Veterans From Iraq, Afghanistan Wars Will Meet A WW II Vet Who Also Had To Battle Racial Prejudice
Tuskegee Airman Eugene Richardson At Rutgers-Newark Nov. 7, 11:30 a.m.
The public is invited to join student veterans at Rutgers University, Newark, next Monday, Nov. 7, to hear one of America’s “greatest generation” share tales of a war fought against prejudice as well as against Nazism.
The talk, open to the public free of charge, features Tuskegee Airman Eugene Richardson. The Nov. 7 program will begin at 11:30 a.m. in the Paul Robeson Campus Center (PRCC), 350 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., Newark, in Room 232 (Essex Room East). The Rutgers Student Veterans Organization (RSVO), comprised of male and female students who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, is the primary sponsor of the event.
Dr. Eugene Richardson joined the Army Air Corps at the age of 17 in a time when the U.S. military was racially segregated, and black Americans were considered by many to be incapable of piloting a plane. Richardson completed basic military training in 1943, and was sent to Tuskegee, Alabama, for pilot training, becoming a member of what became known as the Tuskegee Airmen. He learned to fly P-40 and P-47 fighter planes, earned his pilot’s wings and was commissioned as a second lieutenant on March 11, 1945. The war with Germany ended a few weeks after his graduation, before he had a chance to fly a combat mission. He returned home to complete high school and went on to earn an undergraduate degree at Temple University and a master’s and doctorate in education at Penn State. He pursued a successful career in education in the Philadelphia School System.
The program is co-sponsored by the Office of the Chancellor and the Rutgers Center for the Study of Genocide, Conflict Resolution, and Human Rights’ Program on War, Return and Remembrance. All three sponsors planned the event in connection with Veterans Day as a way to “recognize the service rendered to us all by the men and women who have bravely sacrificed their lives in the name of freedom,” according to Gerald Massenburg, associate chancellor for student life.
The Tuskegee Airmen: Before 1940, African-Americans were barred from flying for the U.S. military. Civil rights organizations and the black press exerted pressure that resulted in the formation of an all African-American pursuit squadron based in Tuskegee, Alabama, in 1941. They became known as the Tuskegee Airmen… The Tuskegee Airmen included pilots, navigators, bombardiers, maintenance and support staff, instructors, and all the personnel who kept the planes in the air…
The Tuskegee Airmen overcame segregation and prejudice to become one of the most highly respected fighter groups of World War II. They proved conclusively that African-Americans could fly and maintain sophisticated combat aircraft. The Tuskegee Airmen’s achievements, together with the men and women who supported them, paved the way for full integration of the U.S. military.
Excerpted from the National Parks Service online exhibit, American Visionaries, Legends of Tuskegee http://www.cr.nps.gov/museum/exhibits/tuskegee/airoverview.htm
The Rutgers Student Veterans Organization is a student-run advocacy group comprised of student veterans and supporters at Rutgers University in Newark. RSVO’s mission is to provide student veterans with a strong and inspirational support network as well as to assist the student veteran in all aspects of the college experience, focusing on three critical areas vital to the success and development of all student veterans: Transition, from military to college life, and then from college life to the workplace; Enrichment, to make the college experience for veterans as rich and full as possible, both in and out of the classroom; and Community Service, since RSVO believes that service to country and community doesn’t end once military service is over, and strives to aid and serve both the Rutgers community and the local one.
The Rutgers Program on War, Return, and Remembrance (http://cghr.newark.rutgers.edu/programs/war_remembrance.html aims to enhance understanding of war and the people who fight it, the post-war lives of those who served, and the manner in which society remember those who died. The program sponsors a distinguished speaker series that examines current issues related to war, return and remembrance, and offers outreach to veterans within the university and neighboring communities. It also incorporates classroom education that focuses on books, film, and other media used by combat veterans to relate their personal experiences. The program director, Jack McLean, is a combat veteran who served in Vietnam with the United States Marine Corps in 1967-1968. He is the author of the best-selling memoir based on his experience, “Loon: A Marine Story” (Random House, 2009).
