Tuskegee / (Baton Rouge): Tuskegee Army Flying School / (Army and Navy Publishing Co., Inc,), 1943 / (1942).
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Hardcover. Large quarto. 188, [1]pp. Illustrated, mostly from photographs. Embossed blue cloth stamped in red, gold, and blind. Small tears on the edges of two leaves, a few modest smudges in the text, bottom corners bumped and rubbed, overall a pleasing very good copy. Colophon at end of the book says published 1942, but the text reproduces an introductory letter from the commanding officer dated March, 1943; the same template was used periodically, perhaps annually, and the same binding was used for other training centers. The book gives an overview, history, and pictures of the facility, candid pictures around the base, and hundreds of portraits of the faculty (mostly white senior officers, mostly Black junior officers) and the staff: flying officers, trainers, mechanics, quartermasters, hospital staff, medics, meteorologists, signal corps, band, etc. (who were all overwhelmingly Black).
Of most interest, the book provides yearbook-style individual portraits of each of the aviation cadets who were attending the school at the time, consisting of 151 cadets in five different classes (Class SE-43-B, Class SE-43-C, Class SE-43-D, Class SE-43-G, and Class SE-43-H). Interestingly, the earlier of the five classes were quite small (Class 43-B had six cadets; Class 43-C had ten), but as the classes progressed they grew steadily larger with 70 cadets in Class 43-H. Additionally listed and identified are trainees in other aviation related specialties.
Among the notable portraits are:
Lt. Colonel Benjamin O. Davis, a graduate of the first Tuskegee Class 42-C-SE (pictured here and captioned as "the highest-ranking colored flying officer in the armed forces").
Mac Ross – one of the first five African-American combat pilots; killed in an accident during the war
Charles DeBow – another of the first five African-American combat pilots
Jerome Edwards – first African-American pilot fatality; killed in a 1943 training exercise
Joseph Elsberry – one of the most accomplished pilots and a Flying Ace, who was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross
Armour G. McDaniels – Commanding Officer of Cadets and a POW in Germany, who also served in the Korean War
Edward Toppins – a prolific pilot with 141 missions and a Flying Ace, who was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross
The Tuskegee Airmen were first deployed to Europe the following month in April, 1943, and were based successively in North Africa, Sicily, and mainland Italy, with their first combat mission on May 30th. Of the 355 pilots deployed overseas, 85 lost their lives in combat or in related accidents. The cadets in this book were amongst the earliest replacements, and the fates of these cadets are known: several were highly decorated, and several others were amongst the dead.
Rare. *OCLC* locates four copies (NYPL, Air Force Historical Studies Office, Temple, and the Millville, N.J. Public Library).
Item #463968
