Get an Edge in the Army Reserve |Stay Army Reserve

“We are creating a capability for America with a talent pool that transfers skills learned on the battle field to American industry. The money we use to recruit and train our Soldiers goes back to the local community as a resource that meets the talent requirements of the civilian workplace.”

Lt. Gen. Jack C. Stultz, Commanding General, U.S. Army Reserve Command

For Soldiers | Employer Partnership

412th Theater Engineer Command

"Build to Serve"

Operational and Functional Commands > 412th Engineer Command (Theater) > News > Tuskegee Airman

Tuskegee Airman Visits 412th Engineer Command

By Danny Barrett Jr.

Published:

Sunday, February 8, 2009 2:16 AM CST

Attitudes toward blacks in the military heading into World War II were rooted in part in a theory that they were ill-equipped to handle combat. Those obstacles still ring clear for retired Lt. Col. Leo R. Gray when recalling the trailblazing Tuskegee Airmen, the first black pilots to train in the Army Air Corps’ Tuskegee Air Field in Alabama.

“In 1925, there was a study at the Army Historical Institute on Negro troops in World War I. It said Negroes were inferior to whites and that Negroes lacked the courage to engage in combat and lacked the ability to handle sophisticated equipment. This was the mindset of the military establishment at the outset of World War II. I think we demonstrated that was not right,” Gray said Saturday before an audience of about 200 who packed the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center.

Gray, a Boston native, enlisted in 1942 and was a part of one of the last groups of Tuskegee Airmen to join the war effort in Europe. He arrived in Italy in March 1945 and flew 15 missions through the end of the war with the 100th Fighter Squadron.