[inaudible conversations] ladies and gentlemen can i have your attention please. Welcome to the Richard Nixon president ial library for this very special occasion. We begin thero Patriotic Program appropriately with the presentation of colors followed by the singing of our National Anthem please rise. [applause] the esperance rotc thank you for that special presentation to our nation. [applause] please be seated. Ladies and gentlemen i have the events director for the foundation it is a pleasure to have you all here tonight. Thursday last week marked the 7h anniversary the largest seaborne invasion at the turning point of world war ii. A day that is remembered as dday time to remember and honor the heroes of the greatest generation of world war ii. What is a time to remember incredible sacrifices made in the face of evil to protect thee essential freedoms and it is a time to show the tremendous respect and appreciation and admiration to the great warriors of world war ii and all who served we are lucky to meet be among these great patriots tonight current Armed Service members please stand and be recognized. [applause] please allow me to express a thank you of the Richard Nixon library and museum and the foundation and the family we are truly indebted to you. Thank you for your service. [applause] the recipient of the distinguished flying cross our speaker once the title of hero earned not only a broad high above the world war ii theater but also at home as an africanamerican prevailing h in the face of racism. Is 17 years old signing up before being drafted. Sitting in the segregated railcar in 1943 but into yours time with the pletter 51 mustang that many would give us i relief in the belly of the b 24 bomber. Those of the famed Tuskegee Airmen the first africanamerican aviators in the history of the armed forces. Colonel stewart amassing an outstanding record which included one of only two Tuskegee Airmen with four aerial victories in one day three german aircraft was taken down april 1st, 1945 moderatingir the discussion is retired air force colonel scott serving for nearly three decades in the United States air force. Isis career took him to 19 different assignments around the world that included those responsible for the morale and discipline of 500 personnel he retired from the air force in 2005 to join raytheon as a project manager Senior Program manager of Business Development manager one of the notable projects was used aboard the aircraft carriers that we still use from this day just this past march after spending 13 years with the company he retired this past month that remains incredibly busy with his initiative across the Southern California area please welcome colonel stewart and colonel scott. [applause] and now that was appropriate. [laughter] with my 29 years in the air force i was routinely told and taught we stand on the shoulders of giants rephrase that we are the greatest air force in the world because of those who went before us and the standards that they set the courage that they display and i am honored to sit here tonight with one of those giants. [applause] i have the opportunity to read this cover to cover it is absolutely fascinating there are questions to discuss with colonel stewart we could talk for two hours obviously we will not do that but i want to take out a couple of incidents in the book i like you to share with the audience these are all about incidents covered in the book but we will just give you a taste of that this s evening while it is subtitled the Tuskegee Airmen in account of world war ii it is much more than that with you and philip beginning with a very detailed account. Their stories are fascinating but you had very little direct contact what started your interest in aviation . I think it started very early i was born in newport news virginia near Langley Field virginia and at that time they would tell me that i would look at the airplanes and make the sounds whenever i saw them. For two years old my parents decided to move to new york cityed and they moved to queens and the location was about a mile and a half from the local airportf in 1939 then the name was changed to laguardia. [laughter] that there as a young teenager i would watch the planes fly and take off and fantasize about being at the controls. That is what in general the dream some day that just stuck. So the fascination started very early. You were a 17 yearold High School Student when pearl harbor was bombed you read about the squadron and immediately said you wanted to join thatt night. And the recruiting sergeant said he will join to whatever position be assigned new. The draft was going on at the time so it just so happens that very day i was supposed to report as a drafty i received a letter at the bottom it said arnold but it was a signature of any of the legitimate documents that went out and it would be the same day would be indoctrinated for the draft. If you dont know the history general arnold is the first chief of staff of the United States general. March 1943 you have to report to basic training in mississipp mississippi. Twice. S stationed there but you had to travel back to the south and be reintroduced to the racism in the bigotry that your father had taken out of the south to escape. This is the first trip south i had after two years of moving to new york. I dont think i had been west of the hudson river but anyway i got on the train at pennsylvania station in downtown new york i knew some of the neighborhood kids that i grew up with it was an interracial neighborhood so the kids on the train with me were white and we went as far as washington dc and the train stopped and it changes but the conductor came back and pointed to me and said you have to go up to the front car thats the jim crow car that my parents warned me about this and thats where i had to go. And they said they will come up there with you and they said no this is for the white people back o here he has to go into the car for the colored people and that is the jim crow car. And talk about the incidents like that and the impact on your life. So you go through basic training and one of the things you have to complete their before you can move on to tuskegee you have to pass a flight test but when you are four years old you contracted polio and lost some of the use of your right leg including your reflexes. So how did you get through a flight physical . I faked it. [laughter] i knew that paraguay just wanted him to tell the story expect they have a test and a rubber mallet of course the foot jerks i almost kick the i think i overplayed it. Of course he did not find out i had the atrophy that prevented me from certain movements. But that got you two tuskegee. Yes. You started september 43 in a class of 75 cadets but by june of 44 only 26 finish. Correct. How old three when you started. 