I met the original “A-Train” last wednesday night at the Atlanta, GA meeting of the Tuskegee Airmen. That’s right, he is still alive and well but he is now in a wheelchair.
The Tuskegee Airmen were the first All Black unit in World War II who suceeded and distinguished themselves by never losing a single bomber to the enemy. He was the first person to shoot down an enemy aircraft by a Black American in the old 99th Pursuit Squadron and the first American to shoot down an ME-262 while on a sortee and the wing camera footage was used to demostrate how to shoot one down.
In the movie, A-Train was shown as going down in flames during a flight over Italy --------- I found out that was not true, it was for the movie. At any rate, he was with the Tuskegee Airmen from the time they had the old P-40s, this was before they moved into their P-51s and were known as the “Red Tails”.
I have pictures of this (the P-40 and a picture with me and Train) and will put them up here as soon as they get back from the store.
There here !!!
This is the P-40 that A-Train had.
A-Train is on the left and that me on the right.
It’s my 100th post ------------- YEAAAAAAAAAAAAA !!!
Good stuff! I am fortunate to have one living in my town and met up with him s couple summers ago and ended up building a model of his Mustang. They sure are full of great stories!
Thanks for the post and I am definately looking forward to the pictures. It is really great to get to meet some of these, “history making trailblazers” face to face. I was on tour of the Paul Garber Storage and Restoration Facility in Silver Hill, Maryland, a few years ago when I met Beryl A Erikson. He was 80 something years old at the time. He was chief test pilot for the Convair Aircraft Company in Fort Worth, Texas, in the 40’s and 50’s. That job put him as the first man to fly the B-36, first to fly the B-58 and the first to log 100 hours of super sonic time. He very graciously took the time to talk to me for quite some time after the tour. Later that evening, he gave a presentation at a local high school that had me absolutely spell bound. I could have listened to him talk all night.
It’s the great men such as these that provide the inspiration for modelers…not to mention protection of the freedom and liberty to be able to model in the comfort of our homes. Modeling the airplanes of these greats, at least for me, helps preserve the history in spellbinding stories that I can pass down to my children.
That’s realy a cool thing to have happen to you. It might be a good subject for a thread along the lines with “Brushes with Greatness” or some such title. You know what I mean, little anecdotes about people like A-Train that you’ve met but in a way where it wouldn’t sound like pure name dropping.
very cool story & pix, thanx 4 posting them !
‘A-Train’ ( Charles W. Dryden ) was played by Cuba Gooding Jr.
in the HBO film, i’m glad the real ‘A-Train’ actually survived…
the movie was played 4 dramatic effect rather than historical accuracy,
i guess. u r lucky 2 have met him…
& the pic of the P-40 model is cool, too…
would it b OK if i posted a pic of it in the Tuskegee Airmen Group Build
thread 4 reference purposes ?
thanx in advance,
Now here’s a really minor footnote to a great post on an even greater subject, Vance. The name “A Train” comes, of course, from the old Duke Ellington standard, “Take The A Train.” The song title comes from that fact that back then, you took the A Train on the subway line to get up to Harlem. And you still do.
My one at-length brush with a Tuskegee airman I’ve already described here, so I’ll give the short version. My editor, in an insult to my tremendous journalistic talent and stature, gave me this nothing assignment to go interview some old man on his retirement from the FAA as a check pilot. Well, five minutes into the interview I’m rudely looking at my watch when I vaguely hear him say “…so when the war was over I tried to get a job at the airlines, but they weren’t hiring any black pilots in those days, and that’s how I wound up at the FAA…”
Uh, wait a minute. Pilot?
“Yes, I was a member of an all black squadron that trained at the Tuskegee Institute.”
Wound up spending over two hours talking to him. He actually had a kill of an Me-109G over Italy, and that was a big accomplishment for one of the Red Tails. Why? Because, unlike the hotshots in the 8th AF, Gen. Davis, the commander of the Red Tails, forbade his pilots from leaving the bombers they were escorting to go off in “hot pursuit” of attacking enemy fighters under any cirumstances, lest they get disciplined severely. So getting kills was very, very difficult for them. And it must have been terribly frustrating for these great airmen to be held back from doing what they were trained to do: to fly and to fight. However, as the record shows, they did just fine without that long leash given their counterparts everywhere else.
Again, thanks Vance, for bringing this great story to us.
TOM
To everyone who responded to the post, I would give a heartfelt Thank You! When I first put this up I was not expecting this type of response, again Thank You.
To frostygirl; of course you may use the pictures.
