Charles B. Smith--99th Fighter Squadron (Tuskegee Airmen)

JT-21

Born in Westmoreland County, Charles Bernard Smith (1917–1991) is one of more than 140,000 African Americans who served in the racially segregated U.S. Army Air Forces during World War II. Trained at Chanute Field, Illinois, in aircraft ground support with the 99th Fighter Squadron, the famed “Tuskegee Airmen,” he served in North Africa and Europe as technical sergeant and crew chief. In more than 200 missions as bomber escorts, the Tuskegee Airmen never lost a bomber to enemy fire, and they received three Presidential Unit Citations. Their outstanding service contributed to the integration of America's armed forces by President Harry S Truman in 1948.

Department of Historic Resources, 2005

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References/Bibliographic Citation:

Charles E. Francis, The Men Who Changed A Nation: Tuskegee Airmen (Boston, Ma.: Branden Publishing Company, 1988); Alan L. Gropman, The Airforce Integrates: 1945-1964 (Washington, DC: Office of Air Force History, 1978), 221; Von Hardesty and Dominick Pisano, Black Wings: The American Black in Aviation (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1984); Lynn M. Holman, Black Knights: The Tuskegee Airmen (Gretna, La.: Pelican Publishing Company, 2001); Alan M. Osur, Blacks in the Army Air Forces During World War II: The Problem of Race Relations (Washington: Office of Air Force History, 1977), 39-61, 137-141; S.392 An Act Related to Tuskegee Airmen pending in the U.S. Senate, http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?c109:1:./temp`c109US9bGF::, 19 October 2005; Charles B. Smith, Enlisted Record and Report of Separation, Honorable Discharge, 28 Sept. 1945, United States Army; Charles B. Smith, Report of Separation from the United States Air Force, November 1952; Charles B. Smith, Sergeant, 99th Pursuit Squadron, Army paper, 1 April 1942; Resume of Education and Job Experience for Charles B. Smith, no date. Lists job experience, including military service up to 1971; Tuskegee Airmen, United States Air Force Museum, http://www.wpafb.af.mil/museum/history/prewwii/ta.htm, 28 October 2005.