NPR is reporting that the Tuskegee Airmen have gathered in Washington, D.C., to celebrate their 70th anniversary. America's first black military pilots reunited for their national convention this week.
Pilots in the famed 332nd Fighter Group and other Tuskegee units received their flight training at the Tuskegee Army Air Field in Tuskegee, Ala. Their first official training sessions took place on July 19, 1941.
One of the planes used to train more than 1,000 Tuskegee aviators has been found, after being used as a crop duster and sold on Ebay. This week it will be donated to the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture.
Some of the surviving Tuskegee pilots held another, more informal, reunion earlier this year in Florida, and a new film about the airmen, named Red Tails after the nickname given to the Tuskegee fighters' paint job, is coming out in January 2012.
Congratulations to the Tuskegee Airmen, who broke barriers and helped prove that if given the opportunity, African Americans can and will make a difference in this society and for our country.
Read more at NPR.
In other news: Bloomberg to Help Fund Youth Initiative.