Handleman, Philip. Soaring to Glory: A Tuskegee Airman's Firsthand Account of World War II. Washington DC: Regnery History 2019. Print.
Harry Stewart was five thousand feet over the Luftwaffe base at Wels, Germany. His flight's element had been reduced to seven planes when the eighth was disabled by mechanical problems. Still, they would be more than a match for the four German fighters they called out below.
Lt. Col. Harry T. Stewart Jr, is the subject of this biography, one of the last surviving airman from this squadron. Author Handleman, through interviews, articles, research, and personal contact with Stewart, ably tells this rich history from the first Black aviators, through the formation of the Tuskegee squadron, (the 332nd Red Tails), and post-war lives of these men up to the present day.
It's such a rich, obstacle-laden history as Black men look to the skies and flying for the thrill as well as the escape from the prejudice they faced on the ground.[They] saw the sky as a medium inherently devoid of the artificial barriers erected by one class of men to block another. The law of the air, their thinking held, is fair and equitable; it applies uniformly without exception to all people regardless of race, color, creed, gender, ethnicity, ancestry, and national origin -- for it is not man's law but nature's law.
Notable Black fliers included aerial display barnstormer Bessie Coleman who went to France in 1921 for training as no US programs would accept a Black woman; James Banning and Thomas Allen who flew transcontinental in 1932; Chauncey Spencer and Dale White flew a two-seater biplane in 1939 from Chicago to Washington DC to publicize the cause of Black aviation.
Young Harry Stewart grew up in 1930s New York watching the airship balloons, biplanes, and test airplanes from the nearby base, as well as working on model airplane kits and watching films featuring WWI dogfights. Told by a school counselor that "Colored people aren't accepted as airline pilots," he later found an article in 1941 (as the War clouds hovering) that said "the Army would start to train an all-Negro flying unit: the 99th Pursuit Squadron. He dropped out of school when he was accepted into the program, only a few days before he was to report for his draft induction.
Soaring to Glory carefully follows Stewart through his pilot training and eventual World War II missions. Hardly any military personnel or brass welcomed them:
Major General
Edwin J. House of the 12th Air Support Command...claimed that the
consensus among his fellow officers and medical professionals was 'that
the negro type has not the proper reflexes to make a first-class fighter
pilot.'
Handleman also noted that:
An earlier 1925 Army War College memorandum asserted that blacks are 'by nature subservient' and 'mentally inferior.'
The Tuskegee Airmen and Stewart were motivated to prove these bigots wrong. During one of his 42 combat flights, Stewart shot down three German planes. The Squadron later handily won a national military aerial competition that highlighted flying, shooting, and bombing skills.
Returning to the US was a return to the same world of prejudice and closed doors. His 332nd Fighter Group Squadron was stationed in Lockbourne Air Force Base outside of Columbus, Ohio, the first air base not under the supervision of white officers. During that period, Stewart wa forced tobail out of his plane, landing in the backwoods of Appalachia (Butcher Hollow, to be exact, home of Loretta Lynn). There he found kind mountain people who cleaned his wounds, gave him moonshine to ease the pain, and helped get him to a doctor. Fifty-seven years later he returned to see his new friends there and to serve as Grand Marshall of the Van Lear Town Celebration parade.
After leaving the military, Stewart found commercial airlines such as Pan Am and TWA, while advertising for former military airmen, told him there were no openings him as a pilot. At Pan Am, he was told by their personnel manager:
"Mr Stewart, I'm sure you can understand our position. Just imagine what passengers would think if during a flight they saw a Negro step out of the cockpit and walk down the aisle in a pilot's uniform."
But the book is about Stewart's dreams, his striving, surviving, and triumphing in the face of incredible odds. From US segregation and bigoted people to German fighter pilots to closed-off jobs, Stewart kept working, going to night school for an engineering degree, and achieving success in major corporations in his undying efforts to carve a life for himself and his family. He was even presented, along with the other Tuskegee Airmen, with the Congressional Gold Medal, even shaking the congratulatory hand of Senator Robert Byrd, a former KKK member.
It is a book full of history, both shameful and glorious, through the life of one man and his race. Terrifically written, with interesting stories and information about our country and its pilots on every page. The joy and skills involved in
military flying, the danger of the missions, and the camaraderie of
these Black pilots reveal what an vital role these men played during the
War.
[If this book interests you, be sure to check out:]
Early diary entries and commentary from the author Roald Dahl on his World War I. aviation career when flying a plane was as dangerous as facing an enemy pilot. Brilliantly written. (Previously reviewed here.)
Happy reading.
Click here to browse over 450 more book recommendations by subject or title (and read the introduction to The First Sentence Reader).