♪
Good afternoon, everybody, and first of all,
thank you very much for coming today.
It's great to see a full house like this.
So what we're gonna go ahead and do
is we're running a little bit behind so we're gonna
kinda step this up and we're gonna move on.
My name is Edward Evans, I'm the Veterans Program Coordinator
here at Lakeland, and I would like to go ahead and introduce
Ken Sharkey to the stage.
Ken Sharkey is right now one of our counselors here on campus
and he's also a graduate of Tuskegee College.
So, come on up, Ken.
(applause)
Welcome, everybody.
Welcome, Dr. Brown, Dr. Bordner
to Lakeland Community College.
My name is Kenneth Sharkey as Ed had said,
and I'm a counselor and associate professor here.
Okay, I got here by way of Alabama State University
where I received-- where I earned my master's--
this is not working so good so far--
and most importantly, Tuskegee Institute,
now Tuskegee University, where I earned
my bachelor's degree in 1984.
I've always been proud of Tuskegee,
because she made me what I am today.
She instilled in me a pride.
She instilled in me a knowledge
that puts me where I'm at today,
and I gotta tell you that we're here today
to celebrate Mother Tuskegee
and another one of her graduates who may be
a little bit more famous than I am.
But first I'd like to share just a little bit of history, okay?
On November 4th, 2008,
Senator Barack Obama of Illinois
was elected President of the United States
over Senator John McCain of Arizona.
President Obama became the 44th president
and the first African American
to be elected to that office.
I cried that night for me
and for my parents who had passed
and didn't get a chance to witness this.
He subsequently was elected to a second term in 2012
over former Massachusetts
governor Mitt Romney.
Some people wonder why it's such a big deal.
After all, he is half white.
Well, it has always been said in the United States
that you can be whatever you wanna be,
but until November 4th, 2008, black people
did not and could not believe that,
not even halfway.
On December 1st, 1955, after a long day's work
at a Montgomery department store, Rosa Parks boarded
the Cleveland Avenue bus for home.
She took a seat in the first of several rows
designated for colored passengers.
At one point on the route,
a white man had no seat because all the seats
in the designated white section were taken.
So the driver told the riders in the four seats
in the first row of the colored section to stand,
in effect adding another row of white section.
The three others obeyed, Parks did not.
"People always say that I didn't give up my seat
because I was tired," wrote Parks in her autobiography.
"But that isn't true.
I was not tired physically.
No, the only tired I was was tired of giving in."
Thus, the black seamstress from Montgomery, Alabama,
helped initiate the Civil Rights movement in the United States.
Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier when he became
the first black athlete to play Major League Baseball
in the 20th century.
He joined the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947
and was named Rookie of the Year that year,
National League MVP in 1949,
and a World Series champ in 1955.
Branch Rickey, the owner of the Brooklyn Dodgers,
knew there would be difficult times ahead
for the young athlete, so he made Robinson promise
not to fight back when confronted with racism.
From the beginning of his career with the Dodgers,
Robinson was tested.
Even some of his new teammates objected
to having an African American on their team.
People in the crowd sometimes jeered Robinson
and he and his family received many death threats.
In spite of adversity and limited opportunities,
African Americans have played a significant role
in U.S. military history over the past years.
They were denied military leadership roles...
Excuse me.
...and skilled training because many believed
they lacked qualifications and intellect for combat duty.
Before 1940, African Americans were barred
from flying for the U.S. military.
Civil rights organizations and the black press
exerted pressure that resulted in the formation
of an all-African American Pursuit Squadron
based in Tuskegee, Alabama, in 1941.
They became known as the Tuskegee Airmen.
"Tuskegee Airmen" refers to all who were involved
in the Tuskegee Experience.
Not to be confused with the Tuskegee experiment,
in which the government infused syphilis
into a lot of Tuskegee citizens to find out
the long-term effect
of syphilis in people.
The Army Air Corps program to train African Americans
to fly and maintain combat aircraft,
the Tuskegee Airmen includes pilots, navigators,
bombardiers, maintenance and support staff,
instructors and all the personnel
who kept planes and pilots in the air.
The military selected Tuskegee Institute to train pilots
because of its commitment to aeronautical training.
Tuskegee had the facilities
and engineering and technical instructors
as well as the climate for year-round flying.
The first civilian pilot training program students
completed their instruction in May of 1940.
The Tuskegee program
was often--was then expanded
and became Center of African American Aviation
during World War II.
The Tuskegee Airmen overcame segregation and prejudice
to become one of the most highly respected
fighter groups of World War II.
They proved conclusively that African Americans
could fly and maintain sophisticated combat aircraft.
The Tuskegee Airmen's achievements, together with
the men and women who supported them, paved the way
for full integration of the U.S. military.
These are examples of the struggles and triumphs
of African Americans in history.
Not just black history, not just African American history,
but our U.S. history.
But let us not believe for one moment that everything
is okay and racism does not exist.
It still does, and I'm sure
it will not end for a long time.
But when it does end,
it will be because we end it.
