Editing Tuskegee Airmen (section)

===Tuskegee Airmen bomber units===
====Formation====
With African-American fighter pilots being trained successfully, the Army Air Force now came under political pressure from the [[NAACP]] and other civil rights organizations to organize a bomber unit. There could be no defensible argument that the quota of 100 African-American pilots in training at one time,{{sfn|Moye|2010|p=123}} or 200 per year out of a total of 60,000 American aviation cadets in annual training,{{sfn|Francis|Caso|1997|p=219}} represented the service potential of 13 million African-Americans.{{#tag:ref|The physical requirements that made it possible to fit in a fighter's cockpit with a height less than 70 inches, weight under 170 pounds, precluded many larger African-American men from eligibility.{{sfn|Moye|2010|p=123}}|group=N}}

On 13 May 1943, the 616th Bombardment Squadron was established as the initial subordinate squadron of the [[477th Fighter Group|477th Bombardment Group]], an all-white group. The squadron was activated on 1 July 1943, only to be inactivated on 15 August 1943.{{sfn|Francis|Caso|1997|p=214}}<ref name=Maurer1994>{{cite book |last=Maurer |first=M. |date=1994 |title=Air Force combat units of World War II |publisher=Chartwell Books |isbn=0785801944 |oclc=30111671}}</ref><ref name=":5">{{cite journal|title=477th Bombardment Group Lineage and Honors History|journal=Air Force Historical Research Agency}}</ref><ref name=":6">{{cite journal|title=477th Bombardment Group Histories for 1943 and 1944|journal=Air Force Historical Research Agency}}</ref> By September 1943, the number of washed-out cadets on base had surged to 286, with few of them working. In January 1944, the 477th Bombardment Group was reactivated—an all-Black group.{{r|Maurer1994}}<ref name=":5" /><ref name=":6" /> At the time, the usual training cycle for a bombardment group took three to four months.{{sfn|Moye|2010|pp=94, 124}}

The 477th eventually contained four medium bomber squadrons. Slated to comprise 1,200 officers and enlisted men, the unit operated 60 [[North American B-25 Mitchell]] bombers.{{#tag:ref|Each B-25 bomber cost $175,000. The overall cost of the entire group was estimated at $20,000,000.{{sfn|Homan|Reilly|2001|p=177}}|group=N}} The 477th went on to encompass three more bomber squadrons–the 617th Bombardment Squadron, the 618th Bombardment Squadron, and the 619th Bombardment Squadron.{{sfn|Francis|Caso|1997|p=457}} The 477th was anticipated to be ready for action in November 1944.{{sfn|Homan|Reilly|2001|p=186}}

The home field for the 477th was [[Selfridge Field]], located outside Detroit, with forays to [[Wurtsmith Air Force Base|Oscoda Army Air Field]] in [[Oscoda, Michigan]].{{#tag:ref|15 of these aviators died while training in Michigan.  Among them was 2nd Lieutenant Frank Moody, whose [[P-39 Airacobra]] emitted black smoke and [[Cartwheel (gymnastics)|cartwheeled]] into [[Lake Huron]] on 11 April 1944. His body was recovered shortly thereafter in the [[Saint Clair River]].  His aircraft was discovered by divers 70 years to the day after the accident.<ref name="Alcona">{{cite news |title=Recovering Michigan's history of the Tuskegee airmen |page=16 |date=8 September 2021 |volume=150 |number=35|newspaper=Alcona County Review}}</ref>  Per the ''Alcona County Review'':"The first African American pilots training by the United States Army Air Corps earned their wings at Tuskegee Army Airfield in Alabama during World War II.  Beginning in the spring of1943, fighter pilots from Tuskegee received advanced training in Michigan. "The relative safety of Midwestern America, along with weather in geographical conditions that approximated what aviators could expect to encounter in Europe, encouraged the military to use airfields at Selfridge northeast of Detroit, and at Oscoda on the shores of Lake Huron."<ref name="Alcona"/>|group=N}} Other bases were used for various types of training courses. Twin-engine pilot training began at Tuskegee while the transition to multi-engine pilot training was at [[Mather Air Force Base|Mather Field, California]]. Some ground crews trained at Mather before rotating to [[Inglewood, California|Inglewood]]. Gunners learned to shoot at [[Eglin Air Force Base|Eglin Field, Florida]]. Bombers-navigators learned their trades at [[Hondo Army Air Field]] and [[Midland Air Field|Midland Air Field, Texas]] or at [[Roswell, New Mexico]]. Training of the new African-American crewmen also took place at [[Sioux Falls, South Dakota]], [[Lincoln, Nebraska]], and [[Scott Air Force Base|Scott Field, Belleville, Illinois]]. Once trained, the air and ground crews were spliced into a working unit at Selfridge.{{sfn|Francis|Caso|1997|p=207}}{{sfn|Homan|Reilly|2001|pp=180–2}}

