Tuskegee Airmen Webquest

https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/tuskegee-airmen

1. What was a precursor of the U.S. Air Force?

Aeronautical Division

2. Where did the Tuskegee Army train at?

Tuskegee Alabama

3. What major obstacle did young African Americans face when trying to
become a pilot?
Segregation and racism

4. Why did Franklin D Roosevelt expand the civilian pilot training program in
the United States in 1938?
Created more potential military pilots
he though they would need

5. Which newspapers joined the civil rights groups like the NAACP to argue
that Black Americans should be included in the US armed forces?
Chicago Defender and Pittsburgh Courier

6. What did Roosevelt announce in September of 1940?

announced that the AAC would soon begin training Black pilots.

7. The Tuskegee Army Air Field was located in the heart of __.  

Alambama
8. How many pilots did the Tuskegee program train?
1,000

9. What other jobs did the Tuskegee program train besides pilots?
14,000

10. Who was Benjamin O Davis Jr?

son of a West Point graduate and Brig. General Benjamin O. Davis, one of only two black officers in the us army

11. Who came to visit the Tuskegee Program in April of 1941?

First Lady Elanor Roosevelt

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 12. How did that visit (from the above question) help publicize the program?
When people saw eleanor there it made the place more popular

13. What happened in April of 1943?

the Tuskegee-trained 99th Pursuit Squadron deployed to North Africa

14. What was wrong with the planes the Tuskegee Airmen flew?
slow and difficult to maneuver

15. Why did Davis have to defend his men before a War Department
committee?

16. Who did the 99th Squadron serve alongside in Italy?

white pilots of the 79th Fighter Groug

17. What did the 99th Squadron do in early 1944?

pilots from the 99th shot down 12 German fighters in two days

18. Who made up the new 332nd Fighter Group?

The 100th, 301st and 302nd Fighter Squadrons arrived with the 99th, these squadrons of
black pilots and other personnel formed the new 332nd Fighter Group.
19. What was the job of the 332nd Fighter Group?
began flying P-51 Mustangs to escort 15th Air Force heavy bombers on raids deep into enemy
territory.
20. Why did they earn the name “Red Tails”?
because they painted them red for identification purposes

21. In the more than 200 escort missions, did the Tuskegee Airmen ever lose a
bomber?
No

22. How many individual sorties had the Tuskegee Airmen flown in World War
II?
15,000

23. List the accomplishments of the Tuskegee Airmen during World War II.
 

Words:24
English
111 German planes were destroyed in the air and 150 on the ground; and 950 railcars,
trucks and other motor vehicles were destroyed in

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 24. How many Tuskegee trained aviators were killed in action during World War
II? 66

25. How many Tuskegee trained aviators were captured as POWs in World War
II?
32

26. What did President Truman do July 26, 1948?

issued Executive Order 9981 disbanding the armed forces of the United States and
requiring equal opportunity and treatment

27. What did Benjamin Davis Jr become after World War II?
e helped plan the desegregation of the air force in 1948

28. When did more than 300 original Tuskegee Airmen receive the Congressional
Gold Medal in 2007?

from President George W. Bush in 2007.

29. Where were the surviving Tuskegee trained pilots and support crew invited
to in 2009?
They were invited to attend the inauguration of the nation’s first African American president

30. What did President Obama once write in reference to the Tuskegee Airmen?

his “career in public service was made possible by the path heroes like the Tuskegee Airmen
trail-blazed.”

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