Tuskegee Airmen’s final flight

Chicago Tribune

Moments after retired Maj. William Watkins set aside his walker and sat down in the hotel lobby, a woman carrying a poster of him and other Tuskegee Airmen rushed up to get his autograph.

A number of African-American Air Force officers also gathered around the 92-year-old, eager to hear tales about World War II from one of the storied blacks who defied expectations in a segregated military.

Watkins, of Columbus, Ohio, is one of 80 airmen at the annual convention this week of Tuskegee Airmen Inc. It is estimated that only 200 of the original 13,000 airmen are still alive. (more…)

Tuskegee Airmen, Inc.

Tuskegee Airmen Convention

In a somewhat related story…

The USS Iowa joined in battles from World War II to Korea to the Persian Gulf. It carried President Franklin Roosevelt home from the Teheran conference of allied leaders, and four decades later, suffered one of the nation’s most deadly military accidents.

Veterans groups and history buffs had hoped that tourists in San Francisco could walk the same teak decks where sailors dodged Japanese machine-gun fire and fired 16-inch guns that helped win battles across the South Pacific.

Instead, it appears that the retired battleship is headed about 80 miles inland, to Stockton, a gritty agricultural port town on the San Joaquin River and home of California’s annual asparagus festival.

…But city supervisors voted 8-3 last month to oppose taking in the ship, citing local opposition to the Iraq war and the military’s stance on gays, among other things.

“If I was going to commit any kind of money in recognition of war, then it should be toward peace, given what our war is in Iraq right now,” Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi said.

Feinstein called it a “very petty decision.” (more…)

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The day we begin to cleanse our history with political correctiveness is the day we rob from future generations who will be destined to repeat our mistakes. You will be seeing a lot more of this down the road.