====Command difficulties====
The new group's first commanding officer was Colonel [[Robert Selway]], who had also commanded the 332nd Fighter Group before it deployed for combat overseas.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Haulman|first=Daniel L.|date=Summer 2018|title=A Tale of Two Commanders|journal=Air Power History|volume=65|pages=45{{en dash}}49}}</ref> Like his ranking officer, Major General [[Frank O'Driscoll Hunter]] from Georgia, Selway was a racial segregationist. Hunter was blunt about it, saying such things as "...racial friction will occur if colored and white pilots are trained together."{{sfn|Homan|Reilly|2001|pp=184, 187}} He backed Selway's violations of Army Regulation 210–10, which forbade segregation of airbase facilities. They segregated base facilities so thoroughly that they even drew a line in the base theater and ordered separate seating by race. When the audience sat in random patterns as part of "Operation Checkerboard," the movie was halted to make men return to segregated seating.{{sfn|Homan|Reilly|2001|pp=185–6}} African-American officers petitioned base [[Commanding Officer]] William Boyd for access to the only [[Military officers' club|officer's club]] on base.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=B13CGJMiyOIC&pg=PA158|title=Strength for the Fight: A History of Black Americans in the Military|last=Nalty|first=Bernard C.|date=1989|publisher=Simon and Schuster|isbn=9780029224113|page=158|language=en|access-date=30 December 2018|archive-date=9 February 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240209193143/https://books.google.com/books?id=B13CGJMiyOIC&pg=PA158#v=onepage&q&f=false|url-status=live}}</ref>{{sfn|Moye|2010|p=126}} Lieutenant Milton Henry entered the club and personally demanded his club rights; he was court-martialed for this.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=x8GSDgAAQBAJ&pg=PP163|title=Facing the Rising Sun: African Americans, Japan, and the Rise of Afro-Asian Solidarity|last=Horne|first=Gerald|date=16 January 2018|publisher=NYU Press|isbn=9781479854936|language=en|access-date=30 December 2018|archive-date=9 February 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240209193110/https://books.google.com/books?id=x8GSDgAAQBAJ&pg=PP163#v=onepage&q&f=false|url-status=live}}</ref>

Subsequently, Colonel Boyd denied club rights to African-Americans, although General Hunter stepped in and promised a separate but equal club would be built for black airmen.{{sfn|Moye|2010|pp=126–7}} The 477th was transferred to [[Godman Field]], Kentucky before the club was built. They had spent five months at Selfridge but found themselves on a base a fraction of Selfridge's size, with no air-to-ground gunnery range and deteriorating runways that were too short for B-25 landings. Colonel Selway took on the second role of the commanding officer of Godman Field. In that capacity, he ceded Godman Field's officers club to African-American airmen. White officers used the whites-only clubs at nearby Fort Knox, much to the displeasure of African-American officers.{{sfn|Moye|2010|pp=128–9}}

