Note: All Prints are Signed by the artist but do not have the text graphics that are shown on the sample images.
Made
famous for all by the HBO film, the story of the "Tuskegee Airmen"
stands bright in the annals of United States history. Formed as an
experiment to see if black pilots could compete in the arena of aerial
combat. The triumphant record that these brave men recorded under
difficult conditions (created both by the enemy and by their own
country) proved once and for all that racial prejudices have no place in
the world of free men.
Depicted
here, having successfully engaged a German Me-109F over Italy, is the
P-51B Mustang piloted by Capt. Ed Toppins of the 99th Fighter
Squadron, 332nd Fighter Group of the U.S. Army Air Corps. The 332nd
fought in the Sicilian and Italian campaigns as well as bomber escort
into the heart of the Third Reich. Bomber crews grew to be
thankful for the sight of an escort of the "Red Tails", as the
reputation of theTuskegee Airmen was so great that one newspaper even
claimed they never lost an escorted bomber to enemy air action (a claim
now debated by combat records) . The Tuskegee Airmen flew over 15,000
sorties during the war, accounting for 109 enemy aircraft shot down, and
were awarded over 1,000 medals. As a price, 150 paid the unltimate
sacrifice for freedom, a freedom that within their own country would
take decades for them to fully realize.
