New Tuskegee Airmen Book Sets The Record Straight

By Erin Harney

While many people believe they know the story of the Tuskegee Airmen, it is a narrative influenced by movies, misconceptions, and myth. In his new book, “The Tuskegee Airmen Chronology: A Detailed Timeline of the Red Tails and Other Black Pilots of World War II,” Dr. Daniel Haulman, chief, Organizational Histories, at the U.S. Air Force Historical Research Agency, provides a thorough account that both engages and sets the record straight.

“The book provides a very detailed chronology with a timeline of events almost daily,” Haulman said. Through the comprehensive dates and details pulled from original, historic documents, Haulman dispels many of the misconceptions that have been a part of the Tuskegee Airmen narrative for decades.

For example, a common myth is that the Tuskegee airmen pilots never lost a bomber during escort missions for the Fifteenth Air Force.“That was never true,” Haulman said. “Of the 179 bomber escort missions, they lost bombers on seven of those missions. … If you add up the total number of bombers that were shot down while under Tuskegee Airmen escort, you get 27. The average number lost by the other fighter groups in the Fifteenth Air Force was 46, so they lost significantly fewer bombers than the other fighter escort groups,” Haulman said.

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