Archived. Thats cspan. Org history. During world war ii the United StatesArmy Air Forces formed a group of africanamerican military pilots, they were known as the Tuskegee Airmen. Next, Jeremy Paul Amick, author of together as one legacy of James Shipley joined by the now 94yearold mr. Shipley to talk about his wartime experiences. The Kansas City Public Library hosted this event. Its just over 50 minutes. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the Kansas City Public Library. Im Deputy Director carrie kucagn, were so happy youre here tonight. I want to let you know tonight is our final program for 2017. Can you believe it . Its kind of bittersweet. Anyway, if youre new here, if youve never been before, please pick up our program. And you can sign up and you can be on our list for all of the programs we have coming up in 2018. And we have programs both here and at Central Library two or three times a week and wed love to have you come and wed love to have you sign up. And wed love to have you bring your friends. So please sign up. Tonight were so honored to have James Shipley with us. Mr. Shipley enlisted at just 19 years old and would become a member of the 332nd Fighter Group in one of the original Tuskegee Airmen. [ applause ] i want to especially thank the heart of america chapter of the Tuskegee Airmen for making this program possible tonight. And thank you for all of your service all of these years. We really appreciate you as well. Thank you. [ applause ] tonight with mr. Shipley is author Jeremy Paul Amick and they will be discussing a new biography about shipley and the book is available here tonight right outside and both gentlemen will be signing after the program right up here on stage. Now, to introduce our guest someone you probably already know kansas city councilman quentin lucas. Overseesed citys planning and Economic Development priorities and transportation as well as infrastructure and investment priorities. In his spare time quentin is a fulltime faculty member at the university of Kansas School of law. He is a wonderful and dedicated citizen, not to mention a strong supporter of the library. Its my pleasure to introduce councilman quentin lucas. [ applause ] thank you. Well, good evening, everyone. It is always exciting to be back with my friends and our community here at the Public Library. Its even more exciting when we have the chance to see an American Hero before our eyes. We are delighted to have mr. Shipley. [ applause ] the joy of the Public Library is we share this opportunity not just among our zurselves, with viewers in the region and on cspan and anyone interested in culture, our history, arts, reading, education and communities here in kansas city and far beyond. Im particularly excited to have this event today because were in the backdrop of a recent Senate Special election which you might have paid some attention to. We heard feel free to applaud if youd like. [ applause ] im in a nonpartisan position, so im just giving you the facts as best i can. With the backdrop of an election that often descended into gender, racial politics, et cetera, we forget sometimes the greatness of our country. The greatness of our country that lives in its diversity. The greatness of our country that is embodied in the stories of people like James Shipley. As youve already heard James Shipley, who is now 94 years old, by the way before i go too far on that his wife mildred has kindly joined us today. Lets kindly give her a round of applause. [ applause ] thank you, mildred, and thank you james, for being here. Mr. Shipley enlisted in the United StatesArmy Air Force at the age over19 as you already heard and as a member of the Tuskegee Airmen, the famed allblack world war ii unit. Mr. Shipley however tells us a different story than the ones you typically hear. You hear about pilots and officers, but what about the people who were so vital to making sure that those planes could fly, so vital to making sure that we could do the work that made for a successful war effort against the axis powers. He speaks often in stories about the unspoken heroes, those who kept things going, those who were from places like tipton, missouri, from small towns all throughout our country and who volunteered to support our military effort. And importantly he tells us about those people and what they faced when they went home. Mr. Shipley returned to new york after fighting after helping our country win in the war effort. And in 1945 was told white soldiers to the right and racial slur to the left. Mr. Shipleys story today is shared with us by author Jeremy Paul Amick, hes a prolific profiler of our nations heroes and also renowned author in his own right, a journalist who proves to us what journalists can do best having a special gift for story telling and a dedication to preserving our nations history and the story of our nations heroes. Kansas city, missouri, is lucky to have them both with us today as we share the important story of how patriotic but ordinary men have built an exceptional country even though its full greatness wasnt always shown to them. Ladies and gentlemen, im excited to introduce to you mr. James shipley and mr. Jeremy amick. [ applause ] well, thank everyone for being here tonight. Jim is so graciously allowed me to start out. Weve done a few of these events in recent months and it helps if im able to help set up how the story came to be how james and i met a while back. Id like to go back just several years ago in 1994 when i was graduating from Russellville High School south of Jefferson City, little town of about 807 people, smaller than tipton, missouri. And like james i chose an early path in the military, enlisted