[1]

RED TAIL REPORTWinter 2013/14

VIGOROUS VIRGIN ISLANDS CHAPTER GIVES NEW MEANING TO YOUTH PROGRAMS

The Tuskegee Airmen, Inc. Youth-Programs Newsletter

Thanks to some obviously strong direction from chapter leadership, TAI's farthest-flung outpost--the Virgin Islands Chapter, located in Christiansted, on the delightful island of St. Croix--has taken a new look at how young people can participate in chapter activities and be productive while spreading the word about Tuskegee Airmen, Inc. Here's a report from youth-program coordinator Cenita Heywood:

“While the student members of our chapter's Youth Aviation Club are afforded opportunities to participate in stateside Aviation Career Education (ACE) camps in Alabama, Florida and other locations, much of their time is spent volunteering here on the islands for numerous community activities. Giving back to their community means giving up some of their spare time. “My goal is to participate in at least one community activity per month throughout the year. This includes participation in all local parades--the

Martin Luther King Jr. march, Memorial Day parade, 911 Patriot's Day Freedom Walk and Veteran's Day parade--as well as volunteering for food drives for local food banks, neighborhood cleanup days, support of the local teachers/educators unions, police department anti-bullying activities, symposia for women and girls, community assistance to the American Legion, annual Christmas contributions to the senior home for the aged as well as promotion of the Virgin Islands Chapter's Youth Aviation Club. “With 52 young members of our Aviation Club available, there's plenty of volunteer support for these activities because the workload is well-distributed. Such efforts also support the Virgin Islands Legislature's mandate that all students complete 100 hours of community service before high school graduation. Many may assume that young people have to be cajoled and prodded to volunteer during after-school and weekend hours, but that's not the case. It may surprise some, but

[2]

Type to enter text

they willingly give of themselves and their time. “The key is to show appreciation with small tokens, whether it's in the form of certificates, pizza parties or

other incentives. Promoting a personal sense of worth, pride and community ownership pays enormous dividends. “Here in the Virgin Islands, our Tuskegee Airmen chapter and its Youth Aviation Club are widely known, much appreciated and heartily embraced throughout the islands primarily because of our continuous community participation for the betterment of all. The Virgin Islands chapter strives to ‘Give History a Future’ and to preserve the legacy of our two beloved local DOTAs: Herbert H. Heywood and Henry E. Rohlsen, both members of the Class 44-C-SE. We begin with the young people and move ever forward to succeeding generations. The Virgin Islands Chapter and

its Youth Aviation Club will continue to stay active and involved. And will always be giving back.”

Cenita Heywood is the secretary and public relations officer of the Virgin Islands Chapter, which was founded by her twin sister Carmen, who is currently the president of the chapter. The Heywoods are the daughters of DOTA Herbert H. Heywood, one of the two Virgin Islanders who won their wings as part of the Tuskegee Experience. The other was Henry E. Rohlson. Both men were born in the Virgin Islands and both later served as two-term members of the Virgin Islands legislature. With 104 dues-paying members (thanks largely to vigorous recruitment programs initiated by the Heywood sisters), the Virgin Islands Chapter doubtless has the highest ratio of

members per population of any TAI chapter. With an island population of just over 105,000 people, approximately one out of every 1,000 Virgin Islanders is a TAI member.

[3]

GE BRINGS GOOD THINGS TO LIFE Manager of General Electric's Corporate Air Transport Division Derek Green gave up a large part of his Martin Luther King Day holiday on January 20 to guide a dozen

members of the Maj. Gen. Irene Trowell-Harris Chapter through the huge GE business-jet hangar at Stewart Airport, in Newburgh, New York. Arrayed on its spotless, polished, white-polyurethane floor were five of GE's corporate fleet of Challenger 600 and Global Express business jets and AgustaWestland 109 luxury helicopters. Green himself was an attraction for the Trowell-Harris students, for he missed by a whisker (actually a very minor ocular fault) becoming an Astronaut despite being invited to join NASA and otherwise passing the admissions physical. Green also spent significant time flying for the famed 201st Airlift Squadron based at Washington's Andrews Air Force Base--the operators of Air Force One. He spent an hour with the students in a conference room

describing his own career and answering many questions about becoming a professional or military pilot as well as explaining the operation of corporate aircraft for a global

