Gen Benjamin O. Davis Jr.: American hero

Air & Space Power Journal, Fall, 2004 by Alan Gropman

Editor's Note: PIREP is aviation shorthand for pilot report. It's a means for one pilot to pass on current, potentially useful information to other pilots. In the same fashion, we intend to use this department to let readers know about air and space power items of interest.

GEN BENJAMIN O. DAVIS Jr. is an American hero--a champion who abundantly demonstrated both physical and moral courage. We reserve the term heroes for those people who display physical courage because they risk their lives for something bigger than themselves--the greater good of their nation or their people, for example. General Davis certainly met this standard, many times over.

Inspired by flight at age 14, young Davis convinced his frugal father to pay a barnstormer to fly him over Washington, DC. From that moment on, airplanes captured his imagination, and he would later use aviation to promote military and social reform of the first importance. After coming of age, he decided that by helping bring victory to the United States in World War II, he could give validity to racial integration, choosing the skies of Europe as his battlefield and the airplane as his weapon. By proving that blacks could fly, fight, and lead with the same courage, dedication, discipline, and skill as whites--a notion utterly foreign to almost all whites in America in 1941--he would help destroy the myth of racial inferiority. This lie served as the foundation for segregation in the United States, and General Davis knew it had to be demolished to improve both the military and also the destiny of blacks in America.

To do so, he risked his life above foreign fields in distant skies against some of the most skilled and well-equipped flyers in the world--the fighter pilots of Nazi Germany's Luftwaffe. Just as importantly, he also had to stand up to, confront, and openly disagree with his military superiors when they tried to inhibit or destroy his Tuskegee Airmen. It is important to note that the Tuskegee Airmen--the pilots and their ground crewmen, who were trained to fly, fight, and maintain aircraft at Chanute and Tuskegee Army Airfields in the early and mid-1940s--shared General Davis's vision and courage. He succeeded not only because of his genius for command, but also because of all the other Tuskegee Airmen's dedication to the mission.

We honor General Davis for his physical courage--signified by the 60 combat missions he flew during World War II and the decorations he earned, which include the Distinguished Flying Cross and Silver Star--as well as his leadership of the Tuskegee Airmen. We also pay tribute to him for his open display of moral courage. Throughout his entire professional life, he held to the West Point creed of Duty, Honor, Country. General Davis devoted 43 of his 89 years to service to the United States, spending the entire time in aviation. He loved his country, and he loved to fly.

General Davis placed duty on an equal footing with West Point's other two virtues, clinging to it when he faced bigotry and discrimination, when he confronted a highly skilled enemy, and when he served his people and country, even though he could have chosen a much less arduous and infinitely less dangerous career. Sadly, the cadets at West Point from 1932 to 1936 shunned him completely because of his race--no one talked to Ben Davis except for official reasons during his four years there. He responded by adopting the credo of those who tried to drive him out--Duty, Honor, Country--and stood defiantly against their bigotry. The silencing followed him into the Army, continuing for several years after graduation. His lonely years at West Point symbolize his determination, discipline, resolve, and sense of duty--his moral courage. Knowing that the bigots wanted him to fail made him all the more determined to succeed, and he graduated in the top third of the class of 1936.

Honor? The cadets in attendance between 1932 and 1936 acted dishonorably, as did the leadership of the United States Military Academy. West Point violated its own code, but nobody there or in the Army intervened. General Davis knew he was fighting something bigger than the racism of young men in their teens and early twenties, but he remained undaunted, standing up to intolerance with dignity and never relenting. His honor is unquestioned.

After graduating from flying school at Tuskegee Army Airfield, Alabama, General Davis took the 99th Fighter Squadron--which included the first of the Tuskegee Airmen--to North Africa where they suffered discrimination at the hands of the commander of the 33d Fighter Group. That colonel tried to exile the 99th from combat and prevent the establishment of the 332d Fighter Group and 477th Medium Bombardment Group--the other new units consisting of Tuskegee Airmen. General Davis fought for his men, taking on the commander and much of the leadership of the entire Army Air Forces--everyone who endorsed the group commander's bigotry. Davis, a lieutenant colonel at the time, openly and vocally disagreed with the commander of the Army Air Forces, a four-star general, who tried to destroy the reputation of the 99th and marginalize all blacks. General Davis won that battle in the Pentagon in a stunning display of moral courage.