18. You said one of your vivid memories was your first solo tell us about that. I flew a plane called the cornell and all plywood aircraft in the cockpit in tandem but i receive seven hours of instruction that i was capable of flying the craft. The difficulty i had i have not been in flight and i was a little surprised because it didnt react in trying to fly it was not the same when we were kids we would push the go carts around but if you wanted to go left you push the right foot and if you wanted to go right you push your left foot on the plane is just the opposite. [laughter] i had little difficulty to overcome in the plane would vey turn the left but i overcame that and finally after seven hours the instructor said taxi me over to the large structure underground that tells you the direction the wind isom coming and hend got out of the cockpit and stood on the wing and he got out and then i realized he would solo me and say just do it the way he would do with it me and that was it of course i did and when i broke ground it was just a new sensation of pressure and accomplishment and advancement and then doing just like the instructor told me to and then said take it back around again so that was my upbringing at that time. What an incredible experience 18 years old you dont have a drivers license. [laughter] im from new york they had the Rapid Transit system so we didnt have one. Again june 44 you have over 200 hours at this point in a series of different aircraft. So after the intro training in early january of 45, you arrive at the 332nd Fighter Group. O you get qualified to fly the pletter 51 and you go fly your First Combat Mission that month. Yes actually it was within a few days of a combat mission. There is Something Like five or 600 bombers and we were one of seven Fighter Groups to escort these of the b17s. And of course so they wouldnt be running into each other of that distance of 100 miles but my squadron was the last of the bombers going over and i was relegated to be in thater position to escort the bombers but i was the last member which is called tail and charlie. I was a little before told after taking off but i just did whatever the leader did and then we got on course we were going to germany and after the bomber started to reach a certain temperature and altitude then you go over the white condensation trails 600 bombers had four engines and when they reach that atmospheric height each of the engine started to pull the streamers and i could see this for 50 miles just a beautiful site and then they maintain the same ground speed as the bombers doing s turns. So there was a ballet in the sky with the streamers going ahead than the streams of the fighter planes going above them. It was just awesome a site i will never see it again because well never putke a force like that in the air again. Bad is the last we will see like the big bombing raids are concerned one bomber now can do as much damage as all of those bombers for the entire wwar. It was a sight to behold and i will never see again but it brings back vivid memories. Incredible. Iethank you. So you lead 43 combat missions the most memorable was april 1st. 1945 it was also a sunday and we were on a mission up near Vienna Austria and the entire group we were with was assigned to escort a Certain Group of bombers however the air was quite peaceful and there wasnt much activity except for the bombers dropping their payloads and we were dispatched to make us sweep in that area around the danube that was to involve to put the targets of opportunities to disable the freight trains and enemy aircraft if necessary and we were looking for trouble and trouble found us. It was a horde of germans and we were attacked by them. So three of us got shot down s actually his wing was damaged and tried to make it home in god as far as yugoslavia then landed without incident the second was shot down and he was killed instantly. The third was Walter Manning from pennsylvania his aircraft he had to bail out and so when we landed civilians picked him up and delivered him to a local jailhouse confinement but two nights later they broke into the jail beat him up and then hung him from the lamppost. This wasty an indignity not just the tuskegee it happened to a lot of airmen especially the bomber who was there and went down near the territory where they bombed and you can understand the sympathy and the feelings of the civilians and incidentally the first of the year i was invited by the austrian government to come over and participate in a memorial to the Second LieutenantWalter Manning they felt it was their obligation to giving that to walter to give him a very dignified remembrance and i was pleased to be invited over to participate in the ceremony spirit that is a memorial to Walter Manning on the territory of the former german airbase . Exactly right i forget how to pronounce it now but the airbase in austria. So he was honored as well. Yes in that battle you are credited with shooting down three german aircraft. And then you were awarded the distinguished flying cross. The war in europe ends may 1945. He returned to the states september 1945 as 1 a decorated war hero. Hauer black servicemembers treated upon their return . Except for the black press there was very little recognition. As far as the social atmosphere at the time i returned to the same old same old it was the exact same as it was and i left to go in the service and those changes taking place. And again we can talk about how those are rectified later on in your life. You remained in the 332 as a transitione to the newly formed u. S. Air force one of the things you learned flying is only dangerous when you are in combat. So march 20th 1948 you had a little engine