WINGS FOR THIS MAN

thank you foreign 20 miles from the enemy these are American boys going to work the morning fighter Patrol they're flying over Italy there are others like them flying over Burma over the coast of Holland over China over Germany in search of the enemy enemy planes the odds are bad this morning nearly three to one the routine morning Patrol goes on they close the range 3 500 feet three thousand twenty five hundred two thousand the odds are still three to one but it's three Nazis spinning down in Blood and Flame to it Routine Morning Patrol they're good planes wonderful planes and their pilots are good too listen yesterday I fulfilled one of my ambitions as a combat pilot I got one airplane and an American far from home fighting a war around the world came on my right I turned right and put up a stone wall of footage and the First wall of bullets it wasn't so long ago these men were students in a university workmen in a shipyard just plain citizens from everywhere USA they change jobs they change clothes they took a train into the future they didn't know what the future would be but many hoped they'd get the chance to fly and fight in the air some wanted that chance more than anything in the world deep inside Alabama is a famous school called the Tuskegee Institute it was founded on July 4th of 1881. and since that Independence Day it has graduated many thousands into agriculture into science into industry this school was the first of its kind and its founder Booker T Washington was a Pioneer who broke open a road for others to follow this man had a dream and the dream became Stone he lifted the veil of ignorance from his people and pointed the way to progress through education and Industry close to this school close to the work this man had done the United States government determined to build an Airfield three years ago this was just another Farm in Alabama more than trees had to be cleared away there was misunderstanding and distrust and Prejudice to be cleared away three years ago there was only an idea but ideas are powerful things and today there are fighter planes flying overhead instead of swamp and yep and yellow pine there are hangers repair shops barracks instead of pad of corn concrete flight strips but that's not enough you can't make a Fighter Squadron out of concrete and aluminum and a can of paint it takes men a chemistry student a welder a shoe salesman must learn how to fly a group of average Americans must become a team of fighting men with wings there's a new world up here a man has to learn his way around it takes many weeks of learning to make a fighter pilot and a lot of that learning is done in a hard wooden chair because a fighter pilot is a combination of a mathematician and an athlete scientist and a sharpshooter he's got to know what goes on inside his plane the heart of his fighter is steel and copper its bloodstream is gas and oil but its brain is the man who flies it he begins in a safe slow plane two Wings instead of one but he flies many hours inside a closed room in the morning he may be flying a prescribed course over a sheet of paper in the afternoon he may fly the same course above the clouds he trains his muscles down here very close to the ground but he'll use the same sense of balance and coordination in the skies above Tuskegee for this job of flying is never easy sometimes it's very very tough but he's learning how high and how fast and how far he must go to reach the enemy pilotage dead reckoning theory of flight radio code is he's getting muscles in his mind he's getting hard kicking quick he's coming into the clear here above the warm familiar Hills of Alabama these Americans are learning to fly in those tight combat formations they'll use someday to down the German chap above his own cities in addition to fighter groups a year ago this field began to train men for medium bombers that too was a Pioneer step but one thing it proved you can't judge a man here by the color of his eyes or the shape of his nose on the flight strip you judge a man by the way he flies here's the answer to Adolf and Hirohito here's the answer to the propaganda of the Japs and Nazis here's the answer wings for this man here's the answer wings for these Americans Squadron after Squadron out of Tuskegee flying p-40s first tough little planes then striking with Thunderbolts p-47s then riding the Mustang's p-51s no it was never easy for these men they were pioneers and no Pioneer has it easy they fought lies they fought heartbreak and they won now they fight the enemy on his own soil they fought the enemy not without loss out of the first class to graduate almost three years ago only a handful are left alive so that Liberty might not perish from the earth three years have passed since the founding of Tuskegee Airfield 750 Pilots have been trained 50 percent of them have been in combat and this is only a beginning listen to Major General Butler at the celebration of this third anniversary Here For the First Time negro Aviation Cadets were being groomed to fly war planes of a unit which was then a unit and thought only the 99th Pursuit Squadron these men were pioneers of Adventure so new that you who stand here before me now after three years may still be considered forerunners in the movement which has given you a place in the Fighting Man Of The Sky Under the feet of these men a new road is being beaten out broad enough now for thousands and ten thousands a good road for our country these men remember that marching or flying they remember backing them up their families their friends who expect so much of them and backing them up the men and women of every Creed and speech and color who made these planes and backing them up the most powerful force in the world the strength of the American people foreign