Kenneth Rapier,  Milton Williams, Duane Hayden

Kenneth Rapier, President Tuskegee Airmen, Inc.

Lt. Col. Duane Hayden  (Illinois Air National Guard) pictured with Daphne P.

2nd Lt. Milton Williams   (Original Tuskegee Airman)

Members of the famous World War II-era Tuskegee Airmen fighter pilots group will visited the students of Marie Murphy Junior High on Veterans Day.  The Tuskegee Airmen, known officially as the 332nd Fighter Group and the 477th Bombardment Group, were the first African American pilots in the U.S. military.  Despite the policy of racial segregation that existed in the military at that time, the airmen trained and fought with distinction, earning the highest accolades for desroying over 250 German warplanes and their success in protecting American bombers that flew over Europe and North Africa during the war.  The pilots and other members of their organization will engage students at Marie Murphy in a presentation about life during the war years and the particular pressures of being an African American in an elite fighting force during the years of racial segregation.