conglomerate. Then it was time for a very privileged tour of one of the Global Expresses, outfitted to guarantee a trouble-free, Mach .85 life aloft for GE execs who use these aircraft not as executive perks but as flying offices. (Green did point out, however, that if a GE jet's DirecTV link is inop, the executives invariably demand a replacement.) A typical trip

in a GE Global Express can be an eight-hour flight from New York to Moscow for a two-hour meeting with a group of Russian businessmen, then an immediate nine-hour return trip. Done aboard commercial airliners, the same journey would be a stressful four-day odyssey. GE does all of its own

maintenance and spends 2.3 hours working on an aircraft for every hour it is flown. As darkness fell on huge but little-trafficked Stewart Airport--one of the reasons GE has chosen to base its jets at the quiet but fully equipped field--Trowell-Harris Chapter president (and United Air Lines captain) Glen Fraser gave his students a remarkable experience: with the control tower's clearance, the shuttle van transporting them back to their classroom in KSWF's Atlantic Aviation facility was allowed to make a run right down the middle of brightly lit, two-mile-long Runway 9/27. With a cockpit view for everyone aboard (though the van never did achieve V1...), Captain Fraser gave a running lecture on the meaning and importance of various approach, runway and taxiway strobes, lights and markings. An outstanding example of real-time, real-bright, real-world aviation education!

Derek Green displays one of GE’s AgustaWestland helicopters, used for short-range local trips.

A Bombardier Global Challenger--$50 million of true business-class luxury.

[4]

No, Port Chicago had nothing to do with the Windy City in Illinois. It was actually a small seaport on Suisun Bay, north of San Francisco, part of what is today officially known as Military Ocean Terminal

Concord. During World War II, Port Chicago was a remote loading point for vast quantities of explosives--bombs, artillery shells, ammunition, torpedoes, depth charges and every other form of gunpowdered weaponry being shipped to troops in the Pacific. Author Michael W. Robbins wrote about what happened there in July of 1944 in a recent issue of the magazine Military History. Manhandling--literally--explosives onto cargo ships around the clock with primitive cranes, winches and frayed cargo nets was a lousy job, so of course it fell entirely to black sailors to do it. They were ill-trained and were officered by white men who usually stayed well back from the dangerous ground, where they placed bets

on which of their crews could load a ship fastest. Not safest--fastest. Railroad trains brought the ordnance from naval weapons depots inland and tugged the powder-laden boxcars out onto a 1,200-foot-long pier, where it

was transferred by hand into the holds of 10,000-ton Liberty ships. “On the cool dark night of July 17, 1944, though, something major went wrong,” Robbins wrote. “Sixteen freight cars containing 429 tons of cargo sat on the pier, which was flanked by two new Liberty ships....Ninety-eight enlisted men of Port Chicago's 3rd Division were loading one, while 102 enlisted men of the 6th Division were rigging the other for loading.” Also present were some officers, armed guards, the train crew, and the 67 officers and crewmen of the two freighters. They would all die. To this day, nobody knows what set off the blast. Several blasts, actually. After a preliminary explosion and some

secondary eruptions, “the entire loading area went up in one massive blast. The pier, both ships, the locomotive and railcars, a nearby Coast Guard fireboat, all the cargo and 320 men all but vanished....Of the 320 people killed instantly, 202 were black sailors.” The mushroom cloud rose to 12,000 feet, and an Army Air Force airplane cruising at 9,000 feet past the blast site reported seeing pieces of red-hot metal the size of a house flying up past them, and the blast was heard 200 miles inland. The shock wave was felt as far away as Nevada. It was the largest number of African Americans killed in a single incident during World War II. But the Port Chicago Disaster wasn't over yet. “Weeks after the explosion, 258 enlisted men at the nearby Mare Island Naval Shipyard refused orders to resume loading munitions aboard ships. Most were fined, and at war's end, given bad-conduct discharges. But 50 sailors, deemed the ringleaders, were charged with mutiny, court-martialed, found guilty and sentenced to 15 years of hard labor in prison. After the war the Navy granted the men clemency and released them.” It was the largest single court-martial procedure the Navy has ever held. Thurgood Marshall, later to become a Supreme Court justice, witnessed the trial as an NAACP lawyer. He held a press conference at which he accused the lead

FORGOTTEN BLACK HISTORY: THE PORT CHICAGO DISASTER

Unloading crated ammunition from boxcars at Port Chicago.

