Tuskegee Airman Recalls WWII Service, Calls Freedom Key to Opportunity
Nov. 10, 2021 | BY C. Todd Lopez , DOD News
In March 1942, college student Charles McGee was studying engineering at the University of Illinois in Champaign. Less than four months prior, the Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, and the U.S. was at war.
"In ROTC I learned to handle a rifle pretty well," he said. "But because I was in school, my draft board wasn't pulling my number."
One officer pins a medal on another officer's chest.
McGee figured it couldn't last long; the draft wouldn't come after him, especially as things heated up in Europe.
"Had they, I would have probably been on the ground with that rifle," he said.
In nearby Rantoul, Illinois, McGee said he learned the Army Air Corps had set up a training school for Black aircraft mechanics on Chanute Air Field.
https://www.defense.gov/News/News-Stories/Article/Article/2825067/tuskegee-airman-recalls-wwii-service-calls-freedom-key-to-opportunity/