Black people, white people,
Asians, Latinos,
males, females, young, old,
LGBTQ, straight,
it doesn't matter, all of us.
In closing, I wanna share a quote
by Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
"If one suffers, we all suffer.
Togetherness is strength, togetherness is courage."
Thank you.
(applause)
Thank you, Ken.
I'd like to go ahead and introduce
Dr. Steven Oluic,
retired lieutenant colonel, United States Army.
(applause)
Yeah, I'm retired Army.
I'm sure the colonel's very pleased to see the Army flag
up here on stage, and any from the Air Force,
know who gave you birth, it was the Army.
(audience laughing)
So, on behalf of the college, on behalf of Dr. Beverage,
the students and really the veterans of our community,
Northeast Ohio, I'd like to warmly welcome
both of you to our campus today.
Everyone's excited to hear what you have to say.
I have a few words I wanna share,
a few words of gratitude and speak a little bit
about the Tuskegee Airmen, maybe bring it down
to a personal level and from a military context.
Colonel Brown, we're very proud of your accomplishments
and military career, and your educators career also,
and what you represent to our country today.
We are all eager to hear what you'll be sharing with us today
maybe in the Q&A session.
But you know, not only the adversity and challenges
of being a World War II pilot, POW and how you overcame that,
but also within America's struggles
with a segregated society.
My father used to tell me stories.
He was an immigrant to the U.S. in the '50s
and he was in the U.S. Army.
That's how he came over and he was in this integrated army
and he would tell me stories that when they transferred
from Aberdeen Proving Grounds, his regiment,
down to Atlanta and I think it was Fort McPherson,
how the regimental commander had its first formation
and was speaking to the whole regiment telling the soldiers,
you know, "Now we're in Georgia," this, that,
and then he told me that the colonel said,
"Now, for all you colored troops who are integrated,
once you leave the gates of this base, there's not much
I can do to help you if something occurs."
Odd times, odd places.
I spent 27 years in the Army.
I'm glad it was an integrated army.
So for those of you in the audience,
Ken spoke to Tuskegee Airmen a bit
and the designation of the Tuskegee Experience.
It was an Army Air Corps program to train African Americans
to fly and maintain combat aircraft,
but it included pilots, navigators, bombardiers,
maintenance and support staff and instructors.
And as I'm sure the colonel knows,
for every pilot in the air, there's about 100 soldiers
on the ground, fueling, fixing,
repairing and taking care of their equipment.
Typically when we talk about the Tuskegee Airmen,
it usually revolves around the 332nd Fighter Group,
which the colonel flew in in combat,
and the 477th Bombardment Group.
Very successful units.
Although by the time the bombers were ready,
the war was closely approaching an end.
The history and exploits of these pilots, airmen,
and soldiers are legendary,
and weigh far too much for me to convey to you today.
The film that you'll see will show some of it,
but I would like to share a few words with you
from the Air Force Historical Research Agency
written in 2016.
And I'm not sure if you were part of this or not.
I'll find out afterwards.
And now I quote,
"By the summer of 1944
the mission of the Tuskegee Airmen changed dramatically
as the 332nd Fighter Group began escorting heavy bombers
such as B-17s and B-24s on long-range raids
deep within enemy territory for the 15th Air Force.
Flying P-47 Thunderbolts and then later P-51 Mustangs,
high-speed long-range fighters with tails painted red
for the group identification, the Tuskegee Airmen
shot down increasing numbers of enemy fighters
that threatened the bombers they were guarding.
Enemy aircraft shot down bombers the 332nd Fighter Group
was assigned to protect on only seven
of 179 bomber escort missions.
Okay, 7 of 179 bomber escort missions.
The group flew between early June '44
and late April '45 as the war ended.
The total number of escorted bombers shot down
was significantly less than the average number of bombers lost
by the six other fighter escort groups
of the 15th Air Force.
On the longest fighter escort mission from Italy
on March 24th, 1945 to Berlin..."
Now, think, propeller aircraft, Italy to Berlin.
"...three Tuskegee Airmen each shot down a German jet aircraft
that could fly significantly faster
than their own red-tailed P-51 Mustangs.
When the 332nd Fighter Group returned from Italy,
it had proven that black fighter pilots
could fly advanced aircraft in combat
as well as their white compatriots or their enemies."
Imagine that statement.
Imagine that, "Oh, now they've proven themselves."
Today's entirely different within the military.
You know, many times here at Lakeland I've spoken
at veterans events and other events,
and I've said in public gatherings
that there are heroes among us in everyday life.
Colonel Brown, not only did you survive
the rigors of military training, combat,
and time as a POW in Germany,
you also lived through segregation,
Jim Crow, and racism.
In spite of these multiple obstacles
that would level most individuals,
you overcame with courage and vigor.
You truly represent the best that America has to offer
and serve as a role model for those in the audience
and in our country.
I hope the young people really can appreciate your sacrifices
for our country, and I mean that,
"our country," especially as a veteran.
There's much to learn from our heroes today
and I hope we're all listening.
We need something to unify us these days,
and I think, Colonel Brown, you can make that happen.