[5]

judge advocate of running the affair in a prejudicial manner. Port Chicago itself was leveled, nearly every building wrecked. All that remains of the quarter-mile-long loading dock are the eerie, blackened stubs of the pilings that once supported it.

MOTON FIELD RESTORATION COMPLETE On February 15, the restored/preserved “Hangar 2” and “Skyway Club” at Moton Field, in Tuskegee, Alabama, will be opened by the National Park Service as the jewels in the crown of this newest National Historic Site, thus completing eight years of work to replicate as closely as possible the state of the airfield in the mid-1940s, when the original Tuskegee Airmen underwent flight training there. Hangar 2, completed in 1944, was originally built to house not only training aircraft but the parachute-packing area, the Link Trainer area and various support facilities--all of which have been re-created. The original control tower was attached to the hangar. The Skyway Club was the Airmens' equivalent of an officers club, and it has been restored complete with a period jukebox, the classic Skyway

bar, and rocking chairs on the porches, from which off-duty trainees could observe--and invariably kibitz--the landings and takeoffs of their buddies. The national headquarters of TAI is in the process of moving its executive office to Moton Field.

[6]

A REMARKABLE CHAPTER NAMESAKE RETIRES Last September 25, Maj. Gen. Irene Trowell-Harris, the namesake of the Newburgh chapter of TAI, recently retired as the Director of the VA's Center for Women Veterans. Dr. Irene Trowell-Harris, as she was formally titled in her second career, retired after 13 years in her Federally appointed position. Irene Trowell-Harris, R.N. Ed.D., was nominated to be Director of the Center in June 2001 and approved by the White House on October 2, 2001. In this role, she was the primary advisor to the Secretary of Veterans Affairs on programs and issues related to women veterans

Prior to her appointment, Doctor Trowell-Harris served as Director of the VA’s Office of Inspector General’s Healthcare Inspections Regional Office in Washington, D.C. In this position, she directed a multidisciplinary staff of inspectors responsible for conducting oversight reviews to improve the economy, effectiveness and efficiency of the VA’s programs.

Irene had humble beginnings on her family farm. It meant shortened days of school in order to help pick the family cotton so it could get to market. She always had dreams of flying since her days

of seeing airplanes overhead during those sweltering summer days. A dream that would one day come true after being the first in her family to get a college degree and becoming a nurse.

She joined the New York Air National Guard at the suggestion of a friend, became a flight nurse, and realized her dream of flying. Her career advanced in the military, as she

became the first African American female to command a medical squadron. Later, she became the first African American general in the Air National Guard, the First two-star general and the first woman to have a Tuskegee Airmen Chapter named for her.

Along the way, General Harris kept education at the forefront. She received a masters degree from Yale University in Public Health and

a doctorate in education from Columbia. Always believing that education and mentoring were the keys to her own success, Doctor Trowell-Harris continues to do both in her retirement, making speeches at her alma maters and mentoring those who would come along behind her. She does not forget, however those who came before her and acknowledges the Tuskegee Airmen, Women in Aviation and the Bessie

Coleman Foundations as organizations that helped to shape and continue to shape her life.

After 38 Years of military service and 13 years of Federal appointment, Dr. Trowell-Harris will be traveling extensively and enjoying the many members of her family whom she mentors and helps to educate through her own family scholarships. She

will also be fulfilling her bucket list of more than 40 activities. “We are so proud of a woman who came from such humble beginnings in Aiken, South Carolina, to the greatest heights in the military and in education,” said Trowell-Harris Chapter President Glen Fraser. “We are honored to have her as our namesake and will dutifully live up to her request that we continue to mentor the youth of this nation.”

Trowell-Harris (center) with Chapter President Glen Fraser, Secretary Dorothy Hackley, VP Mahnaz Sullivan-Davachi and Chapter co-founder Chaplain Julius Jefferson.

