"Benjamin Oliver Davis Jr" (December 18 1912-July 4,2002)

Was an American United States Air force general and commander of the World War 2

Tuskegee Airmen.He was the first African-American general in the United States Air Force.Benjamin was later advanced to four-star general on December 9,1998,by the President.During World War 2, he was commander of the 99th and the 332 ND fighter group,which escorted bombers on air combat missions over Europe.Benjamin himself flew sixty missions in P-39,Curtiss  P-40, P-47 and P-51  Mustang fighters.He was born in Washington D.C.the second of three children born to Benjamin Sr and Elnora Dickerson Davis.Elnora died from complications after giving birth to a third child (Elnora) 1916.At the age of 13,in the summer of 1926, Benjamin Jr,went for a flight with a brainstorming pilot a boiling field in Washington,D.C. The experience led to his determination to become a pilot himself.He was the first officer to get his his wings from the Tuskegee Army Air Field on March 7,1942.After the University of Chicago,he entered the United States Military Academy,at West Point,New York in 1932.Benjamin was sponsored by Representative Oscar De Priest (R-IL) of Chicago,at the time the only black member of Congress.During the entire four years of his Academy term,he was shunned by his classmates,few of whom spoke to him outside the of duty.He never had a roommate.He ate by himself.His classmates hoped that this would drive him out of the Academy.The "Silent treatment" had the opposite effect.It made Benjamin more determined to graduate.Benjamin graduated in 1936,35 the in his class of 278.He was the academy's fourth black graduate.When he was commissioned as a second lieutenant,the Army,had a grand total of two black line officers-Benjamin O.Davis,Sr.and Benjamin O.Davis Jr.After graduation he married Agatha Scott.At the start of his senior year at West Point,Benjamin had applied for the Army Air Corps but was rejected because it did not accept blacks.He was instead assigned to the all-black 24th infantry Regiment (one of the original Buffalo Soldiers regiments) at Fort Benning Georgia.He was not allowed inside the base officer's club.Benjamin later attended the U.S. Infantry School at Fort Benning,but then was assigned to teach military tactics At Tuskegee University.This was something his father had done years before.It was the Army's way to avoid having a black officer in command of white officers.Early in 1941, the Roosevelt administration,in response to public pressure for greater black  participation in the military as war approached,ordered  the War Department to create a black flying unit.Captain Davis was a assigned to the first training class at Tuskegee Army Air Field (hence the name Tuskegee Airmen),and in March 1942 won his wings as one of five black officers to complete the course.He was the first black officer to solo an Army Air Corps aircraft. In July that year,having been promoted to lieutenant colonel, he was named commander of the first all-black air unit,the 99th Pursuit Squadron.The Squadron,equipped with Curtiss P-40 fighters,was sent to Tunisia in North Africa in the spring of 1943. On June 2,they saw combat for the first time in a dive-bombing mission against the German-held island of Panatella.The squadron  later supported the Allied invasion of Sicily.In September 1943,Benjamin was called back to the United States to take command of the 332nd Fighter Group, a larger all-black unit preparing to go overseas.Soon after his arrival,however,there was an attempt to stop the use of black pilots in combat.Senior officers in the Army Air Forces recommended to the Army Chief of staff General George Marshall,that the 99th (Davis old unit)  be removed from combat operations as it had performed poorly.This infuriated Benjamin as he never had been told of any deficiencies with the unit.He held a news conference at The Pentagon to defend his men and then presented his case to a War Department committee studying the use of black servicemen.George ordered an inquiry but allowed the 99th to continue fighting in the meantime.The inquiry eventually reported that the 99th's performance  was comparable to other air units,but any questions about the squadron's fitness  were answered in January 1944 when its pilots shot down 12 German planes in two days while protecting the Anzio beachhead.Colonel Davis and his 332d Fighter Group arrived in Italy soon after that.The four-squadron group,which was called the Red Tails for the distinctive markings of its planes,were based at Ramitelli and flew many missions deep into German territory.By summer 1944 the group had transitioned to P-47 Thunderbolts.In the summer of 1945,Benjamin took over the all- black 477th Bombardment Group,which was stationed at Godman Field,Kentucky.During the war,the airmen command by Benjamin had compiled and outstanding record in combat against the Luftwaffe.They flew more than 15,000 sorties,shot down 111 enemy planes,and destroyed or damaged 273 on the ground at a cost of 66 of their own planes.The bombers lost to enemy action during their escort missions numbered only as 25 Tuskegee Airmen.Benjamin himself led dozens in P-47 Thunderbolts and P-51 Mustangs.He received the Silver Star for a strafing run into Austria and the Distinguished Flying Cross for a bomber-escort mission to Munich on June 9, 1944.In July 1948,President Harry S. Truman signed an executive order ordering the racial integration of the armed forces.Colonel Davis helped draft the Air Force plan for implementing this order.The Air Force was the first of this service to integrate fully.Benjamin 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.He served as Director of Operations and Training at Far East Air Forces Headquarters,Tokyo,from 1954 until 1955,when he assumed the position of Vice Commander,Thirteenth Air Force (13 AF),with additional duty as commander,Air Task Force 13 (Provisional),Taipei, Formosa.In April  1957 General Davis arrived at Ramstein Air Base,Germany,as chief of staff,Twelfth Air Force (12 AF), U.S. Air Forces in Europe (USAFE).Wiesbaden Air Base,Germany.In July 1961,he returned to the United Stares and Headquarters U.S. Air Force where he served as the Director of Manpower and Organization,Deputy Chief of staff for programs  and Requirements;and in February 1965 was assigned as assistant deputy chief of staff,programs and requirements.He remained in that position until his assignment as chief of staff for the United Nations Command and U.S.Forces in Korea (USFK) in April 1965.He assumed command of the Thirteenth Air Force (13 AF)  at Clark Air Basein the Republic of the Philippines in August 1967.He was assigned as deputy commander in chief,U.S. Strike  Command,with headquarters  at MacDill Air Force Base,Florida, in August 1968, with additional duty as commander in chief, Middle-East,Southern Asia and Africa.He retired from active military service on February 1,1970.On December 9, 1998,Benjamin O. Davis Jr.was advanced to the rank of General,U.S.  Air Force (Retired),with President Clinton pinning on his four-star insignia.