Jay T. Comeaux shares a brief presentation regarding the Air Force's 2016 celebration of the Tuskegee Airmen

1. A I R F O R C E C E L E B R AT E S
T H E T U S K E G E E A I R M E N

2. Every year the Air Force celebrates the Tuskegee Airmen
and this year the festivities included a wreath laying
ceremony at the academy’s Tuskegee statue, built by an
original Tuskegee Airman, Clarence Shiver.

3. The celebration is in honor of the appreciation the
Tuskegee Airmen never received while they were serving
their country.

4. The Tuskegee Airmen were the first African-American
military aviators in the United States Armed Forces. This
group was created in March of 1941 and trained in
Tuskegee, Alabama.

5. During World War II, the American military and black
Americans in most U.S. states were subject to the Jim Crow
laws. Therefore the military had to be racially segregated.

6. “When we came back from overseas, they put a
classification of top secret on the Tuskegee Airmen. It was
on for 50 years, they didn’t want people to know about the
Tuskegee Airmen because the program was too successfu
It wasn’t supposed to happen,” said original Tuskegee
Airman, James H. Arvey III.

7. In 2007, the Tuskegee Airmen received the Congressional
Gold medal in Washington, D.C.

8. The Congressional Gold medal is the highest civilian
honor that can be awarded by the United States
Congress.

9. Thanks for watching!