[7]

YOUTH TRIP TO NAVAL AIR STATION WHIDBEY ISLAND

Last December 12, Ty Peterson, a member of the Seattle Sam Bruce Chapter of TAI, arranged a trip to Naval Air Station Whidbey Island, north of Seattle, for 15 young students from the Pacific West Aerospace Academy (www.pacificwestaerospaceacademy.com), which Peterson operates. The kids were accompanied not only by several Sam Bruce Chapter members but by former Seattle Seahawk tight end

Charle Young, a 1982 Super Bowl winner when he played with the San Francisco 49ers. Young is a member of the board of directors and a youth mentor for Peterson's Aerospace Academy; The Whidbey Island tour, sponsored by Boeing and Northrop Grumman, included an opportunity for the young aviation enthusiasts to fly the base's Lockheed P3 Orion full-motion simulator and to thoroughly examine a Northrop Grumman EA-18G Growler electronic-warfare aircraft, a special radar jammer-packed version of the F/A-18 Super Hornet fighter. The Growlers based at Whidbey are operated by the famous VAQ-135 Black Raven Squadron. The students also got a rare opportunity to watch air operations from the base ramp.

Behind the Pacific West Aerospace Academy kids and their mentors and guides is a Northrop Grumman EA-18G Growler.

Also based at Whidbey: VAQ-138. Translated from Latin, their motto is “Nothing Less Than the Best.”

[8]

TAI MEMBER ROBIN PETGRAVE MAKES EBONY “POWER 100” LIST Tomorrow's Aeronautical Museum (TAM) founder and executive director Robin Petgrave was honored by inclusion on the 2013 edition of Ebony Magazine's annual list of the 100 most influential African Americans. He won the citation for his work with young people through TAM's many STEM-focused youth programs. Petgrave, a member of the Los Angeles Chapter of TAI, shares the list with Barack Obama, Oprah Winfrey, LeBron

James, Al Sharpton, Harry Belafonte, Magic Johnson and 93 other black game-changers. Petgrave's TAM, in Compton,

California (south of downtown Los Angeles) started operations at the nearby Torrance Airport, where Petgrave's flight school and helicopter tour company, Celebrity Helicopters, is located. His youth program initially consisted of visits to LA-area public schools, where Robin would arrive by helicopter and give inspiring aviation-based motivational talks, an outreach program that he called Positive Vibrations. By 2002, this had grown into a full-scale after-school aviation program for young people and permanant relocation of the growing museum to the Compton-Woodley Airport. “We are a living classroom in south Los Angeles bringing aviation history to life and empowering the dreams of yout to take flight,” Petgrave writes on his website (www.tamuseum.org). “We use aviation enrichment as a catalyst to inspire, motivate and change young minds, while on the ground we support academic achievement through our partnerships with area schools, one-on-one tutoring, and college preparation.” Petgrave is a flight instructor with fixed- and rotary-wing ratings, and he's the president and chief pilot of Celebrity Helicopters. He is also the recipient of the TAI's Gen. Noel F. Parrish Award.

Maj. Kenyatta H. Ruffin, an F-16 pilot with the U. S. Air Force, received his promotion to major last September. A longtime member of the Chicago “DODO” Chapter, Keny soloed a glider at age 14 in 1995--the youngest age at which a sailplane can legally be soloed--and traces his powered-flight career back to his first Young Eagles flight, in September 1998. Five years later, Ruffin graduated from the U. S. Air Force Academy, in Colorado Springs, as Vice President of the Class of 2003. Keny Ruffin is one of the major success stories produced by TAI youth programs.

KENY RUFFIN MAKES MAJOR

Standing, Kenyatta H Ruffin; Tyrell Rhodes, a Southwest Airlines “Continuing the Legacy” awardee; and Col. Duane Hayden, Chicago Department of Aviation Assistant Commissioner. Seated, Kenneth Rapier, Chicago DODO Chapter president; DOTAs Lawton Wilkerson, Milton Williams, Marshall Knox and Virgil M.Poole.

[9]

SHOGUN THOMAS: AN ACE CAMP SUCCESS STORY

Shogun Thomas and his two younger brothers traveled from Virginia to attend the Western Region's ACE Academy in 2011. Since then, Thomas has completed high school, graduating early this January, and is about to go to Japan for a year-long stint as an exchange student. When he returns, he will enter the University of Kansas on a full academic scholarship in the Fall of 2015.

