|
Benjamin Oliver Davis, Jr. was born in Washington,
DC on December 18, 1912, the second of three children
born to Benjamin O. Davis, Sr. and Elnora Dickerson
Davis. His father was a U.S. Army officer, and at
the time was stationed in Wyoming serving as a lieutenant
with an all-black cavalry unit. Benjamin O. Davis,
Sr. served 42 years before he was promoted to brigadier
general. Elnora Davis died from complications after
giving birth to their third child (Elnora) in 1916.
At the age of 14 the younger Davis went for a flight
with a barnstorming pilot at Bolling Field in Washington,
D.C. The experience led to his determination to become
a pilot himself. He was the first cadet to get his
wings from the Tuskegee Army Air Field on March 7,
1942.
After attending the University of Chicago, he entered
the United States Military Academy at West Point,
New York in 1932. He was sponsored by Representative
Oscar De Priest (R-IL) of Chicago, at the time, the
only black member of Congress. During the entire four
years of his Academy term Davis was shunned by his
classmates, few of whom spoke to him outside the line
of duty. He never had a roommate. He ate by himself.
His classmates hoped that this would drive him out
of the academy. The "silent treatment" had
the opposite effect. It made Davis more determined
to graduate.
Nevertheless, he earned the respect of his classmates,
as evidenced by the biographical note beneath his
picture in the 1936 yearbook, the Howitzer : "The
courage, tenacity, and intelligence with which he
conquered a problem incomparably more difficult than
plebe year won for him the sincere admiration of his
classmates, and his single-minded determination to
continue in his chosen career cannot fail to inspire
respect wherever fortune may lead him."
He graduated in 1936, 35th in a class of 276. He
was the academy's fourth black graduate. When he was
commissioned as a second lieutenant, the Army had
a grand total of two black line officers — Benjamin
O. Davis, Sr. and Benjamin O. Davis, Jr. After graduation
he married Agatha Scott. At the start of his senior
year at West Point, Davis had applied for the Army
Air Corps but was rejected because it did not accept
blacks. He was instead assigned to the all-black 24th
Infantry Regiment (one of the original Buffalo Soldier
regiments) at Fort Benning, Georgia. He was not allowed
inside the base officers club.
He later attended the U.S. Army Infantry School
at Fort Benning, but then was assigned to teach military
tactics at Tuskegee Institute, a black college in
Alabama. This was something his father had done years
before. It was the Army's way to avoid having a black
officer command white soldiers.
Early in 1941, the Roosevelt administration, in response
to public pressure for greater black participation
in the military as war approached, ordered the War
Department to create a black flying unit. Captain
Davis was assigned to the first training class at
Tuskegee Army Air Field (hence the name Tuskegee Airmen),
and in March 1942 won his wings as one of five black
officers to complete the course. He was the first
black officer to solo an Army Air Corps aircraft.
In July that year, having been promoted to lieutenant
colonel, he was named commander of the first all-black
air unit, the 99th Pursuit Squadron.
The squadron, equipped with P-40 fighters, was sent
to Tunisia in North Africa in the spring of 1943.
On June 2, they saw combat for the first time in a
dive-bombing mission against the German-held island
of Pantelleria. The squadron later supported the Allied
invasion of Sicily.
In September of 1943, Davis was called back to the
United States to take command of the 332d Fighter
Group, a larger all-black unit preparing to go overseas.
Soon after his arrival, however, there was an attempt
to stop the use of black pilots in combat. Senior
officers in the Army Air Forces recommended to the
Army chief of staff, General George Marshall, that
the 99th (Davis's old unit) be removed from combat
operations as it had performed poorly. This infuriated
Davis as he had never been told of any deficiencies
with the unit. He held a news conference at The Pentagon
to defend his men and then presented his case to a
War Department committee studying the use of black
servicemen.
Participation Impact-(Defense of Personal
Freedoms and helping to lay the ground work for one of the greatest
economic expansions in human history):
Marshall ordered an inquiry but allowed the 99th to
continue fighting in the meantime. The inquiry eventually
reported that the 99th's performance was comparable
to other air units, but any questions about the squadron's
fitness were answered in January 1944 when its pilots
shot down 12 German planes in 2 days while protecting
the Anzio beachhead.
Colonel Davis and his 332d Fighter Group arrived in
Italy soon after that. The four-squadron group, which
was called the Red Tails for the distinctive markings
of its planes, were based at Ramitelli and flew many
missions deep into German territory. By summer 1944
the Group had transitioned to P-47s. In the summer of 1945, Davis took over the all-black
477th Bombardment Group, which was stationed at Godman
Field, Kentucky.
During the war, the airmen commanded by Davis had
compiled an outstanding record in combat against the
Luftwaffe. They flew more than 15,000 sorties, shot
down 111 enemy planes, and destroyed or damaged 273
on the ground at a cost of 66 of their own planes.
They never lost a friendly bomber to enemy fighters
on their escort missions.
Davis himself led dozens of missions in P-47 Thunderbolts
and P-51 Mustangs. He received the Silver Star for
a strafing run into Austria and the Distinguished
Flying Cross for a bomber-escort mission to Munich
on June 9, 1944.
In July of 1948, President Harry S. Truman signed
an executive order ordering the racial integration
of the armed forces. Colonel Davis helped draft the
Air Force plan for implementing this order. The Air
Force was the first of the services to integrate fully.
Colonel Davis, commander of the 51st FIW, leads
a formation of F-86F Sabres during the Korean War
in 1954
Davis served at the Pentagon and in overseas posts
over the next two decades. He again saw combat in
1953 when he assumed command of the 51st Fighter-Interceptor
Wing and flew an F-86 in Korea. He gained the three
stars of a lieutenant general in May 1965, when he
was the chief of staff for American forces in South
Korea. He was later commander of the Thirteenth Air
Force, based in the Philippines, and assistant commander
of the United States Strike Command, with headquarters
in Florida.
LINKS:
- Air Force Military History.gov
- Arlington Cementary.com
- U.S. Government Archives
|