We're honored that you and your lovely wife
can be with us here today.
Rarely do we have such true heroes among us at Lakeland.
Thank you, sir, I'd like you to join me on stage.
(applause)
(indistinct remarks)
-Over there? -Yeah.
I'm gonna take you all the way over there.
They think I'm too old to walk!
(audience laughing)
(applause)
Okay.
Greetings, and again, thank you all for joining us
on this journey that we no doubt will appreciate
by the end of this hour.
It is certainly my honor and distinct privilege
to have this opportunity to introduce
the better half of the equation,
Harold Brown's wife...
(applause)
...and co-author, Marsha Bordner.
Together, this couple co-authored this masterpiece
of history entitled, Keep Your Airspeed Up:
The Story of a Tuskegee Airman.
Among many of the luxuries afforded to our Women's Center
where I am a program coordinator
is opportunities to meet educators
and enthusiasts such as Dr. Marsha.
I am pretty convinced that for many of you
in our listening audience, Dr. Marsha's contribution
to this work will inspire past, present,
and future generations for years to come
as this story of courage unfolds.
My introduction of Dr. Bordner came by way
of international travel to China.
Together for 18 days
we became hand-picked buddies,
and from there we developed a friendship of endurance.
During our many conversations
and train rides in China,
we got a chance to share,
learn the China culture
and exchange many bouts
of laughter and conversation.
But most importantly, intimate details
about family and education.
What intrigued me most was her desire
to pick up the pen and bring all the pieces
of this great history together
to give others the privilege
to hear firsthand and read about it.
Certainly it is Harold Brown's life story,
but she has woven the pieces together
to tell the story.
Without any further ado, I present to you
the weaver of the tale.
Please join me in welcoming Dr. Marsha Bordner
as she joins her husband to share this story.
Thank you.
(applause)
(indistinct remarks)
Let me extend my thanks to Mary.
She probably has many stories that she wouldn't even tell you
about our being in China together.
We learned a lot about each other there.
Also wanna thank Morris Beverage.
Morris and I were presidents together.
It's actually been five years ago now since I retired,
but I think you are very fortunate
to have him as your president.
He was my favorite president because he always stayed focused
on your community and the issues.
We met a fair number of puffed-up people in our time,
and Morris was not one of them.
So you're really lucky to have him.
I met Harold over 30 years ago
at Clark State Community College, and in fact,
one other person here today, Jack Kristofco--
and I don't know where he is, but he also met Harold
at the same time and I think we would both say
we were so impressed with Harold's style,
his way of getting work done and having fun doing that.
And at that time, he started telling us stories
and I kept recording them and getting oral histories
and interviews and then finally when I retired--
and Morris, this is what you can do when you retire--
you can write a book.
So, it was a very interesting experience
and once it came out-- it was published in August,
and we have had quite a journey.
We launched the book in Alabama,
and if you read the book, you'll see that Harold's parents
fled Alabama in the Great Migration.
So they got out of Alabama,
and so it was with a little bit of irony
that we returned to Alabama to launch the book
as the conquering son, so we wondered
what his parents would've said about that.
So and then we went on to Minneapolis and Atlanta.
We're in Miami Beach next week,
and of course we're here with you today.
So we appreciate your warm, warm welcome.
What's gonna happen now is I'm gonna start a 15 minute video
that gives you an overview of Harold's life,
because people tend to focus on the three years
he was in World War II, but he actually was
in the Air Force for 23 years and part of that
was during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
He was in the Strategic Air Command and then he went on
to be a two-year college administrator as well.
So it kinda gives you the overview
and then we're gonna take questions.
So if you have questions you wanna ask Harold
or you know, if you have questions you wanna ask me,
we'll have a period of time for Q&A, and then
we'll be back out in the hallway if you wanna get a book.
So, thank you so much for having us here today.
We really appreciate the warm welcome
and the crowd of people who are here.
So I'm gonna start the movie, I think.
♪
The story of my parents is a rather interesting one.
People who had come from Alabama.
My father from Jenifer, Alabama
who migrated finally up to Talladega,
and then my mother who was born and raised
in Talladega, Alabama.
It wasn't the best place to live
as you reflect back over those years.
With segregation being
by tradition and by law,
there was every reason to get out of there,
and many of 'em did, you know.
The Great Migration,
numerous people left the South for the North
looking for a better place to live, a better life.
I was 16 years old
and a junior in high school,
and I managed to save up $35
which was a lot of money.
And I got my Uncle Cozelle to take me out
to Wold-Chamberlain and I went out with my $35
to one of the little fixed-base operators
and said, "I wanna take flying lessons."
And when my mother heard about what I had done with my money,
she just almost went berserk.
"What, you spent all the hard-earned money doing what?
Taking flying lessons, you threw it away!"
"No, no, no, no, Ma, this is what I wanna do."
So Dad came to my rescue and said, "No, it's his money.
He worked hard for it.
If that's where he wants to spend it, spend it."
But I do remember that and I'll probably always remember
taking those first five flying lessons.