His parents say, “He did it all on his own, worked it by himself, essays and all, and then presented his plan to us!” (Shogun's aunt is a member of the Arizona Archer-Ragsdale Chapter.) More good news about an ACE Camp participant. Here's Shogun's account of his experience:

“My time at the ACE Academy was nothing short of amazing. Learning about airplanes and flying had been on my list for a long time, and the ACE Academy introduced the subjects in an exciting way! “First, we started off by learning about the mechanics of an airplane. Before ACE, I had no idea that the base part of the airplane is called a fuselage! The staff was very kind and answered

any questions that the members of the camp asked them. “After learning about the mechanics, we got into airplane simulators and practiced how to fly an airplane. The staff and teachers were very patient, and helped anybody who was having trouble controlling the aircraft. Admittedly, I had several problems in the beginning, but eventually I

was able to fly and land unassisted. “However, the most exciting part of the Academy, was the chance to be able to meet some of the Arizona Tuskegee Airmen. I was very excited to hear their stories about World War II and the challenges they faced during that time. “The day after meeting with the Tuskegee Airmen, we finally got to

ride in airplanes under a program called Young Eagles. As we were walking up to the actual airplane, the pilots reviewed the names of the parts of the airplane as well as each part’s function. We were paired in groups of two or three, and each group got into an airplane with a pilot. The pilot flew us around the airport, and the person who got to sit up front was able to take control of the airplane (under the supervision of the pilot of course). “At the end of the Academy, there was a great awards banquet, and the students had the privilege of talking to the Tuskegee Airmen and taking pictures with them. This ACE Academy really opened my eyes to the world of aviation, and I hope to get my pilot’s license soon!”

[10]

A “SPANKY” SOLOS From Col. Tom Sherman, of the George S. “Spanky” Roberts Chapter, in Sacramento, California:

“On 16 November 2013, James Gardner Jr. became the first member of the George S. 'Spanky' Roberts Chapter's Youth Aviation Program to solo an airplane. Gardner successfully completed four trips around the traffic pattern, including three taxi-backs and takeoffs, at Sacramento Executive Airport in a Cessna 152 trainer. Prior to this, James had completed 20 hours of flight instruction and successfully passed a written test given by his flight instructor. James's next milestone will be to complete the requirements to earn his private pilot certificate. “Several of James's friends and relatives were on hand to witness the historic event on James's 16th birthday. All who attended joined James for a birthday lunch at the airport restaurant. Gardner is the 'Spanky' Roberts Chapter's 2011 Youth Aviation Program Shining Star. He is in 11th grade and is currently a 2nd lieutenant in Squadron 14 of the Civil Air Patrol. His goal is to enter Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University or Georgetown University upon graduation from high school. James's ultimate goal is to become a commercial pilot.”

It's worth pointing out that Gardner made his solo flight on the very first day that he could legally do so--his 16th birthday. Truly a rare achievement.

My name is Colin Battersby, and I am a member of the Lee Archer Jr. Red Tail Youth Flying Program, in Newburgh, New York. I am 15 years old and am in my second year of the program, which can teach me how to fly and allows me to follow my dreams.

I recently had the opportunity to enter the “Continuing the Legacy” essay program sponsored by Southwest Airlines and was a finalist. I was so excited to visit Southwest's Dallas headquarters because there were only 18 finalists selected nationally. The experience was outstanding and exposed me to new opportunities. It was very inspirational, as I one day want to be a pilot. The Tuskegee Airmen are a huge inspiration to me. Knowing that they had to fight to gain their right to fly makes me feel so lucky to be able to just get into an airplane and start flying. It’s unbelievable that they were not allowed to fly because of their skin color. It is also unbelievable that they were only supposed to be an “experiment,” but after their first mission they proved themselves in a major way. Not many people can show how great they are on their first try, but the men who were expected to fail allowed very few of the bombers they were escorting to be shot down. They are an inspiration to me.

CONTINUING THE LEGACY

James Gardner Jr. with his Cessna 152.

On the right, Colin Battersby, ready to go flyin’.

[11]

Among the many unforgettable activities we enjoyed at Southwest headquarters were exploring the air traffic control tower at Love Field, flying a Boeing 737 flight simulator, and meeting some of the original Tuskegee airmen!

