Tuskegee Airman fought in 3 wars
Retired Air Force Brig. Gen. Charles Mcgee, a member of the pathbreaking group of Black military aviators known as the Tuskegee Airmen, died Sunday at his home in Bethesda, Md., at age 102.
Mcgee, who flew more than 400 combat missions in three wars, celebrated his birthday at Joint Base San Antonio-randolph on Dec. 6.
“I think he’s probably the greatest torchbearer for the Tuskegee Airmen,” said Rick Sinkfield, president of the Tuskegee Airmen chapter in San Antonio and the group’s national public relations officer.
“He brought along the idea that there was no quit among them and nobody was turning back. They were eager to show that these guys were capable, smart enough and willing to fight for their country,” said Sinkfield, an Air Force veteran. “He always made a big deal out of that.”
In the segregated armed forces, the Tuskegee Airmen were forced to fight their fellow Americans, in civilian life and in the military, before they did battle in the air with the Nazis during World War II. Black servicemen were typically relegated to noncombat jobs — even in the war zone.
The all-african American 332nd Fighter Group became a striking exception. Composed of the 301st, 302nd, 99th and 100th fighter squadrons, the 332nd Fighter Group had as many as 14,000 airmen, about 1,000 of them pilots. It made history in the skies over war-torn Europe.
Mcgee was stationed in Italy with the 301st Fighter Squadron and flew his first mission Feb. 14, 1944. Six months later, on his way to logging 137 combat missions during the war, he downed a German Focke-wulf 190 fighter over Czechoslovakia.
Mcgee went on to serve in Korea, flying P-51 Mustangs with
the 67th Fighter Bomber Squadron after North Korea invaded the south in summer 1950. Mcgee piloted 100 missions in a variety of the early combat jets used in Korea. By then, President Harry S. Truman had ordered the armed forces desegregated.
Mcgee served in his third war as a lieutenant colonel in Vietnam, flying the RF-4, a photoreconnaissance jet.
All told, he flew 409 combat missions and logged 6,308 flying hours over 30 years.
He retired from the Air Force as a colonel in 1973.
All that made for a remarkable career, but Sinkfield said the role Mcgee and other Tuskegee Airmen played in breaking the color barrier was his greatest contribution.
“He always mentioned that and the fact that this was almost the first time there was a breakthrough,” recalled Sinkfield, 72. “He just mentioned these guys were fighting for a county that didn’t necessarily appreciate them as a group, and yet they felt like it was worth fighting for.”
Mcgee’s visit to Jbsa-randolph last month was a triumphant celebration of a long life and his contributions to the Air Force and his country. He arrived a day short of his 102nd birthday, but the event turned into a party anyway.
He wasn’t walking well and was in pain, but he also was in high spirits as well-wishers celebrated his role in U.S. military history.
In a wheelchair, Mcgee replied, “Happy holidays!”
Dressed in his Air Force blue uniform, he visited the 99th Flying Training Squadron at Randolph, which traces its roots to the 332nd Fighter Group. Aircraft in the group, which escorted bombers during World War II, were known as the “Red Tails.”
Mcgee was given a tour of the squadron and its planes and took a simulator flight in a T-1A Jayhawk, a twin-engine training jet.
“What a pleasure to be here and to be able to see what’s taking place,” Mcgee told the crowd. “I can just say, another blessing in my life, certainly, to be here to celebrate with you … and also to have a better understanding of what’s taking place now, when we look back at some of the pictures around the room and say, ‘Look at what 80 years have done for us.’”
Mcgee was born in Cleveland. His father, Lewis Allen Mcgee, was a teacher, social worker and Methodist minister — jobs that led to frequent moves.
The younger Mcgee was an achiever, earning his Eagle Scout badge in 1940. He was an engineering major at the University of Illinois when he enlisted in the Army in 1942. He returned to earn his bachelor’s degree in 1978, at age 58.
Mcgee joined the Tuskegee Airmen and earned his wings June 30, 1943. Before his career was over, he had earned the Distinguished Flying Cross with two oak leaf clusters, the Legion of Merit with one oak leaf cluster, the Bronze Star, the Air Medal with 25 oak leaf clusters, the Army Commendation Medal, a Presidential Unit Citation, a Korean Presidential Unit Citation and the Hellenic Republic World War II Commemorative Medal, along with related campaign and service ribbons.
In 2007, Mcgee and other Tuskegee Airmen were awarded the Congressional Gold Medal, the nation’s highest civilian honor. In a ceremony at the U.S. Capitol, then-president George W. Bush told the airmen: “I would like to offer a gesture to help atone for all the unreturned salutes and unforgivable indignities. And so, on behalf of the office I hold, and a country that honors you, I salute you for your service to the United States of America.”
In a White House ceremony in 2019, President Donald Trump recognized Mcgee’s honorary promotion to brigadier general.
Larry Romo, a former national commander of the American GI Forum of the United States, announced Mcgee’s death on Facebook: “May our hero rest in peace! Heaven has a new angel!”
Sinkfield thought back to the celebration on the tarmac at Randolph that followed Mcgee’s tour of the squadron’s offices, which are festooned with paintings of scenes of Tuskegee Airmen and their top leaders, including Mcgee’s old boss, Gen. Benjamin O. Davis Jr.
Out on the flight line at Randolph next to a T-1A with his name painted on the side, Mcgee was mobbed by well-wishers who posed for photographs with him. Wearing a Vietnam veteran’s cap and a winter coat that braced him against gusts from a cold front, he drank a Coca-cola and at one pointed pretended to pour it over his own head.
It was a light moment that alluded to an important piece of history.
Years earlier, in 1943, Lt. Charles B. “Buster” Hall became the first Black pilot in the U.S. military to shoot down an enemy aircraft, a German FW-190 he’d encountered while piloting a P-40 Warhawk during the Allied invasion of Sicily. In celebration, the squadron gave Hall the last chilled bottle of Coke on the base.
Hall also was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and a commendation from Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, the supreme Allied commander.
During Mcgee’s visit to Randolph, “they gave him the Coca Cola that Charles B. Hall would have received when he shot down the first German fighter,” Sinkfield said.
“He probably shouldn’t have had that Coke,” he added with a chuckle, “but he drank it.”