Another irritant was a professional one for African-American officers. They observed a steady flow of white officers through the command positions of the group and squadrons; these officers stayed just long enough to be "promotable" before transferring out at their new rank. This seemed to take about four months. In an extreme example, 22-year-old Robert Mattern was promoted to [[Captain (United States O-3)|captain]], transferred into squadron command in the 477th days later, and left a month later as a [[Major (United States)|major]]. He was replaced by another white officer. Meanwhile, no Tuskegee Airmen held command.{{sfn|Moye|2010|pp=131–2}}

On 15 March 1945,{{sfn|Homan|Reilly|2001|p=187}} the 477th was transferred to [[Freeman Field]], near [[Seymour, Indiana|Seymour]], Indiana. The white population of Freeman Field was 250 officers and 600 enlisted men. Superimposed on it were 400 African-American officers and 2,500 enlisted men of the 477th and its associated units. Freeman Field had a firing range, usable runways, and other amenities useful for training. African-American airmen worked in proximity with white ones; both lived in a public housing project adjacent to the base.{{sfn|Moye|2010|p=132}}{{sfn|Homan|Reilly|2001|pp=184, 187}}

Colonel Selway turned the noncommissioned officers out of their club and turned it into a second officers' club. He then classified all white personnel as cadre and all African-Americans as trainees. One officers' club became the cadre's club. The old [[Non-Commissioned Officer]]s Club, promptly sarcastically dubbed "Uncle Tom's Cabin", became the trainees' officers club. At least four of the trainees had flown combat in Europe as fighter pilots and had about four years in service. Four others had completed training as pilots, bombardiers and navigators and may have been the only triply qualified officers in the entire Air Corps. Several of the Tuskegee Airmen had logged over 900 flight hours by this time. Nevertheless, by Colonel Selway's fiat, they were trainees.{{r|FOOTNOTEHomanReilly2001187}}{{sfn|Moye|2010|pp=132–3}}

Off base was no better; many businesses in Seymour would not serve African-Americans. A local laundry would not wash their clothes and yet willingly laundered those of [[German prisoners of war in the United States|captured German soldiers]].{{r|FOOTNOTEHomanReilly2001187}}

In early April 1945, the 118th Base Unit transferred in from Godman Field; its African-American personnel held orders that specified they were base cadre, not trainees. On 5 April, officers of the 477th peaceably tried to enter the whites-only officer's club. Selway had been tipped off by a phone call and had the assistant [[provost marshal]] and base billeting manager stationed at the door to refuse the 477th officers' entry. The latter, a major, ordered them to leave and took their names as a means of arresting them when they refused. It was the beginning of the [[Freeman Field Mutiny]].{{sfn|Moye|2010|p=133}}

In the wake of the Freeman Field Mutiny, the 616th and 619th were disbanded and the returned 99th Fighter Squadron was assigned to the 477th on 22 June 1945; it was redesignated the 477th Composite Group as a result. On 1 July 1945, Colonel Robert Selway was relieved of the Group's command; he was replaced by Colonel [[Benjamin&nbsp;O. Davis Jr.]] A complete sweep of Selway's white staff followed, with all vacated jobs filled by African-American officers. The war ended before the 477th Composite Group could get into action. The 618th Bombardment Squadron was disbanded on 8 October 1945. On 13 March 1946, the two-squadron group, supported by the 602nd Engineer Squadron (later renamed 602nd Air Engineer Squadron), the 118th Base Unit, and a band, moved to its final station, [[Lockbourne Field]]. The 617th Bombardment Squadron and the 99th Fighter Squadron disbanded on 1 July 1947, ending the 477th Composite Group. It was reorganized as the [[332nd Air Expeditionary Wing|332nd Fighter Wing]].{{sfn|Homan|Reilly|2001|pp=206–8}}{{sfn|Francis|Caso|1997|p=263}}