(engine whirring)
And those were the days when you hear a little Piper Cub
you know, put-put-putting along,
and everybody would look up and watch it.
"Oh, there goes an airplane."
Matter of fact, the kids used to tease me
and call me Lindbergh when I used to talk about flying.
And they always said, "Well, they won't even let you
wash an airplane let alone fly an airplane."
But I always took the attitude, "No, no, by the time I'm ready
everything will have changed."
And that's precisely the way it worked out.
Everything has changed.
(engine buzzing)
I got myself in trouble with the Me262 jet
which I should've stopped, turned around and went home,
but the exuberance of youth,
I had that 262 in my gunsight
and I just could not break off, no way.
Well, long story short, I wound up trying to get back home,
fuel exhaust and run out of fuel
25,000 feet and the engine quits.
I did spot an old abandoned landing strip.
And to my horrors, after I had made my decision
and got reasonably close, looking a little closer
to strip it had been made inoperative.
So a 4,000 strip with a great big ditch in the center
now becomes two 2,000 feet runways.
And it's bad enough trying to land a 51 that's taking
a 4,000-foot, but now I either had to do it on
the first 2,000 feet or the second 2,000 feet,
and that was rather interesting.
Well, I landed on the 2,000 feet, bellied it in.
Tore the airplane to pieces but I jumped out of it.
"Great landing, Harold.
I knew you could do it, fantastic job."
The one that probably frightened me the most
was when I was shot down,
'cause I was at low altitude and I was hit,
and it soon became evident that airplane
is only gonna fly for very few minutes.
That you're trained so well, I just did what I had to do.
Roll the airplane up, pop the canopy,
pop the nose up, it throws you out,
you pull the chute, and I did it just automatically.
And--but the difficult part,
listening to those airplanes
as the guys waved at me and went home.
They saw I was okay in the chute.
I was in that chute all by myself
and I landed and I thought,
"What in the world am I doing up in Germany?
Twenty years old looking like this.
I've got no business being up here."
And from that point and they took me back down
to the village is where it really got interesting,
and a mob of people met us.
And there's no doubt that
they had murder on their mind.
There was no doubt about it,
and they made certain that I knew what they were going to do.
And I knew I was gonna die that day.
That was the last thing-- I could see no way out.
I didn't know how I was gonna get out of it.
There was no place to run, nothing to do,
and I kept telling myself--
I was actually talking to myself to be quite honest--
"What are you gonna do, Harold?
I don't know what I'm gonna do.
Well, you gotta think of something, Harold.
Well, what am I gonna do?"
You know, such and such, I was talking to myself.
And lo and behold,
there was one good person in the crowd, a constable
who was way in the back who came up to the front.
Just casually walked up and stepped in front of me,
put him behind me and put a rifle--
put a round in his rifle,
and held the 35 or so people
and stopped them from killing me.
Now, when you stop and think about it,
some of his relatives could've been in that crowd.
He knew everybody in the crowd if he's constable there,
but he stopped it and said, "No."
And they were arguing.
I couldn't understand German, but I can understand the fist,
and boom boom, and those kinds of signals.
Extremely upset, but he kept them off of me,
and we backed up into a little pub, threw everybody out,
barricaded ourselves there
and after midnight, we left.
Took me down to another little village and turned me over
to a couple of soldiers down there.
But for that 30, 40, 50 minutes initially,
I just said, "This is the end, Harold.
You're gonna die."
So that was probably the scariest time
I've ever had in my life.
The big problem was to get from where you were shot down
safely into a POW camp
if you can imagine that as being the safe haven.
But it was the safe haven to get to it,
and it took about eight days,
'cause you're traveling with two soldiers.
Anything that is convenient,
a bus, a train, what have you.
And perhaps one of the worst things
that happened to us while we were on the train,
we were strafed by P-51s and we looked up and said,
"Oh boy, our guys," and then we realized,
"My God, they're gonna strafe the train."
And for a moment I thought about all the strafing
that I had done on trains,
and how I wanted to get that locomotive
as he was rushing like crazy trying
to get to a tunnel to get away from me.
And that is precisely what happened with this one.
I could hear him speed up those engines and I'm saying,
"Please get the--go, go,"
and we were hiding under the bushes.
You hear those 650 calibers going off.
You could hear 'em just tearing the train apart.
I mean, you're actually terrified.
Fortunately, he reached the tunnel
before anything bad happened,
but that was probably one of the other
most terrifying things I've ever experienced.
Now I was on the other end of it
and I was a guy being shot at, you know.
♪
The one I was in, each building had
just about 200 POWS.
And the big joke was the time first time
I was integrated was in a POW camp.
The Germans had no time for that kind of foolishness.
We had Frenchmen, Canadians,
English, Australians,
and even black Americans all in one
and no one could care less.
You know, everyone was trying to survive,
and we did.
There was a little Jewish kid there.
He came up to me and he said,
"Harold, I'm scared to death."
I said, "What's the matter?"
He says, "I'm Jewish."
