tails he and the other tuskegee airmen flew fighters with brightly coloured red tails, which gave them their nickname on many, many bomber escort missions over europe and they became quickly became known as some of the best best bomber escorts that could be found in europe and, you know, they their their track record spoke for itself and. a few short years after world war ii in 1949, the air force began to desegregate and the rest of the us military followed, and part of the reason is because the track record of charles mcgee and the other tuskegee airmen was so good that nobody could deny any more that they were worthy service members. remember, about a century ago, it was official us military policy that black people weren t intelligent or disciplined enough to fly aircraft. the tuskegee airmen shattered all of those stereotypes.