Despite adversity and limited opportunity, African Americans played a significant role in U.S. military history, though they were long denied leadership roles, skilled training, and, before 1940, the chance to fly for the U.S. military. Pressure from civil rights organizations and the black press led in 1941 to the creation of an all African-American pursuit squadron based in Tuskegee, Alabama, whose members became known as the Tuskegee Airmen, a term that included all involved in the Army Air Corps and Army Air Forces program to train African Americans to fly and maintain combat aircraft, about 15,000 military and civilian personnel, both African American and Caucasian. Tuskegee Army Air Field was chosen for pilot training because Tuskegee Institute, selected for the Civilian Pilot Training Program in 1939, already had facilities, engineering and technical instructors, and a climate suitable for year-round flying, making the program the center of African-American aviation during World War II. From 1942 through 1946, 949 pilots graduated there, receiving commissions and pilot wings, while black navigators, bombardiers, gunnery crews, and other ground and support personnel trained at other military bases in the United States. Four hundred and fifty of the Tuskegee Army Air Field pilots served overseas in the 99th Pursuit Squadron, later the 99th Fighter Squadron, or the 332nd Fighter Group. The 99th Fighter Squadron flew P-40 Warhawk aircraft in combat in North Africa and Sicily, and later flew the P-39, the P-47, and the P-51 after transfer to the 15th Air Force and service with the 332nd Fighter Group's 100, 301, and 302 Fighting Squadrons in Italy until the end of World War II. Those who did not go overseas trained at Selfridge Field, Michigan, as bomber crews in the 477th Medium Bombardment Group. The 332nd Fighter Group was deactivated and joined the newly created 477th Composite Group at Lockburne Air Force Base in Ohio, and the unit was deactivated there in 1948 when President Harry S. Truman signed Executive Order 9981 integrating the United States Air Forces. By overcoming segregation and prejudice, the Tuskegee Airmen became one of the most highly respected fighter groups of World War II and proved conclusively that African Americans could fly and maintain sophisticated combat aircraft; in 2006, they and the men and women who supported them received the Congressional Gold Medal in recognition of their unique military record and its role in inspiring revolutionary reform in the Armed Forces.