I said, "Well, if you keep your mouth shut, you know,
who in the world will ever know that you're Jewish?
No one will ever know," so he went, "Yeah, but--"
I said, "Just, just cool it.
Keep your mouth shut and no one will ever know it."
I said, "Now, I can't hide like that,"
and I pointed at my face.
He says, "Oh, I'm sorry, Harold."
I said, "Oh, little levity, you know, here we are POWS together.
You know, a little joke, a little levity.
Forget it, forget it."
In our case, we were in Nuremberg,
and the Americans were coming and getting very, very close
and we had to get out.
They marched us down to Musberg.
Musberg's about 30 kilometers north of Munich,
and it took about two weeks,
and there were 10,000 of us that walked in groups
of 200 each, and there was this string of us
I guess a mile long as we walked down to Musberg.
And you'd get to, in the evening,
various farms and whatnot.
They'd put 200 here, 200 here with a couple of guards
and you'd just sleep out under the stars,
which was really kinda nice.
It was better than sleeping, you know,
behind that barbed wire and it was nice.
You had a certain amount of freedom.
We went to a farm
that we arrived at one evening.
I was the young baby-looking one,
and they would give me the cigarettes to go out and trade.
So I'd go up to the farm door and knock on the door.
And at this one particular place,
this sweet little old lady came in.
She had to be 90 years old.
I can't speak any German.
As I walked in, this sweet little lady looked at me
just as strange--she came up and she touched my face
just as gently as you could be,
and she just looked, and she was speaking to me
something but I couldn't understand.
"Nein, nein," that's the only word I knew.
And she obviously said, "Wait just a moment,"
'cause she had her finger up,
and she turned away and she walked out.
She came back a short while later with a little bag.
She had potatoes, onions, a big chunk of meat in it,
and she gave it to me,
so I gave her the cigarettes.
She said, "No, no, no," and I said, "No,"
and I'm trying to give her the cigarettes.
"No, no, no, no, no, no, no."
No, no nothing,
she wouldn't take anything from it,
but I often wonder what was she saying,
what was going on in her mind?
I might've been the first black person
that she's ever seen in her life
and probably so,
and I don't know if she was trying to rub it off or what,
but I would have given anything to have known
just enough German to understand
what in the world she was saying.
I'll never know, of course.
But life was really good, you know, when we were marching,
but we went down to Musberg,
and they already had 15,000 prisoners there,
and we were only there for about 10 days
before Patton comes through and liberated us.
And the war was over for us.
I was in SAC right before I left the military,
and I was flying the old six-jet engine, a B-47.
As a matter of fact, I was an instructor pilot
in the B-47,
and the more I thought about it,
I thought there's more to life
than pushing a handful of throttles.
And throughout my whole military career,
I had done a lot of instructional work.
I was an electronics instructor for a while,
I was an instructor pilot throughout my whole career,
so I was involved with this whole thing
of training and instructions,
and that's when I decided, "No,
I think I want a career in education."
Not at the high school level,
but at the post-secondary level,
and that's what I did.
That was in 1965.
That school today is now
the Columbus State Community College,
which more than 30,000 students
in the largest two-year college in the state of Ohio,
but it all started right there,
and I had a whole career with them,
which was very rewarding.
Oh, we were the best-kept secret in the Air Force.
No one ever heard of us.
No recognition, no nothing,
we weren't in any of the books.
All of a sudden, people heard of us,
and the popularity just continued, continued,
and it is still continuing to grow.
Unfortunately, as it continues to grow,
the number of us are dwindling so rapidly,
there's no one left.
And that's probably the tragedy is that it waited so long,
and we lost so many of the guys who never even heard
about all this notoriety that we've acquired.
Well, I think after they hear this story,
the whole story, it has a great deal of appeal to it.
Here you've got a group of guys, totally rejected,
complete refusal to allow them to fight the war
if they wanna fight the war.
There's just one obstacle after the other.
They don't want us, okay, they finally start training us,
then we're down in Tuskegee, Alabama,
then there's all the racial strife and whatnot
and all the distractions going on down there.
And then the CO of the base insists
that this will be a segregated base
training black pilots,
a segregated base.
So all these obstacles, one after another,
there was always something.
When you look at and take all the lessons
of the Tuskegee Airmen,
all the things they went through,
I can't think of a better example
if you wanna give a youngster encouragement and whatnot,
then to look at the Tuskegee Airmen,
at everything they had to go through.
But they all, you know, rose above all of the obstacles,
and now we're in some of the history books,
which is a change, and that's kinda nice, too.
(chuckling)
♪
(applause)
(audio feedback)
Can you hear me?
-Yes. -Yes.
What do you think?
(applause)
Well, how about some Q&A,
we can have some real fun now.
Anything you wanna talk about?
Questions? My life? The weather outside?
You name it.
Oh, that's easy.
If it's a prop job, you're talking about a P-51.
If you're talking about a jet,
then the F-86 was my favorite jet,
but I never did go supersonic.
I was just getting ready to fly the F-100,
which was a supersonic,
and I had to get back to my home base
and they couldn't get the airplane ready,
so I lost my chance to go supersonic.
