29, he was second scholastically in his class at Tuskegee Army Flying School, Tuskegee, Ala.”That’s a fact that surprised no one. Those who knew him growing up expected greatness from Williams.Born in 1916 in Hagerstown, Md., he was the son of Silas and Anna Williams. His father brought his sons up knowing their heritage, and proud that they were the great-great-grandsons of slaves. He taught them right from wrong at St. Paul AME Church, where Silas was a long-time Sunday school teacher.And when they went to Central High School, Charles was a football standout when he graduated in 1935. After graduation, he worked at the Ohio Steel Foundry for two years, but longed to fly. Indeed, his love of flying had been growing since he was 11 years old and got his first taste of heaven when he jumped on a barnstormer.“I wasn’t afraid, not even a little. A lot of people said they got sick. I’ve never been airsick or seasick in my life,” he recalled, years later.To accomplish his goal, Williams enrolled at UCLA, where he majored in aeronautical engineering. He withdrew his junior year to accept an appointment with the Aviation Cadet Flying Training Program at Tuskegee.After a 10-month training program, Williams was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the Air Corps, and a fighter pilot.The primary job of the Tuskegee Airmen was to escort bombers, which were flown by white men. The Airmen were proud that during more than 200 missions, they never lost an aircraft. As a result, the lives of the 10 to 15 white men that were on each of those missions were spared. As one Tuskegee Airman later said, it was a long time before the men on the bombers realized those escorting them were black.During the war, Williams flew in 89 missions. The normal flight mission average in World War II was 50. Like his fellow Tuskegee Airmen, he was a hero in flight.But when the aircraft landed, the segregation that was missing in the air suddenly reappeared.After World War II, the Tuskegee Airmen were stationed in Columbus at Lockbourne Air Force Base. It was the only all-black military base in the country.The group disbanded when President Truman ordered that the Armed Forces be desegregated. As the local newspaper reported, “six war-time Army officers from Lima were included in the list of 9,200 officers in the National Guard, Reserve Corps Army, submitted Thursday to the Senate for permanent commission in the regular Army.”Williams took his place with a handful of local Tuskegee veterans, including Gordon Baker, Robert Burns, Carl Palmer, Theodore Graff, Norman King, William Kinsella, Glen Stover and Lauren Arn.As the years progressed, Williams continued his military career with stints in Korea and Vietnam. He retired in 1966, having been awarded the Bronze Star, Distinguished Flying Cross, Air Medal with Four Oak Leaf Clusters, and the Air Force Commendation Medal. He retired a second time as an engineer from National Cash Register in Dayton, where he continues to live.However, he remains a trustee in the National Aviation Hall of Fame, and is active in the Tuskegee Airmen Inc., Ohio Chapter.And it was of those Tuskegee Airmen that President George W. Bush spoke in 2000 when he awarded the black aviators the Congressional Gold Medal. As part of his salute, Bush said, “even the Nazis asked why African-American men would fight for a country that treated them so unfairly. These men in our presence felt a special sense of urgency. They were fighting two wars. One was in Europe, and the other took place in the hearts and minds of our citizens.”