Veterans inspire respect
- From: "Catherine" <Catherine@yahoo!!!.com>
- Date: Sat, 24 Mar 2007 01:43:49 GMT
http://www.newsregister.com/news/story.cfm?story_no=219770
Veterans inspire respect
Published: March 22, 2007
<""photo::> Alex Jefferson, who flew a P-51 Mustang with the Tuskegee Airmen of
World War II, tells Dayton High School students about spending nine months in a
German prisoner of war camp. Students paid tribute to Jefferson and more than 100
other veterans who visited their school Monday. --Tom Ballard / News-Register
By STARLA POINTER, Of the News-Register
DAYTON - Veterans of various wars brought their stories and advice to Dayton High
School students Monday.
"Know what you want to be and don't let anyone keep you from doing it," said Bill
Terry, a retired lawyer who trained as a B-25 pilot during World War II. "Your
future depends on you."
Terry is one of dozens of vets from across the country who travel together through a
nonprofit educational project called Remember America's Heroes. Many local veterans
also spent the day at the school.
In their honor, DHS students held a heroes' assembly featuring student music groups,
an honor guard and drum corps from the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde.
"It was an incredible, amazing day, definitely better than we expected, both for us
and for the veterans," said Dave Fluke, the teacher who arranged the "Living History
Day."
As the 130 veterans and their spouses said farewell, students lined the halls to pay
their respects - a tribute that really moved the veterans, he said. He added that he
was especially proud that almost all of Dayton High's students dressed up for the
event, another sign of respect.
While in Yamhill County, the traveling group of veterans also visited the Evergreen
Aviation Museum and the Grand Ronde war memorial. They were honored with warriors'
medals given out by the tribe.
Living History Day speakers included veterans of Vietnam, World War II and Korea.
One woman recounted her childhood in Germany, where her Jewish family hid from the
Nazis. Other visitors told of being shot down by enemy troops and held in prisoner
of war camps; recovering from wounds seen and unseen; and continuing their service in
the Reserves or National Guard.
Like Terry, they took time to deliver a clear message to students: get motivated, get
educated, get busy taking responsibility for yourself.
Terry and two of his fellow Army Air Corps members represented the Tuskegee Airmen -
black pilots and air crews who take their collective name from their segregated
training field in Tuskegee, Ala.
Between 1941 and 1946, 1,000 black pilots earned their wings. Another 9,000 or so
trained as airplane mechanics, parachute riggers and other aviation-related
specialists.
Terry, Richard Macon and Alex Jefferson were only admitted to pilot training because
they held college degrees. In contrast, white Air Corps members didn't even need a
high school diploma to qualify, Jefferson said.
He recalled being eager to move up from $25 a month, buck private status to flyboy.
During their nine-month pilot training, he said, cadets could earn $75 a month and
have a private room. When they reached second lieutenant status as pilots, they
earned $150 a month - not to mention attracting as many pretty girls as they desired,
he said.
But the main thing was being allowed to be part of the airborne forces.
"We didn't give a damn whether the white pilots respected us," he said. "All we
wanted to do was fly."
Before World War II, flight opportunities - among many others - were denied to black
recruits. They continued to suffer discrimination even after the war.
Jefferson, for instance, was turned down for the Michigan Air National Guard because
of his race. He was rejected despite being a decorated, seven-year military veteran
with a college degree.
He was able to keep flying only by remaining in the Air Force Reserves.
Jefferson started his pilot training in a P-40, then prepared for overseas work in a
P-39. When he went to Italy with the 301st Fighter Squadron, he was assigned to a
P-51 Mustang to fly escort missions for B-17s and B-24s on bombing runs in Germany
and other parts of Europe.
He flew 18 1/2 missions, he said. On the last one, he was shot down over Southern
France.
That led to nine months confinement in Stalag Luft 3, where the Germans treated all
prisoners of war as officers and gentlemen, no matter what their color, Jefferson
said.
In contrast, Terry said, U.S. Armed Forces treated black soldiers who ended up in
trouble as something much less. He said he knows first-hand, because he ended up in
the clink for trying to enter an officers club.
He was an officer. In fact, he was the commanding colonel's co-pilot. But he was
told it was a "whites only" club.
When he and his fellow Tuskegee Airmen decided to challenge that, they were
court-martialed and branded for life as felons.
Because of his felony status, the law school graduate was unable to work as an
attorney. It wasn't until 61 years later, in 1995, that he and his comrades were
officially pardoned.
Despite all that, Terry said he still has faith in America and in its legal system.
He considers Harry Truman, who desegregated the armed forces, to be one of our
greatest presidents. Because of Truman, he said, "Now, we're not just subjected to
doing the dirty work."
Terry, Jefferson and Macon said they dealt with prejudice by realizing it is a
byproduct of unrecognized ignorance.
Everyone is ignorant to an extent. The key to overcoming your own ignorance is to
embrace it, said Macon, a retired math professor.
When you think about it, he said, you'll realize that you know only a minute amount
of all the things that can be known. And that's great.
"One of the most exciting things is to find out how ignorant you are, so you can get
excited about learning," Macon said. "What I love more than anything is learning."
For instance, "Imagine how I felt when some knucklehead said I couldn't learn to
fly?" he said, recalling a widespread belief by some whites that blacks were
incapable of mastering the complex skills required of a pilot.
The Tuskegee Airmen proved them wrong, he said, and that helped open the skies to
military, airline and civilian pilots of all races.
Macon went on to run a flying school after the war. "I've never accepted there was
anything I couldn't learn," he said.
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