The squadron was formed during World War II as the first flying unit for African Americans. Known as the Tuskegee Airmen, the unit served with distinction in the European Theater of Operations. After the war it served as a flight training unit until its inactivation in 1949.
It was re-activated in 1988 as a training squadron. Its planes' tails are painted red to honor the Tuskegee Airmen.
Considered ready for combat duty, the 99th was transported to Casablanca, Morocco, on the USS Mariposa and participated in the North African campaign. From Morocco, they traveled by train to Oujda then to Tunis, the location from which they operated against the Luftwaffe. Flyers and ground crew alike were isolated in their initial command, the 33d Fighter Group, by the racial segregation practices of the Army and group commander Colonel William Momyer. The flight crews were given little guidance from battle-experienced pilots except for a week spent with Colonel Philip Cochran. The 99th's first combat mission was to attack the small, but strategic, volcanic island of Pantelleria in the Mediterranean Sea, in preparation for the Allied invasion of Sicily in July 1943. On Friday, 2 July 1943, Lieutenant Charles B. Hall of Brazil, Indiana, shot down the first enemy plane for the group. "It is probably the first time in history that a Negro in a pursuit plane has shot down an enemy in aerial combat."[2][note 1]
The 99th moved to Sicily, where they would receive a Distinguished Unit Citation for their performance in combat.[1]
Eight Tuskegee Airmen in front of a P-40 fighter aircraft1st Lt. Lee Rayford when he returned to the United States from Italy, where he served with the 99th Fighter Squadron. ca. 1941–1945Gen. Benjamin O. Davis Jr.Gen. Daniel "Chappie" James, who was an instructor of the 99th Squadron
But Colonel Momyer reported to NAAF Deputy Commander Major General John K. Cannon that the 99th was ineffective in combat[3] and its pilots cowardly, incompetent, or worse, resulting in a critical article in Time magazine. In response, the House Armed Services Committee convened a hearing to determine whether the Tuskegee Airmen experiment should be allowed to continue. Momyer characterized the 99th pilots as incompetent because they had seen little air-to-air combat. To bolster the recommendation to scrap the project, a member of the committee commissioned and then submitted into evidence, a report by the University of Texas that purported to prove that African Americans were of low intelligence and incapable of handling complex situations (such as air combat).[citation needed]
The 99th supported Allied invasions of Sicily and Italy. It provided close air support to the U.S. 5th Army during its assaults on Foggia and Anzio, and to French and Polish armies in their attack on Monastery Hill near Monte Cassino.[4] On 27 and 28 January 1944, LuftwaffeFw 190 fighter-bombers raided Anzio, where the Allies had conducted amphibious landings on 22 January. Attached to the 79th Fighter Group, eleven of the 99th Fighter Squadron's pilots shot down enemy fighters, including Captain Charles B. Hall, who claimed two shot down, bringing his aerial victory total to three. The eight fighter squadrons defending Anzio claimed a total of 32 German aircraft shot down, while the 99th claimed the highest score among them with 13.[5]
The squadron earned its second Distinguished Unit Citation on 12–14 May 1944, while attached to the 324th Fighter Group, attacking German positions on Monastery Hill, attacking infantry massing on the hill for a counterattack, and bombing a nearby strong point to force the surrender of the German garrison to MoroccanGoumiers.[citation needed]
In mid-1944, the squadron was assigned to conduct bomber escort missions. The unit supported bomber missions over Romania, France, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Yugoslavia and Greece.[citation needed]
During the war, the squadron was awarded three Distinguished Unit Citations.[4]
Flight training
After the war, the squadron returned to the United States, where it flew training missions under the command of Marion Rodgers[6] until its inactivation in 1949. It was reactivated in 1988 as a flying training unit. With the closure of Williams Air Force Base, Arizona, the squadron moved to Randolph Air Force Base, Texas. Today it operates Raytheon T-1 Jayhawk aircraft preparing instructor pilots and instructor combat systems officers to conduct undergraduate flight training in the T-1A.[4][7]
XII Air Support Command (later XII Tactical Air Command), 28 May 1943 (attached to 33d Fighter Group, 29 May 1943; 324th Fighter Group, c. 29 June 1943; 33d Fighter Group, 19 July 1943; 79th Fighter Group, 16 October 1943; 324th Fighter Group, 1 April–6 June 1944)
Bailey, Frank W.; Cony, Christophe (2002). The French Air Service War Chronology, 1914–1918: Day-to-Day Claims and Losses by French Fighter, Bomber and Two-Seat Pilots on the Western Front. London: Grub Street. ISBN978-1902304342.
United States
United States Air Force