So I've never flown supersonic in my life.
What was your least favorite airplane?
No such thing.
(laughing)
That's quite a question!
(laughing)
And I think you know my answer before I ever say it.
After what I went through,
obviously, they would certainly have
all of my support.
I know what it is to face a variety of things
that just don't quite go your way.
And you're constantly resolving problems,
there's always something coming up,
but when you think about it, really...
that shouldn't be too unusual.
Life just isn't quite that kind,
and regardless of whatever you're doing in life,
you're gonna run into a lot of problems.
It just so happened that in my case,
and in the case of women and some of the others,
the problem's just compounded somewhat,
but you still face problems.
Well, you have a choice.
You can either give it up and forget about it,
but I would suggest that you follow your dreams.
If that's what you wanna do,
then allow that dream to become your passion.
And if you're passionate enough and work hard enough
and have a little luck--
it always takes a little luck,
don't ever think you do it all on your own,
there's always someone that will give you a helping hand--
then you can make the very best out of a bad situation,
but hey, I support them all the way.
(applause)
(chuckling)
I've gotta stop and think about that for a minute.
And I don't mean that as if I'm bragging
I never had a problem,
but I would guess, oh, perhaps the biggest one,
let's say, is when I first soloed.
Flying the old PT-17 Stearman,
bi-wing, two open cockpits,
and my primary instructor actually lived
and was born right down in Cleveland,
Mr. Cargill, died about, oh, I don't know,
six, seven years ago.
But things had been going reasonably well,
and we had landed,
and we taxied out to the old taxiway,
and he gets out of the airplane,
the engine's still running, takes his chute,
lays his chute down, uses it as a pillow,
and props himself up, and I'm wondering,
"What in the world is going on?"
I should've known.
And he says, "You think you can fly this thing
and get it back on the ground without killing yourself?"
I said--well, you know, a little dumb 18-year-old,
"Yeah, yes, sir, yes, sir!"
But as I started taxiing out,
and with him not in that cockpit,
it was a long way from that second seat
up to that prop.
And I felt about as alone as you could ever feel.
So I said, "Oh, come on, Harold, no big deal.
You've done this before."
So I took off, okay, and came around
and landed and taxied back up, and he just looked at me
and he was still lying on his chute,
and he says, "Well, you got it down in one piece, good."
He said, "Was it luck
or do you really know what you're doing?"
Well, what's the response, huh?
"Take it around and do it one more time."
So I did.
And after that second one,
I said, "I've got it made, Harold.
You know what's going on."
But that first few moments when you are by yourself
in an airplane for the first time,
it's a little intimidating,
and you sometimes wonder, am I really ready for this?
Well, you soon find out,
but that was quite a moment in my life.
We had worked with different administrators
and one could be kind of erratically--
erratic in his emotions,
so you never knew exactly
who you were gonna meet that day,
and then Harold came along
and he was very focused on problems and solving them,
but having a good time in doing it,
so we had fun, he treated people with respect,
so he was just a role model, at least for me,
of the kind of administrator I wanted to be,
'cause I wanted to be taken
the same way that I was taking him,
as someone who was honest and forthright
and trying to solve problems,
but to have some fun along the way.
I was scared as hell!
(laughing)
Matter of fact, you are absolutely terrified
because you're so helpless.
You're just there and you're just hoping
and praying that something doesn't happen,
and anything that does happen, it's usually gonna be bad,
but it's just a terrifying moment in your life,
and after it's all over with, you...
(exhales deeply)
"I survived," you know.
Boy, that was the greatest thing
that's ever been invented, the G.I. Bill.
I got every one of my degrees-- bachelor's, master's,
doctorate all under the G.I. Bill,
and I used that G.I. Bill when I wrote the last letter
of my dissertation that was with the last hour
of the G.I. Bill that I had remaining.
I used every dime of it.
(applause)
We usually get--
well, it's a question I hear quite often.
Matter of fact, if you may recall,
there were two Red Tail movies.
The first one was put out by the HBO,
and let me just tell you a few words about it.
The story was written by my classmate
and very dear friend, Bob Williams.
He got out right after the war.
Bob shot a couple airplanes down,
DFC and whatnot.
He was living out in Pasadena,
and he had a few bit parts in the movie.
Well, he wrote his own experience.
We all had generally the same experiences,
but at the same time as individuals,
all of our individual experiences
were very, very unique.
So he wrote his, sent me a copy,
and said, "Harold, would you please read it?
You know, what do you think?"
So he did, and he had named the thing
The Ottumwa Kid.
I said, "Bob, this isn't a cowboy movie,
we're talking about pilots,"
but that was just a little such and such.
Bob wanted to make a movie.
He would raise $500,000, and the cost of a movie
would go up a million.
And a good friend of his named Price
said, "Bob, you'll never get enough money
to make this movie.
I know someone up in HBO, let's go up and talk to them."
So they did.
They went up and talked to HBO,
and they said, "We'll let you know."