I have only seen control towers from the ground and only dreamed of what was inside and how everything worked. On the Southwest trip, they let me live my dream and take a short trip up many stairs to the top of the wondrous structure. Not being able to take pictures or use our phones, I tried to take in as much as possible. Expecting a bright room, I was surprised to see that the windows were covered with navy blue sheets of transparent plastic. The view from the top was just as I expected. You could see for miles. Every part of the airport was exposed, and you could see the lineup of the airplanes coming down to land. The image is as clear as if it were yesterday. Another wonderful experience was flying the huge flight simulator. I have only flown simulators

on an iPad or the Microsoft Flight Simulator computers we use before class, so when I walked into a room filled with eight white and black structures, each of them larger than a car, with moving hydraulic mechanisms underneath it, my jaw dropped to the floor. I was expecting to look at the amazing pieces of machinery and leave, but they told us we would be able to use them. My heart raced. As the mechanical gate went down and two real pilots exited, an instructor, two kids and I entered the huge metal box. The inside was more amazing than the outside. It felt as if I were in a real airplane. One of the other kids sat down and he was taught to fly. If the yoke was pulled, the room we were in moved too. When it was my turn, I was extremely nervous, thinking I was going to break the machine. I pushed the throttle forward, and the runway began to move faster and faster. The instructor told me to pull back on the surprisingly firm yoke, and we lifted off the ground. I looked out my window and another dream had come true! My final Southwest experience was meeting some of the original Tuskegee airmen. Only having seen them in school textbooks and movies, it was an honor to meet them in person. I was also fortunate enough to pin one of the men with a small badge of recognition. I never dreamt of being part of such an important moment. I was honored to receive an autograph from each of these men, and was disappointed to have to leave them to come back to New York. The journey I took to Southwest headquarters was an extraordinary experience filled with opportunities other people only dream of. I would never have experienced this if it wasn’t for the generosity of Southwest Airlines and the encouragement of the leadership in my Red Tail program. During the trip, I met many spectacular people--pilots, instructors, other kids and their parents. I made many new friends and have gained many new role models. Looking back at the trip is like recalling a dream, because it seems almost impossible. I envy the employees who have a chance to experience the wonderful people, jobs and adventures that course through Southwest headquarters every day. I am thankful for the incredible opportunity I had and appreciate the opportunity I was given by Southwest Airlines and the Lee Archer Jr. Red Tail Program leadership! Thank you!

[12]

THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA RIVERSIDE’S FREEMAN FIELD MUTINY PRESENTATION On Saturday, February 22, the University of California Riverside Libraries and its Tuskegee Airmen Archive will host a presentation on the infamous 1945 “Freeman Field Mutiny.” The

keynote speaker will by Dr. Lisa Bratton, an associate professor at Tuskegee University as well as the historian for the Tuskegee Airmen National Historic Site at Moton Field. Several DOTAs who were involved in the mutiny will also be in attendance for the event and the reception afterward, from 1400 until 1700 at the Orbach Science Library at UCR (to attend, call 951 827-4386 or sign up at www.library.ucr.edu/tuskegee by February 10). The mutiny took place when members of the all-black 477th Bombardment Group, flying B-25s, were relocated to Freeman Army Airfield, in southern Indiana. At Freeman, two separate officers' clubs had been created by racist officers in advance of their arrival: one for “trainees,” who were officers but black, and the second for “instructors,” all of whom were white. Led by future Detroit Mayor Coleman Young, then a 2nd lieutenant but already an experienced labor organizer, increasingly numerous groups of Tuskegee Airmen ignored the whites-only sign and entered the instructors' club. These were acts of nonviolent civil disobedience, for the Airmen

simply wanted to make their point by getting arrested en masse. Which they were: ultimately, 61 Tuskegee Airmen officers were arrested during the two-day protest. (Some were arrested

multiple times, producing a total of 162 separate arrests.) Three were court-martialed on minor charges, the worst of them that 2nd Lt. Roger C. Terry had “shoved” a white lieutenant. Fifty-eight of the Tuskegee Airmen were released, but the entire corps of trainees was then required to sign documents attesting that they were aware the two clubs were segregated. One hundred and one officers refused to sign and were consequently arrested. Under increasing pressure from African American organizations, labor unions and members of Congress, all charges but those against Lieutenant Terry and two men arrested with him were dropped. Two of them were acquitted, but Terry was fined $150 and

dishonorably discharged. It was the beginning of serious efforts to integrate public facilities in the United States through civil disobedience. The Freeman Field Mutiny led directly to Rosa Parks and ultimately the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Mutinous Tuskegee Airmen under arrest,waiting to be bussed to an AAF facility in Kentucky.