in the Missouri National guard and went on to do 11 years both reserve and active duty and was discharged in 2004 for injuries i incurred in the service. During that timeframe that passed afterwards i gained full time employment with the u. S. Department of labor as a federal investigator. And i also began writing stories for the Jefferson City news tribune highlighting local veterans in the midmissouri area and their service from all eras including some deceased veterans, past veterans, civil war, so on and so forth. And while i was doing this i had the pleasure of working with a gentleman in my fulltime capacity at the department of labor who came up to me and said, hey, jeremy, ive been to church with this guy in tipton thats a Tuskegee Airmen. I was sold right there. I was excited because Tuskegee Airmen to me are like unicorns, mythical creatures. Youve heard of them but youve never really seen or met one. I said Tuskegee Airmen in midmissouri, you cant be serious . He goes, yeah, ill get you his number, deacon shipley, we call him deacon shipley, hes very active in his church. Okay. I gave jim a call and we went up to his church, it was a historically black church in the tipton area and there in the back of the church jim had all his tuskegee memorabilia set up. I was fan boy, in awe of this great hero. And he interviewed him and was able to tell his story for a newspaper article that appeared in the Jefferson City news tribune and tipton times, california democrat. And then war history online. Then my path kind of went away from jim as i continued to interview other vets. And during that interim period began writing books. I wrote a book Jefferson City at war, coe county at war highlighting some local veterans. And i also wrote a book called the lucky ones, it was a biography about a Tank Destroyer gunner in world war ii. So this is really the first biography i wrote, learn the experience and i spent a lot of hours, a lot of time with norbert gurling. Two weeks after the book was released in 2016 norbert gurling passed away. That was a difficult experience for me because i had become very close to this world war ii vet, there was also a realization that our world war ii vets are getting up there in age and theyre parting at a quick rate and thats not to say anything about jim because hes going to be here until hes 150 years old. Hes already promised me that. Anyhow, i thought, you know, i was looking to do my next book project and i was thinking jims story always stayed in the back of my mind because it was a fascinating story. This facet of American History thats often not told out of respect of the enlisted member and mechanics, weve all seen the Tuskegee Airmen movies and it does highlight oftentimes the officers and the pilots. And of course myself having been a former staff sergeant, im biased toward the enlisted stories anyhow, right, jim . The enlisted guys do all the work. We know that. Im probably going to get waylayed outside by some former officers, but thats okay. Anyhow, i call jim up, i said, jim, i did this story on you a while back, i said would you be interested in letting me tell your story in a book format . And of course jim being humble guy, i guess so. Nothing really important that i did, but if you want to come bend my ear and visit with me, ill listen to you. So im sure he probably regretted at times ever making that agreement because we spent a lot of hours and a lot of weekdays and weekends and evenings together digging, picking his mind, digging through his story, digging through photos. I made him remember stuff i think hed forgotten a long time ago. And some other things he tried to forget that we couldnt put in the book. If you guys want to know that, we can talk to you afterwards and let you know the really good stories. But we told the story, we wrote the book and it was very enjoyable experience to do that because having grown up in russellville, missouri, in the 80s and 90s, you know, i wasnt poexposed to racial segregation. It wasnt something that i ever fortunately my generation didnt have to deal with but jims family struggled in the tipton area and service and Tuskegee Airmen, i thought that was another fascinating facet of the story to share with younger generations never exposed to that. I want to thank him for taking that time and imparting that wisdom upon me. And with that i think its a perfect time to segue to jim and let him tell some of his story. Well, first of all, i want to thank jeremy for getting in contact with me. We have become very close friends. And, yes, he wrote a book and hes got some things in the book that i might not let him put in, but he got it in there anyway. Well, all were going to say is page 18 when you get a chance. Theres a very incriminating photograph. Okay. Well, i tell you, i was always wanted to be a mechanic even when i was just a little kid. My dad taught school and from right across the schoolyard my grandfather he had a trucking business. And they would turn old truck and pull the engine out and when i got about 10 years old i would go over there and help tear that engine down and put it back together. My uncle taught me how to do that. And always love to hear engines run. If you work on them and put them back together, to hear them purr, it just was part of me. So after i graduated from high school i went to work in a local garage and he taught me he had a bad back and he taught me everything he knew and he had just finished coming from Airplane Mechanics School i mean, not airplane mechanics but automobile mechanics school. And he taught me everything. Taught me how to overhaul engines and body work, and, well, we done everything on automobile that