Ten years later, they contacted them and said,
"We have decided to go along with the project."
He gave them a $10 million budget,
they went to the Air Force
and they got a field out in Oklahoma,
and they made the first HBO movie,
and it was called The Tuskegee Airmen,
and Laurence Fishburne starred in it.
You may or may not have seen it.
That came out in 1995.
Now, the next movie that came out was the Red Tails
made by Lucas.
Lucas was the big Star Wars, Star Trek--
so he had this big, wonderful animation department.
Several years ago--I don't know, four or five years ago--
we were all up at Oshkosh,
and they invited some of us Tuskegee members up
and Lucas was on the stage with us.
So we were kidding him,
and I can remember saying to him,
I said, "Boy, you sure made us look good.
You know, you had those airplanes
doing things that--"
and he says, "Harold," he says,
"I put in $57 million of my own money in this movie,
and I had to get my money out of this thing!"
So I said, "Hey, I'm not criticizing!
You made me look just about twice as good as I ever was!"
(laughing)
But it did follow general events,
but then in each of those events,
he kinda, you know, jazzed them up,
like the little young pilot from 2,000 up
waving kisses to-- come on, you know.
Give me a break.
No, no.
But it was a fun movie,
but it was still a movie.
You know, okay.
Oh, yes, well, in 1947,
we were first United States Army Air Corps.
In 1947, it went from the United States Air Corps
to the United States Air Force.
In 1948, Truman issued his Executive Order 8809,
which integrated the military.
The next year, in 1949,
we were all up at Lockbourne at that time,
those who had decided to stay in the military, of course,
were integrated, and we went to the four winds in 1949.
Now, there's very little doubt or, as you reflect back,
I'm certain that history will say
that was done primarily because of the record
of the 332nd Fighter Group.
And, of course, at the time,
we weren't thinking about setting records.
We were just a bunch of young kids
wanting to fly and so forth,
but as we became older and older,
we recognized that, hey,
we really did something pretty nice.
And obviously, it's very expensive
to have a white Air Force and a black Air Force,
which makes no sense at all,
and even looking at it
from a very practical point of view
to save a few bucks in the budget,
the best thing you can do is integrate,
which is precisely what President Truman did.
So from 1949 all the way up
for the rest of my time until I retired,
I lived in an integrated environment
except for the times when I ever left the base,
but it was an integrated environment
and that was 14 years before the first Civil Rights Act,
which was passed in 1964.
So I can honestly say,
hey, we led the way in a sense.
(applause)
Well, I shot at a few, but as far as I know,
they're out lecturing to a crowd
of about 1,000 people like I am.
No, I was never shot,
but I did have a couple narrow escapes.
But then a very interesting thing happened to me.
I came back from the war at 20 years old,
spent the summer of 60-day leave in 1945,
and my next assignment was down in Tuskegee.
And I became a flight instructor down there,
and while going through my training phase
of becoming a flight instructor,
I was up flying a T-6 and guess what happened?
I had a mid-air collision.
Now, that was hairy for this reason:
When I crash-landed, I was under control,
and I was in charge, and I was dependent upon me
and my own flying skills.
So I was reasonably confident
and, yeah, I could pull it off.
Then when I bailed out, I was still in control.
The aircraft was in trouble, I did what I had to do,
and my chute was a good chute,
but I was in control.
When I had that mid-air collision,
I was not in control, and that was just by pure luck
or the grace of God or somebody,
because we were coming at each other like this,
and it was a very, very hazy day,
and at the last minute,
I had my safety pilot up in front,
'cause I was in the back of the T-6 flying instruments,
and the other aircraft had a flight instructor
and a cadet in it.
So here they come, and at the very last second,
my pilot snatches the stick back,
he, by a stroke of luck, pushes his down,
and our wing catches their rudder.
That's what happened.
The rudder goes off, they go into a spin,
they bail out, we have a big gash in our wing,
and Clarence Dart, who was my safety pilot,
and was in the 99th and we have a discussion,
'cause I was halfway out of the airplane,
so I said, "Dart, if that gash
has gone through the main spar,
there's nothing holding this wing on but the skin.
And what happens if we get down on final, 500 feet,
the wing falls off, we just bought the farm.
Let's jump.
That's the safe way out."
Well, he talked--"No, no," so I get back in, buckle up,
and we landed the airplane.
But that was pure unadulterated luck
that they went this way.
They could've just as easily went this way
or this way.
So what makes that thing so scary
is that that was just a chance happening
that instead we went in opposite directions,
or else there would've been a head-on collision
and of course, I wouldn't be standing here today,
I don't think, if that had happened.
Okay?
The last two months of the war.
I had the war made, I was a flight leader,
and I actually thought that I might make captain.
But then I blew it
and got a little too cute in the airplane
and got myself in trouble and--
well, you know the rest of the story.
Okay, well, the training program was the same for everyone,
so we all flew the 17, the BT-13 and the T-6,
and then we graduated.
Initially, the plan was to have
initially one squadron, which was the 99th Squadron
made up of 35 pilots and 27...
