From Tuskegee Back to War

Abstract

Tuskegee Airmen received a lot of attention during those days, especially when dressed in uniform. Many of the stares we got from whites outraged us. I had a friend in the 99th who became General Davis’s wingman. One day he told me a story about what he did on a train from Washington, D.C. to Tuskegee. When people started looking at him, he pretended to remove a needle from the lapel of his jacket. He simulated threading it, then tying it. After that, he carefully placed it near his nose with his left hand, and pulled it out with his right. It looked like he was thumbing his nose at people (which he was), but he was doing it so cleverly that he could easily deny what he was doing.