could be possibly done. Your dad got you that job, didnt he . Beg your pardon . Your dad got you that job with the mechanic. Yes, my father well, i wanted to go to kansas city and go to school but i thought that was too much money and i couldnt afford that. So my dad said ill take him on, ill put him to work. So he did. And i worked there about three years. And then when i got old enough to be drafted, i said, well, im going to kansas city i dont know if ill pass the test or not. So what ill do is ill go up here and see if i can find me a job up in the defense plant. So i come up here nobody would hire me because i was 19 years old and they said, no, youre just the wrong age because about the time we train youd be drafted and take you away from home. So, any way, i went back to tipton. And i was in the post Office One Day and a recruiting officer was in there. And i walked up to him and was talking to him and he said, well, theyre looking for airplane mechanics or people to go to School Starting an allblack outfit. And its going to be called the Tuskegee Airmen. He said im almost sure that you can be drafted and you could take a job there get a job as an airplane mechanic. So i took him up on it. And i went to ft. Levenworth, and theres where i took my basic training in tuskegee. We run into an old i call him old, hes in his 40s, but i call him old anyway. And this man, he was our officer. And he would take us out and go calisthenics and stuff like that. And us boys 19 years old we said we got it made, this old man here, we got it made. But i tell you when he was through with us he had it made because that old man could run and run and run and never quit running. And he could walk for 15 mile and never quit. And finally when he turned us loose, we were in shape. And one day we were walking down the road and in this road right in the center of this road was a mud puddle. Well, you know, old guy 19 years old we went around that mud puddle thought we were doing something cool. That old man stopped us, chewed us out, backed us up and said i want that mud hole dried up. And thats what we did. When we went back through there, by the time we all went through that mud hole was dried up. But we had a lot of respect for him after that because he really gave us calisthenics and we take exercise every morning and he got us young kids in shape. Jim, could we back up a bit, too . If i remember correctly, you said when you first got to tuskegee you were in tents, right . Right. They were just putting the Tuskegee Airmen together and they didnt have all the barracks and things built. So in early days they were living in tents. Yes. Original 99 some of the pilots there learn how to fly already. And colonel bill davis was our commanding officer, and any way, we went to lincoln, nebraska, up in lincoln, nebraska, theres where we went to Airplane Mechanics School. And we went to haste, ask this guy here teachers, they were very careful with us and they took us through, theyd show us pliers, needle nose pliers and different types of tools to use and how to use the tool. Because some of the guys there never had a wrench in their hand. They didnt know what they were talking about. But me i knew id already dealt with wrenches, so i wasnt too ask the guys any questions or anything. So when they grade us that test, my grade was very low. I said, well, shoot, i knew what i was here for and here these guys never seen a wrench before. And they got a grade to beat us. Uhhuh. I dont know whats going on. You got to ask questions. So after that i learned to ask questions. I wasnt smart anymore. But any way, they taught us how to work on airplanes and do all types of work on engines, tune up engines, turn car braters down. Then we went to hastings, nebraska, they taught us how to work in the field. There you made a tripod out of wood, three sticks and pull an engine out and stuff like that. But i tell you what, up there at hastings, nebraska, they had some of the biggest mosquitos you ever saw in your life. I often told the story that those mosquitos so large they would flip your dog tags over and look at them to see what type of blood you had. [ laughter ] but they were. I actually think they grew those mosquitos up there to tell you how to use a net. And cover up yourself in net to keep the mosquitos from bothering you. But they really taught us a lesson how to take that net and use that mosquito net. What about mutt and jeff. Mutt and jeff, oh, yes, mutt and jeff. When i went to tuskegee, alabama, my buddy he was about 64, or 65, and he was great big tall guy. And, me, i was about 52, and theyd give us nickname of mutt and jeff. But ross and i were good buddies. We stayed in the same tent. His name is james d. Ross and mine was shipley, and we got the mail at the same time, theyd call ross and then call shipley and we went to overseas and back to the states together. We stayed in the same tent and everything. But when we hit, well, i dont want to get ahead of myself, so any way old Tuskegee Airmen, the older guys they were had been taught how to fly and everything. But they said they were still in the states. They wouldnt ship them overseas. They said, well, they cant fly, they dont know how to fly, this and that. Made us look bad. So one day airplane lit down on the field in tuskegee and she was the one said she wanted this colored pilot to take her up in an airplane. Well, her bodyguards, said, no, no, you cant go up with him. That colored guy, said dont go up with him. Said get an instructor to take you up. She said, no, i want him. So finally they consented to let her go up. I dont know whether they called the president or what, but she won out on that deal. She went up