Trump repeatedly blasted DEI programs on the campaign trail, and signed an executive order on his first day ending such initiatives, which he called illegal, discriminatory and wasteful. The service also shuttered its barrier analysis working groups, which sought to expand opportunities for members of underrepresented groups to become pilots and reach other goals in the Air Force.
Later, the video displays a cockpit image of now-retired Brig. Jeannie Leavitt, the first female fighter pilot in U. The Tuskegee Airmen broke the color barrier. The Air Force, like all military services, takes tremendous pride in its history, and the Tuskegee Airmen of the nd Fighter Group are among its most storied.
CQ Brown, then the Air Force chief of staff and now chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was named an honorary Tuskegee Airman in and awarded their signature red jacket. Telling the story of the Tuskegee Airmen and their achievements is all but impossible, however, without addressing the history of segregation in the armed forces and the prejudice Black troops encountered. They were exceptionally skilled pilots, who flew distinctive red-tailed P Thunderbolt and P Mustang fighters over Europe, becoming known in the process as some of the best bomber escorts in the Army Air Forces.
Their combat record was so successful that it helped prompt the newly formed Air Force, and eventually the entire military, to desegregate in the years following World War II. During his first administration, President Trump promoted one of the last surviving Tuskegee Airmen , Charles McGee, who was at the time, to brigadier general and honored him as a guest during the State of the Union.
McGee passed away nearly two years later. In a interview with Air Force Times and other reporters, McGee said bomber pilots the Tuskegees escorted gave them the nickname Red Tails, and had no idea they were Black.
