CEDAR PARK, Texas -- This weekend a movie about an elite group of pilots is being released.
"Red Tails" looks at the legacy of the Tuskegee Airmen. The all-black WWII fighter pilot squadron was sent to North Africa and Italy to escort white bomber pilots.
It's a story 86-year-old Capt. William Gray knows firsthand.
“They dispelled the idea or the notion that we as a group were stupid. It dispelled the idea that we were uncoordinated. It dispelled the notion that we couldn't learn,” Gray said. “This is something that's not taught in history classes, in any schools."
In 1944, Gray was a bombardier for the Tuskegee Airmen.
“There were more Tuskegee Airmen than just the pilots,” Gray said. “We had control tower operators, armorers, instrument mechanics, sheet metal workers.”
Back then, segregation in the service was the norm.
“Because of the segregation rules in the Army Air Corp, the Army Air Forces, they could not or would not use these seasoned pilots to bolster their men in the Pacific,” he said.
It was a wall the Tuskegee Airmen were determined to bring down by showing they were as capable and courageous as their white counterparts.
“A lot of the pilots in the 332nd, which is the outfit in the movie, were19, 20 years old. Some of them never reached 21,” Gray said. “There's an instance where one of the fighter pilots blew up a German destroyer, just with machine gun fire, but he was lucky.”
In 2007, President George W. Bush awarded Gray and the other Tuskegee Airmen the Congressional Gold Medal for their bravery and service. Gray hopes people will go see the movie and remember the men who risked their lives for their country as they fought racial prejudice.
The movie “Red Tails,” financed and produced by acclaimed filmmaker George Lucas, opens nationwide Friday.