trouble. I had to bail out my aircraft dove into the ground and smashed about 100 yards into the cabin of loretta lynn. I landed half a mile away i was on a milk one hillside on the mountain and the little girl saw me coming down to the clouds and told her daddy about it. She was five years old at the time and he got a horse. He got two horses and came up the mountainside there and i had broken my leg i hit the tail of the plane when i bailed out and broke my leg so i was an outcrop of rocks when he got near he yelled hello and i yelled im here. [laughter] so he came over and when he came in eyesight he was startled. I guess i was among the first black man he had ever see to see a black man falling from the sky in a parachute. [laughter] would anybody believe you . [laughter] of course i was just as concerned knowing i was in kentucky in the backwoods. They could do anything to me and say thats the way he was e when we found him but he helped me up on the horse and then there was the parade going through the countryside until we got to the open highway right can be taken to the county hospital. Once they got me there there was a line of people outside the door to greet and see the apparition. So around the year 2000 i got a call from a fellow who said i am the town historian and i heard about your bailing out over Butcher Hollow in 1948. He said there were so many rumors about that incident i just wanted to find out and write a story. I said what are the rumors . They set a black man stole a b52. [laughter] and and was going to do a bombing raid on our town so they called out the force to shoot him down. [laughter] that later i was made the parade marshall in the 51 mustang it turns out it was quite a pleasurable experience. [applause] this book has so many incredible great stories. 1949 the air force competition to help pilots. This was after the forerunner to the competition called gunsmoke and the other was air to air competition those were still combined in the late forties. You are selected to represent the 332 division. And went out to Las Vegas Air force base how was your team received . Not coldness but indifferenc indifference. I imagine that general vandenberg who was the commanding general of the air force decided he would like to resurrect the competition that was held before the Fighter Groups who was the best at their weapons and decided to resurrect the competition and called on all 12 groups and called on them and the three best pilots in an alternate to participate in the competition. By the way i would like to say that this also is the scene in the movie called top gun tom cruise is not the First Top Gun that there was. [laughter] you are looking at a member of the first team but finish the story. Three to compete and one alternate in east weill 12 Group Representatives came to las vegas in may 1949 and the competition started on the second and completed on the 12th with aerial gunnery skip bombing and divebombing rocket shooting and other events that i cannot recall right now. After ten days of serious competition the winner was announced in it to turned out to be the Tuskegee Airmen. [applause] some felt that they did not belong there but now there is an interesting story because around 1994 there was a list of the historical winners of this competition and in 1949 it said unknown and somebody had to provide documentation. Yes i happen to keep the records that we had of the individual scores in the competition so the former commanderrm of my squadron called me up as a civilian and said did you see this article and a fierce competition after the war was unknown i said thats not true i will send you the documentation. So the search was put on as to what happened to the trophy all the way up the command to ask what happened to the trophy there were no reasons given but there was still no trophy. Then a historian she had a suspicion and went to the air force base in dayton ohio and sure enough found the trophy in a box in the warehouse. She informed the air force whether they knew it or not they took it out of the box and framed it and put on display at the air force base so my daughter and i passed by there last august coming up from atlanta and so we stopped to take a look at the museum. Thank you to our audiovisual folks and that was lost for decades now on permanent display at the Tuskegee Airmen exhibit and air force museum in dayton ohio i personally will go see a. Very early on the start of your love flying to become a commercial pilot. When you first left the air force in 1950. And the crew members or pilots it was in a section of employment at the time so the manager personnel decided he would explain or rationalize the airlines position with the air crew members to try to give me an analogy and said and a black man walks by and says so that is the rationale. At the time twa and panamerican were long gone the Delta Airlines in american they made good on that. What did they do . They felt they owed something to the fact that the airlines were prejudice to demonstrate regional bias so that now you have africanamericans flying in the cockpit of every Major Airline including those serviceme airlines and to dramatize the situation that we have today i was on my way from detroit michigan and then to enter the aircraft i look to see who is in the cockpit believe it or not there were two africanamericans intw the cockpit pilot and copilot but even more surprising is that they were both female. [applause] we have come a long way baby. I believe Delta Airlines first followed by american both gave you what kind of recognition . A very nice proclamation one of their airliners and was a letter from their Vice President of operations to thank me for my past servicess with the government and theres nothing you can do about it now but they awarded me of the united aircraft of Delta Airlines and the same t with american airlines. So finally after all those years honorary captain with the airlines. Thereer is so much more to the story. One of the phrases of what your life is meant to all of us. The phrase used talk about winning the double v that meant victory over totalitarianism and racism and that is a life against both so now what specifically would you like to say as a take away . Specifically id like to concentrate