Red Tail warbird swoops in
By Amy Hamilton - Grand Junction Sentinel Newspaper, Saturday, June 20, 2015
Pilot Bill Shepard, who flies the rare Red Tail P-51C Mustang fighter, considers himself lucky. Shepard, who travels widely in the restored aircraft, gets to land every couple hours for breaks.
Pilot Bill Shepard, who flies the rare Red Tail P-51C Mustang fighter, considers himself lucky. Shepard, who travels widely in the restored aircraft, gets to land every couple hours for breaks.
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Commemorative Air Force Red Tail pilot Bill Shepard checks the oil in the 12-cylinder rolls Royce engine in a rare P-51 Mustang. Only four of the P-51Cs exist with only two flying. This plane honors the Tuskegee Airmen, the first black military pilots to fight in combat in World War II. They rose above the prejudice that blacks were not allowed to train to be pilots and proved their worth in the war. |
The all-African American group of World War II pilots who flew the Red Tails from 1943-45, the Tuskegee Airmen, were responsible for some of the longest missions and weren’t afforded breaks to eat and rest. “I’m lucky enough that I get to fly the aircraft and I get to stop,” Shepard said Friday night at the Rocky Mountain Wing of the Commemorative Air Force at the Grand Junction Regional Airport. “Physically and mentally just being able to overcome those obstacles is amazing.”
Members of the public are invited to experience a slice of this aviation history, check out the CAF museum and a take a look inside one of the two only operating P-51C models. A free open house is today and Sunday from 8 a.m.-4 p.m. at 780 Heritage Way. Access at Grand Junction Regional Airport is off Navigators Way.
Rides in the P-51 are available for $2,500 for a 30-minute flight. Rides in a T-6 owned by Utah Warbird Adventures are $375 for a 20-minute flight. Some proceeds from the flights go to fund the nonprofit CAF Red Tail Squadron, which works to educate youth about the Tuskegee Airmen and encourages youth to overcome adversity. Proceeds also will help the CAF chapter to raise $30,000 to restore a TBM Avenger 309 aircraft. The plane’s left main landing gear collapsed in March 2014, and that aircraft is being restored in Arizona.
The Tuskegee Airmen term encompasses all 992 trained pilots, and also the more than 14,000 black ground personnel who worked to help pilots complete missions at the segregated Moton Airfield in Tuskegee, Alabama.
In those two years between June 1943 and April 1945, 450 Tuskegee-trained pilots flew more than 1,500 combat missions, but the pilots are most remembered for escorting bombers, according to the Red Tail Squadron.
“The 332nd Fighter Group had the tails of their airplanes painted red and soon the white bomber pilots began requesting the “ret tail angels” because the Airmen were such skilled pilots and fierce fighters,” their literature states.
“As the Tuskegee Airmen destroyed the enemy, they also destroyed the belief that a man should be judged by the color of his skin,” the Red Tail Squadron states. “Their excellence helped to educate military leaders which resulted in the desegregation of all branches of the U.S. military in 1948. This allowed black soldiers to rise above past limitations and up through the ranks. It paved the way for four-star General Colin Powell to become the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the highest ranking military officer in the United States.”
Shepard said there are about 32 living Tuskegee pilots. He’s had the pleasure of meeting a few of them during events. “After hours, they’re like 18-year-old boys again,” he said.
The Red Tail Squadron has developed a RISE ABOVE Traveling Exhibit that includes a semi trailer that converts into a movie theater so youth can experience the story of the Tuskegee Airmen.
For information on the Red Tail Squadron, visit redtail.org. For information about getting up in one of the aircraft this weekend, contact Marvona Welsh at 812-240-2560.