World War II Reflective Paper

Patricia Lee

I chose several articles concerning the formation of the Negro Squadron at Chanute Field in Rantoul, Illinois, and the organization of the 99^th Pursuit Squadron at the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. The first article was an associated press article with a date stamped of Friday, January 17, 1941. I assume that this article was run in one of the local Champaign, Illinois newspapers due to the relevance to Chanute Field. There is no specific author listed for this article. I think this article was written to demonstrate that the military was beginning to allow change in its rules and regulations. The announcement appears to be official since Undersecretary Robert B. Patterson of the War department originally announced it the previous day. I found it interesting that this announcement was prior to the bombing of Pearl Harbor. It was interesting that the War department was actually feeling the need to utilize Blacks into all branches of the military service. I felt that this article would help the morale of the Blacks in the military and encourage more Blacks to enlist with the hope of more positions available to them.

My second article is either from a local Champaign, Illinois or a local base paper for Chanute Field. The author is listed as Rantoul (Staff). The article is stamped with a date of October 31, 1941 and the title is 99^th Pursuit Faces Practise. The article is written about the fact that the 99^th Pursuit Squadron, Negro unit of the air corps had performed very well in the classroom. Now the members faced the challenge of performing well in the training field, which would be at the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. The other area of local interest was the anticipated building of some new facilities at Chanute Field if the war plans materialize. The number of shifts of classes at Chanute would also have to increase. This would most certainly be good news for the local economy.

The third and final article that I selected was dated Wednesday, July 13, 1949. The title was “Chanute Tests Negro Airmen”. I found this article interesting and relevant to the two previous articles selected due to the further introduction of more Blacks into the Air Training command. A total of 214 Negro airmen assigned at the base were scheduled to be interviewed, screened, and given aptitude tests to determine their qualifications to hold present positions and to determine if they could be utilized in other positions and be of a greater value to the military service. I felt that this was further discrimination against the Black airmen since they again had to be tested separately from the White airmen. Once again they were battling segregation.

I selected these documents because the father of one of my friends was in the first Black Squadron that was trained at Chanute Field. He has shared some very interesting stories of his experience with me. I also felt that after listening to all the speakers and presentations at this conference about the horror and the atrocities that were inflicted upon the Jews and other selected groups in Europe, that the United States was very hypocritical in their beliefs due the extreme segregation of Blacks in this country.

The tour of the museum at Chanute really helped me to put these articles in perspective for me. The photos in the exhibit demonstrated the blatant racism aimed toward the Black airmen as they were assigned to Chanute Field. The Whites Only signs were very evident. The fact that they were expected to live in inferior housing on the base and were not even given adequate uniforms was a horrible mistake on the part of military. It only reinforced the belief that Blacks had to prove themselves to rise above such atrocities and show that they were capable of achieving much more than what Whites believed of them. I think that it was so very wrong of the military to perpetuate the feeling that Blacks were not capable of performing such duties as pilots or aircraft mechanics. When they finally were able to prove their abilities, Blacks were still segregated into separate units or squadrons. It was not until, President, Harry Truman enacted Executive Order Number 9981 which directed equality of treatment opportunity in all of the United States Armed Forces, that changes began to slowly evolve for Blacks in the military.

I also found two books presented at this conference to be of assistance in putting these articles in perspective for me. They were, “The Tuskegee Airmen,” written by Lynn M. Holman and Thomas Reilly: Arcadia Publishing, 1998, and “Black and White Airmen: Their True History,” written by John Fleischman, Houghton Mifflin, Boston, 2007. These books presented both a historical and personal view to the achievements of the Black Airmen of World War II. These books would be a good accompaniment to using these articles to explain the hardships and triumphs faced by the Blacks in the military during World War II.

I plan to use these articles in several difference was in my library curriculum at Stratton Elementary School. The first area that I plan to incorporate them into my lesson plans is during the area of Black achievement during Black History Month. I think that these articles bring the history of the Tuskegee Airmen back to a local connection with the involvement of Chanute Field. I will have copies of the article for the fifth grade students to read and begin by questioning their knowledge of World War II and the Tuskegee Airmen. For example, I might ask questions concerning when and why World War II took place and some of the countries involved. I want to involve the students in both the history of the war and history of segregation of Blacks in the United States.

I would also like to invite the father of my friend to visit some of my classes in the library so that he can present an oral history of his experiences as a member of the first Black Squadron at Chanute Field. He is an excellent speaker and has a wealth of information in regard to his experiences in the Air Corps during World War II. I think that the students would be able to relate to him and feel free to ask him questions to further their knowledge in the area of the history or World War II.

I think that the students could benefit greatly by incorporating the local history of the Black airmen into the history of the Tuskegee Airmen and their valuable role in World War II. I also think that this is a good example of how Americans were very hypocritical in their actions toward Black people in the United States.