The Pittsburgh Press (September 19, 1941)
TUSKEGEE ADDS FLIERS TO ARMY
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First class graduates at Negro school
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Tuskegee, Ala., Sept. 19 –
The Army’s first flying school for Negroes, located at Tuskegee Institute, is turning out pilots now for the nation’s flying forces.
A class of 10 graduates of the Civil Authority training school held at the Institute is undergoing elementary flight training and, upon completion of a five-week course, will be transferred to the 99th Air Forces Squadron base now under construction.
A contingent of 278 Negro enlisted men will be brought to the base from Charrute Field, Ill., to serve as ground personnel. The base will be one of 42 operating under the Army Air Forces Eastern Flying Training Command, which has its headquarters at Montgomery, Ala.
At the dedication of the school, Maj. Gen. Walter R. Weaver, commanding officer of the training center, told cadets that:
The eyes of your people are upon you. The success of the venture depends upon you.
In addition to the flight training, the Tuskegee Institute has initiated a program of training for aircraft mechanics.
Tuskegee Institute has been the site of a CPT training school since inauguration of the nationwide program in 1939. The school, aided by the Rosenwald Fund, has spent $50,000 on equipment and building facilities, and has eight planes and a staff of six instructors, four ground school instructors and two mechanics, as well as helpers and clerical workers.