Meet a maker of black history: Morgan's Corner

on February 01, 2012 at 5:15 AM
tusk.JPGView full sizeAn aviation squadron, whose all-black members are training at Tuskegee Institute, Tuskegee, Alabama. Some of the fliers at the Basic and Advanced Flying School for Negro Air Corps Cadets are shown here, Jan. 23, 1942, lined up for review.

In 1944, Calvin J. Spann went from fighting in a boxing ring to battling German fighter planes in the skies over Europe as a member of the legendary Tuskegee Airmen, the black pilots whose story was brought to the silver screen in the movie "Red Tails," produced by another legend, George Lucas of "Star Wars" fame.

Spann, who lived in Rutherford and Englewood before relocating to Allen, Texas, is one of the few surviving famous fighter pilots. He is scheduled to be the featured speaker at the Jersey City Miller Branch Public Library, 489 Bergen Ave., at 5:30 p.m. on Feb. 29.

Spann was a 16-year-old Golden Gloves boxing champion during WWII, before enlisting in the Army during his senior year in high school. The following year, he passed a two-year college equivalency test and volunteered for the Army Air Corps. The teen was assigned to aviation school as a cadet, in 1943, at Tuskegee University, where an experiment was underway to determine if blacks could be trained to be combat pilots.

After completing his training, Spann was sent to Italy as a replacement pilot with the 100th Fighter Squadron, part of the 332nd Fighter Group, where he was handed an instruction manual to fly the then-state of the art P51 Mustang. The 332nd pilots were called the Red Tails because of the bright red tails of their planes.

Spann flew 26 Combat missions over Europe and was honorably discharged in 1946 but did not formally retire and remained in the Air Force Reserves until 1961.

That's the short version of Spann's years in the Armed Forces, but there's much more.

There was the virulent discrimination Tuskegee fliers contended with on and off the base. Initially they weren't allowed to engage enemy fighters in combat and had to battle their own superiors to be allowed to fly real combat missions other than strafing enemy trains and airfields. Once they were turned loose to engage the sleek Messerschmitts and Focke-Wulfs of the Luftwaffe, the Red Tails distinguished themselves -- especially flying escort for B17 bombers.

Spann was there, flying through German flak; in dog fights with enemy planes that were intent on knocking the American bombers out of the sky. It's said the Red Tails never lost a bomber to enemy air attacks.

Now Spann spends a lot of time talking to audiences, educating anyone who wants know about the Red Tails.

Actually several Tuskegee fliers called Jersey City home. Among them was former Superior Court Judge Samuel Scott, now deceased, who served as an intelligence officer with the Red Tails.

Once I encountered Judge Scott at the Afro-American Museum in Jersey City's Greenville Branch Public Library, where he regaled me with stories of feats of derring-do performed by Tuskegee pilots.

Spann was decorated several times while on active duty and was among a number of other Red Tail pilots who were feted by President Barack Obama at a White House ceremony.

If you want to meet and greet a genuine piece of history, you're advised to show up at the Miller Branch Public Library. I'm sure you won't regret it.