I was watching the movie “OCTOBER SKY” and this guy said that during the WWII, he flew with the red tails.
what are they?[?]
The Red Tails was the only fighter squadron in the USAAF in WW2 with black pilots.
They flew P-51 B Mustangs in NMF colour and a shiny Red tail.
They were given the name to be the best escort pilots a bomber pilot could wish.
Cheers,
Jürgen
PS: in 1/72 scale Academy builds a Mustang with Red Tail marking.
ooooooooooooooh.
yeah, the guy who said that is an african american person working for the olga mine company machine shop
The Red tails were the Tuskegee Airmen… there is currently a GB going on in the GB section regarding them-- they flew P-39’s, P-40’s, P-47’s, and P-51B and D’s in combat…
If I remember the history of the unit correctly they NEVER lost a bomber to enemy aircraft fire. By the time the unit received the assignment to escort bombers the bombing missions were flying deep into German territory. The unit is also credited with shooting down several Me 262s. The question should be WHO are the “Red Tails”!
They shoot down FIRST Me 262 in WW2.
Gumiflex
They still tour at airshows. I’m honored to have met 2 and shaken their hands!
www.wpafb.af.mil/museum/history/prewwii/ta.htm
there is a tv movie about the Tuskegee Airmen with lawrence fishborne
That movie about the Tuskegee airmen is excellent!Very well-acted as well as action packed.Highly recommended
The question is’nt surprising since so many young people have been told of the history of World War II. Those of us born between 1945 to about 1960 were better educated about those yearsd since so many of our teachers and parents were from that generation.
About ten years ago my daughter’s high school history teacher told the class that the Enola Gay was a B-17. I sent her to school with my autographed picture of Col. Paul Tibbets with the B-29 “Enola Gay” in the background. I sent a note that read; “Sir, the dumbing down of our childrens education is bad enough, please do not contribute to it”.
One more antedote; They are teaching about the Viet Nam war in high school history. Man, you talk about feeling old!
When I was in high school we still had troops in Vietnam. But I have to say we’re lucky to have history taught in schools as we do, even today. My girlfriend is German and was in middle and upper school in the 80s. For them, history in school pretty muched stopped after WWI, they were taught nothing of WWII and the periods before and after.
actually they didnt really shoot down that many enemy A/C, infact their stats for enemy aircraft destroyed are pretty low. this was because they were flying defensive missions, and they flew them well !
The legacy of the 332nd lives on today in the USAF, though not a fighter squadron. The 332nd AEF was in Kuwait during OIF I when I was there and I believe they are currently in Iraq.
That’s probably the only thing that I miss about school, the history lessons.
We had excellent teachers for our history classes.
Personally I think that without history, you don’t have a future.
For all the info available on the 332nd & 477th Bomb Gp check the following.
http://www.celebratefreedomfoundation.org/tugair.html
http://redtail.org/index1.shtml[2c]
The 301st FS at Luke AFB in Arizona can trace their heritage back to the Tuskegee airmen.