[13]

READ TO KIDS, BUT TALK ABOUT NUMBERS TOO! From a recent issue of education blogger Annie Murphy Paul's “The Brilliant Blog”:

“Do you speak math with your kids? “Many of us feel completely comfortable talking about letters, words and sentences with our children--reading to them at night, helping them decode their own books, noting messages on street signs and billboards. “But speaking to them about numbers, fractions and decimals? Not so much. Yet studies show that 'number talk' at home is a key predictor of young children's achievement in math once they get to school.... “The frequency of number talk in the children's homes had a big impact on how well the youngsters understood basic mathematical concepts such as the cardinal number principle, which holds that the last number reached when counting a set of objects determines the size of the set ('One, two, three--three apples in the bowl!').... “Though it may not come naturally at first, parents can develop the habit of talking about numbers as often as they talk about letters and words. Some simple ways to work numbers into the conversation: Note numbers on signs when you're walking or

driving with children; speed limits and exit numbers, building addresses, sale prices in store windows.

Ask children to count how many toys they're playing with, how many books they've pulled out to read,or how many pieces of food are on their plate. Use numbers when you refer to time, dates and temperatures; how many hours and minutes until bedtime, how many weeks and days until a holiday, the high and low the weatherman predicts for the day. With older children, math can become a part of talking about sports, science, history, video games or whatever else they're interested in. “With practice, parents and children alike will find that math makes a very satisfying second language.” To subscribe to The Brilliant Blog, go here.

NASA's new Orion spacecraft is scheduled to launch this September from Cape Canaveral, and the space agency is challenging students from kindergarten through 12th grade to research and design proposed solutions to help protect astronauts from radiation in space during Orion's planned future deep-space missions. A new deadline for students to submit payload design notebooks is now February 28. Participating students in grades K through 8

will, under teacher guidance, analyze different materials that simulate space radiation shielding. Students in grades 9 through 12 can take the challenge a step further by designing an actual shield to protect a sensor inside Orion from radiation. Five high-school team designs will be selected this March, and the winning design will be announced by the end of the school year. That team will be flown to Cape Canaveral to watch their experiment launch into orbit aboard the unmanned Orion. (Future Orion spacecraft are being developed to carry Astronauts beyond low-Earth orbit and on to an asteroid or Mars.)

NASA SPACE RADIATION CHALLENGE TO STUDENTS

[14]

THE TUSKEGEE AIRMEN WEREN’T ALONE In England, the Royal Air force Museum recently launched an exhibition highlighting the contribution of black men and women who were members of the RAF. From the RAF Museum's website...

“In two World Wars, blacks from the Caribbean, Africa and Britain itself volunteered to serve in the Royal Air Force. These volunteers fought and died

for England and thereby helped to preserve the values and the heritage they shared with their white comrades. The tradition of service to the Crown continues today, and the RAF is proud to welcome new generations of black volunteers into it ranks. “In a brand-new exhibition, curated in partnership with the Black Cultural Archives, the Royal Air Force Museum tells in 'Pilots of the Caribbean: Volunteers of African Heritage in the Royal Air Force' the story of these volunteers, commemorating and celebrating their vital contribution to the defense of Britain, her Empire and Commonwealth. The exhibition highlights the RAF's success in embracing diversity and also demonstrates how the rich, cosmopolitan nature of modern Britain owes much to the black men

and women who wore air force blue.” Nearly 500 RAF pilots and aircrew members and thousands more support personnel were black during World War II. Before the war, admittance to the RAF was only for “men of pure European descent,” which sounds like something the Luftwaffe would have stipulated, but as thousands of white RAF members were killed, they began to enlist blacks. Unlike the Tuskegee Airmen, though, the RAF blacks were not segregated; the flew and fought alongside white squadronmates.

Airman Carl Aitken and WAAF Sally Lopez traveled from Jamaica to help the Empire.

Ulric Cross, third from right, was the most decorated West Indian veteran. A bomber navigator, he won both the DFC and the DSO.

Flight Sergeant James Hyde, a Spitfire pilot from Trinidad with his dog Dingo, was killed in action.

[15]

ULTIMATELY, NOBODY WINS THE “WHO CAN MAKE THE LOWEST PASS?” CONTEST...

RAF Panavia TornadoDouglas Skyraider over China Beach, Vietnam

Royal Navy Blackburn BuccaneerUnidentified turboprop (no, it’s not a P-51...)

Blue Angels McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet Czechoslovak Aero L-29 Delfin

[16]