Tuskegee Airmen's Visit Draws Crowd

Eight members of the Tuskegee Airmen - an elite group of African-American aviators during World War II - gave a presentation on Thursday, Feb. 21, that drew a lunchtime crowd of more than 100.

One young member of the crowd, Jeremy Schwarz, a student at Columbus Torah Academy wrote this report on the event:

Tuskegee Airmen: An Honor and a Privilege


On Thursday, February 21, CTA students Tomer Lux, Shoshana Menaged, Nitzan Levi, Michael Osborne, Jacob Zimmerman, and Jeremy Schwarz, accompanied by Mrs. Julie Moskowitz and Mrs. Marcia Hershfield, were privileged to attend a program given by the Tuskegee Airmen at the Jewish Community Center of Greater Columbus. They included Sargent (Ret) William Brooks, Major Herndon "Don" Cummings (He was one of the original Airmen, having served in 1945), Loring Gomer and his wife Vernita Gomer (she served in the Women's Force), George Collins, Milton Carter, and others.

These servicemen overcame many hardships to eventually become the first African-American flying unit in the U.S. military. They were top fighter pilots in the U.S. Army Air Forces, trained at Tuskegee Army Air Field in Alabama during World War II. They never lost a single bomber aircraft that they escorted in the Mediterranean in Europe and North Africa. They went on to serve in the Korean War and Vietman.

The Tuskegee Airmen taught us about the history of African Americans in the United States Military Forces. Sargent Brooks shared their belief that "discipline is the best source of success" and that "you must set your goal and stick to it" no matter what the adversity. They then went on to speak about the trials and tribulations of becoming one of our country's finest engineer and fighter pilot squadrons, while overcoming the horrors of racial bigotry. A question was asked, how did they remain loyal to a country that treated them so badly with respect to discrimination and segregation based solely on the color of their skin? The solemn answer was, "We did not have a country, and America was all we had." We would like to thank the JCC's New Horizons Department for having this presentation.