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Plan in Works for Tuskegee Airmen Museum
Friday, April 27, 2007

By COREY WILLIAMS, Associated Press Writer

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DETROIT — A $26 million museum honoring the Tuskegee Airmen is planned for a renovated 35,000-square-foot hangar at Detroit's airport, an organizer said Friday.

Full-scale models of fighter planes and bombers the all-black group used during World War II, along with old uniforms, photos and other items already housed in a smaller museum, will be included, retired Air Force Maj. Gen. Lucius Theus said.

Completion is still several years away, said Theus, 85, one of a handful of the original Airmen to become generals. Money for the museum will be raised through a national campaign, special events and public and private donations.

About $200,000 has been raised so far, said Brian Smith, director of museum expansion.

The hangar currently is used for flight demonstrations and educational programs for youth, Theus said. The museum would be another way to attract young people to flying, he said.

"We're not trying to get them there to admire us," he said. "We want to get them interested in achieving and working hard and pursuing excellence."

Trained in Tuskegee, Ala., the Airmen flew in tens of thousands of combat missions as the first group of black fighter pilots allowed into the U.S. Army Air Corps. The late former Detroit Mayor Coleman Young was among the group's ranks.

The black personnel of our Armed Forces have been given the menial duties that white personnel didn't want or felt were benieth them. In most battles where black personnel have been present they have proved themselves as heroic and just darn good.
It is disgraceful that it has taken so long for them to be recognized.
The movie "Flags of Our Fathers" brings out this point very well.