or point my efforts to the youth of the nation and just to give you a little background 81 years old our planes were delivered to the Tuskegee Airmen museum in detroit they were declared obsolete by the air force school in Colorado Springs but they just wanted to get some new aircraft that they were giving this to the various museums of the country and the Tuskegee Airmen and was wdelivered by contract pilots in detroit michigan and once they sat down the Tuskegee Airmen said now what do we then get certified as a commercial pilot and i would take up the neighborhood kids and take them up on the weekend to get the feel to get into the field of aviation so thats what i did to inculcate to aspire towards higher with splife and goals. At age 81 he started that. [applause] unified flying octogenarians. [laughter] and i flew those kids up until the time i was 88 years old then i felt it was time for me to pack it in and i shouldnt go any further than that it was more pleasure of mine to take the kids up there had their pleasure i remember i would take as many as six or seven up for a 15 minute or 20 minute ride that the students are anywhere from nine years old or 15 years old with the plane sidebyside to theater because i flew in the right seat because of the balance on the plane but what i would do i would take the kid back i would say im kind of tired. [laughter] its been a long day. You are really something because you are handling thatu stick and ill make a bargain with you you just hold that level like that and i will grab myself a little nap. [laughter] and i get them on the ground they would run up to their parents and say he let me fly the plane by myself and he was asleep. [laughter] so thats the fun that i had. Lets take a couple questions from our audience. [applause] he has agreed to take a couple of questions we do have a siding set up off to my oright we will move that up to the front lobby books are for sale to my left here and at the museum store im holding a beautiful model and it really is i have never been this close to a real b 51 mustang but can you tell us what it was like for the transition of trading in the various models that you flew to transition into the pletter 51 mustang . At the powerful aircraft it carries a maryland engine from 1500horsepower close to 2000 was 7500 pounds and it goes up to close to 10000 pounds. It has 650 caliber machine guns and each one a squeeze of the trigger they can all be expended within 30 seconds. So you dont have much time to fire on it. The aircraft at 40000 feet and have about 475 or 450 miles an hour i have been close to 400 and i flew 43 missions in that aircraft and all like to say it was likeft getting from the trading plane it was like my arms and legs were an extension of the aircraft it was like the aircraft and it was a joy to fly and then i was in atlanta six months ago offering to go up like what you see there with dual controls and modified it so there was another set of controls so he let me take it off and try it out and of course the first thing i had to do was due a slow roll and by those two it knocked me out i said take me back to the field. [laughter] what made you think that you are such an outstanding hoshot . I think i was lucky. I am serious. The two aircraft that i fired on there is zero deflection instead of at the angle i was directly behind the aircraft and i hit them that las vegas i was just having a good day. [laughter] i think we all know better than that. Is it true the military put the Tuskegee Airmen in charge of defending all the bombers that the United States did not lose one bomber . We did lose some but it was the best record loss in the air force. We lost far fewer. If i recall the average is 46 and this t is half of what was normal. As far as the other question is concerned each of these bombers had ten crew members aboard and the gunners we felt a tremendous responsibility to protect as best they can and if you try to intercept the bombers to keep them from getting the bombers they are. And then with each of the aircraft to the best of our ability. To add on to that to rapidly earn the reputation for the extreme success to protect those bombers to the point the bomber groups were requesting specifically the 332ly to be there escort. Lieutenant colonel davis who was the commander of the 332 actually repainted the nose to say by request. [laughter] he was tough graduating west point 1932 in the class of 300 some i dont remember the exact number but he was put under the silent treatment and roomed alone and aid alone. And then he came out as a superior individual and then to be a commander of the 332nd Fighter Group and they chose the right man but he was tough but fair i remember he chose the three of us in 1949 and called us into his office with is booming commanding voice said gentlemen this is a splendid opportunity for the 332 godspeed as far as your participation and if you dont win dont come back. [laughter] there is a great story in the book you have to read it i will not spoil it but by the book. We have time for one last question. Thank you for your service. God bless you im curious how the nickname red tails originated. The aircraft of world war ii had distinct markings and that enhanced the problem of radio silence they could always pick up your intercoms between the aircraft and that was to their detriment some of the 15th air force those Fighter Groups were all charged with painting their tails a distinctive color and with tuskegee it was red. The 52nd was yellow 31st was white the 25th was checkerboard and so on in the bomber groups also had distinct aircraft so visually you could see what position they held in that bomb group so for those Tuskegee Airmen it wasnt a disgrace but strictly for recognition. Colonel scott, thank you very much. [applause] please join us for the book citing we will see you shortly. [applause] de or visit our website. Now i gives me great pleasure to introduce t now it gives me great pleasure to introduce todays author and awardwinning journalist and author who is spent more than three decades as a correspondent and editor for newsweek serving as a a bureau chief in hong kong, moscow warsaw and berlin. The subject of todays talk the year germany lost the war is scheduled for public release next