Date/Time
Date(s) - 01/14/2018
2:00 pm - 3:00 pm
Location
Indiana Dunes State Park Visitor Center
Categories
Join a ranger in the Visitor Center’s theater for a screening of the documentary Tuskegee Airmen: Sacrifice and Triumph. This documentary tells the story of the first African American pilots, the Red Tails.
“Tuskegee Airmen” refers to all who were involved in the so-called “Tuskegee Experience,” the Army Air Corps program to train African Americans to fly and maintain combat aircraft. The Tuskegee Airmen included pilots, navigators, bombardiers, maintenance and support staff, instructors, and all the personnel who kept the planes in the air.
When the pilots of the 332nd Fighter Group painted the tails of their P-47s and later, P-51s, red, the nickname “Red Tails” was coined. The red markings that distinguished the Tuskegee Airmen included red bands on the noses of P-51s as well as a red rudder, the P-51B and D Mustangs flew with similar color schemes, with red propeller spinners, yellow wing bands and all-red tail surfaces.
Before 1940, African Americans were barred from flying for the U.S. military. Civil rights organizations and the black press exerted pressure that resulted in the formation of an all African-American pursuit squadron based in Tuskegee, Alabama, in 1941. They became known as the Tuskegee Airmen.
Indiana Dunes Visitor Center, Porter County Visitor Center, open to the public, 1420 Munson Rd, Chesterton, Indiana rsvp to 926-2255.