I mean, 35 pilots and 27 aircraft.
That was first.
When they completed their training,
they then came over to 332nd
because we were graduating a graduating class
every five weeks.
The program was 40 weeks long.
So, the 99th first went overseas
and the 332nd didn't get overseas
until January of 1944.
But part of us went single engine,
which was fighters, and we fought the war.
There were 992 of us and about 380 of us
went overseas to fight the war
as single-engine fighter pilots.
The rest of the pilots stayed back,
and they were multi-engine pilots.
Matter of fact, they were training to fly the B-25,
and when Davis came back after the war,
he was getting ready to take them
over to the Pacific area, the Bomber Boys,
when the war ended and they did not get overseas.
So just 380 of us went over to fight the war.
Now, there was a total of 992 Tuskegee pilots,
but we had 14,600 ground personnel supporting us.
So there was close to, what, 14,600
plus another thousand or so,
you were talking about 15,000 people,
and we were all Tuskegee Airmen.
So you can easily see,
here you're supporting 15,000 in one Air Force,
and umpteen thousand in another Air Force.
It makes no sense.
Can I add one last thing I've been thinking about?
You asked the question about, in the Air Force,
the acceptance of women and African Americans,
and I don't have military background,
but we were on Maxwell Air Force's base
for an entire day,
and I was so impressed by the diversity of the personnel.
I mean, we were on the base, and Harold got a--
1,200 people gave him a standing ovation,
but there were African American women
in charge of all kinds of things,
and I mean, it was just such a diverse experience
for me to see the real Air Force and how it worked
and I actually asked one of the colonels,
a black man, I said, "Do you see much racism?"
And he said, "No," he said, "you know what?
We have a common purpose
and we don't have time for that,"
so if you suspected a racist,
you would confront them directly,
and either they would get with the program
or they would get out,
and if you happened to listen recently
to the commander of the Academy,
did you happen to hear that one
where somebody wrote something
like, "Go home, nigger," or whatever?
If you want to really listen
to what the Air Force stands for,
listen to what he said to the group of people
who had just joined and really was, like,
"Either get with it or get out,
because this is not who we are,"
so I came away very impressed with the diversity
of the American Air Force
and their ability, I think, to protect us.
So I just wanted to add that.
(applause)
I'm gonna go ahead and turn it to the president of the college,
and he's going to say closing remarks, and...
Okay.
Well, thank you for coming.
I could stay here all day and talk,
but don't you guys have a job that you've gotta get back to?
(laughter and applause)
All right, if...
if everybody will hold on for one second,
I'm gonna bring up Dr. Morris Beverage,
he's the President of Lakeland Community College,
and he'd like to say a few closing remarks.
Jeez, Ed, you got 'em all riled up,
and then you said, "Aw, hang on a second,
we've got one more guy."
Where did all the kids go?
We had all sorts of students up there.
-At any rate-- -They went to class.
They went to class, right.
So when Dr. Brown entered the auditorium,
I stood up and introduced myself,
and let me just rephrase for you what exchange took place.
I said, "Dr. Brown, welcome to Lakeland.
My name is Morris Beverage and I love your wife."
(laughing)
That last part I hadn't intended to say.
It just kinda blurted out there,
so to his credit, he didn't punch me,
but I wanted to further explain that Marsha and I
have known each other for a number of years,
as she had indicated.
I first met her as president,
but I got to know her as person,
and it's that person that I fell in love with
because it is that person
who made her such a great president.
We miss your voice in Columbus.
I'm delighted to see how you're using your voice
today, though, that's just awesome.
So thank you for coming.
Dr. Brown, thank you for coming.
We do have some students that are remaining.
Can I ask the students to stand up?
If you're a student here or elsewhere,
would you please stand up and be recognized?
Awesome.
(applause)
And stay standing, please.
You weren't sure if you were a student?
Is that what happened there?
Oh, I forgot.
So, to the students, what you've witnessed today
is something very unique.
You've witnessed a piece of history,
you've heard from what, by all accounts,
would be considered an American hero,
but most importantly, I think you heard
what it is about to be a patriot,
and what that is does not come with a uniform,
it does not come with a rank,
it does not come with a right, it is a privilege,
but it is a personal privilege,
and you make of patriotism what you make of it.
And so my recommendation to all of you is that
first you buy the book.
-Buy the book, buy the book. -Free plug.
Read the book, but understand
that this is a book about a patriot,
this is a book about a patriot couple,
and this is a book about what it means
to fight against odds
and do something that people all around you
are telling you that you can't do.
That is, in my opinion, what education is about.
When you receive an education,
be it here, be it Terra,
be it wherever it is, it is about change
and it is about becoming somebody
that you never thought you could become.
And I think that Marsha and I probably reflect that
in our own personal lives.
Dr. Brown, obviously, reflects that
in his professional life
as well as his personal accomplishments.
It is our delight to have had the two of you here today.
What a phenomenal story,
and on behalf of the students who are here today
and the college community at large,
thank you for sharing both of your stories with us.
Thank you.
(applause)
♪
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