WWII, Tuskegee Airmen, Col. Benjamin O. Davis, 1945
Col. Benjamin O. Davis, air base at Ramitelli, Italy. Benjamin Oliver Davis Jr. (December 18, 1912 - July 4, 2002) was an American U.S. Air Force general and commander of the WWII Tuskegee Airmen. He was the first African-American general officer in the USAF. During WWII, Davis was commander of the 99th Fighter Squadron and the 332nd Fighter Group, which escorted bombers on air combat missions over Europe. Davis flew sixty missions in P-39, Curtiss P-40, P-47 and P-51 Mustang fighters. In 1948, President Truman signed Executive Order 9981 ordering the racial integration of the armed forces. Colonel Davis helped draft the Air Force plan for implementing this order. Davis served at the Pentagon and in overseas posts over the next two decades. He again saw combat in 1953 when he assumed command of the 51st Fighter-Interceptor Wing (51 FIW) and flew an F-86 Sabre in Korea. Davis followed in his father's footsteps in breaking racial barriers, as Benjamin O. Davis Sr. was the first African-American general in the U.S. Army. On December 9, 1998, he was advanced to four-star general by President Bill Clinton. Davis died in 2002 at the age of 89, and was interred at Arlington National Cemetery. A Red Tail P-51 Mustang, similar to the one he had flown in WWII, flew overhead during his funeral service. Photograph by Toni Frissell, 1945
