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Lot 363
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Tuskegee Airmen, Signed by 100 African American Aviators, Scrapbook with Notes to Their Instructor
Tuskegee Airmen, Signed by 100 African American Aviators, Scrapbook with Notes to Their Instructor
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Description:

Tuskegee Airmen, Signed by 100 African American Aviators, Scrapbook with Notes to Their Instructor

WORLD WAR II, AFRICAN AMERICAN SOLDIERS. Scrapbook of inscriptions from Tuskegee Airmen to their Flight Instructor, Milton T. Hall, Jr., August 1943 – March 1945. No pagination, but approximately 208pp, 8.5" x 11". Bound in soft green cloth. Dampstains and wear to rear cover and front and back pastedowns. 

Milton T. Hall was one of the few African American flight instructors at the fighter transition school at Tuskegee, Alabama, during World War II. This scrapbook contains the remarks of approximately one hundred of his trainees on the Curtiss P-40 Warhawk, as they graduated and left for the war. Many of Hall’s trainees saw combat duty, facing death, capture, and imprisonment. Two of the inscriptions carry poignant notes at the bottom with the details of the students’ deaths in separate training flights in Michigan, just months after they graduated from Tuskegee.

The Air Force Souvenir Handybook, sales of which benefited the United Service Organizations (USO), includes the sentiments and signatures of the following, among many others:

• Daniel “Chappie” James Jr. (1920-1978) of Pensacola, Florida, who holds the distinction of becoming the first African-American to reach the rank of four-star general in the U.S. Armed Forces. After receiving his wings in August 1943, James wrote: “To a swell guy who is doing a swell job ‘Depend on Hall to keep em on the Ball.’ (‘Corny but True’)” and added below his name, “If you haven’t met him in the past, just read your daily news in the future.”

• Lee A. Archer (1919-2010) of New York City flew 169 combat missions and was one of only four Tuskegee Airmen to earn three aerial victories in a single day, earning a Distinguished Flying Cross.

• Lt. Cornelius George Rogers (1921-1944) of Chicago, who signed opposite Archer, was not as lucky. Returning from an aborted mission over northern Italy in June 1944, he reported engine trouble and crashed before reaching his home airfield.

• Clarence W. Dart (1920-2012) of Elmira, New York, flew a total of 95 missions and was shot down twice, earning two purple hearts and the Distinguished Flying Cross: “Your interest in my flying has been appreciated but may I never have to make reveille for a long time. (Wishful thinking).”

• Jack Daniels Holsclaw (1918-1998) of Spokane, Washington, flew 68 combat missions and received the Distinguished Flying Cross for shooting down two German fighters on July 18, 1944: “To an O.K. Teacher from a hard striving pupil, Lots of success.”

• Robert L. Martin (1919-2018) of Dubuque, Iowa, had a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Iowa State University when he enlisted. After training at Tuskegee, he flew missions in Italy. On his sixty-fourth mission, he was shot down over Zagreb, Yugoslavia. He bailed out but his parachute cut him on the chin and knocked him out when it deployed. After sheltering in a farmhouse, he was rescued by Tito’s Partisans and hidden for five weeks. He earned the Purple Heart, the Air Medal with six oak leaf clusters, and the Distinguished Flying Cross. He wrote to Hall, “Hi Star Gazer— Thanks for your help with Frankenstein. Hope your plans go right, then I’ll come see you when this mess is over.”

• William R. Melton (1920-1999) of Los Angeles, California, flew more than 100 missions over North Africa and Europe.

• Spann Watson (1916-2010) of Hackensack, New Jersey, flew more than 30 missions in North Africa and southern Europe and was among the first African America U.S. military pilots to engage in aerial combat with the enemy. His career with the Air Force lasted more than 23 years, and he retired in 1964 as a Lieutenant Colonel: “To one of the swellest guys I ever hope to know— Good luck and good flying—.”

• William E. Hill (1923-1943), the first black pilot from Rhode Island, graduated from Tuskegee and was assigned to Oscoda, Michigan, for additional training. Just over two months after writing, “Thanks for everything” in this book to his flight instructor, his plane burst into flames over Lake Huron. He attempted to parachute, but his parachute covered him in the lake, and his body was never found.

• Eugene D. Smith (1918-2012) of Cincinnati was of mixed European and Native American ancestry but was considered “Colored,” so he served with the Tuskegee Airmen. After flying bomber escort missions in Europe, he practiced law in Cincinnati for more than fifty years and led efforts to integrate juries there. He wrote, “To the guy who says: ‘Hay Mister you got a band in that hat’ Best wishes & best of luck” and added after his signature, “Sorry we were so much trouble.”

• Lowell C. Steward (1919-2014), a childhood friend of Jackie Robinson in Los Angeles, flew 143 missions from Italy and received the Distinguished Flying Cross: “Your friend until the end—forever! Thanks for your help!” and added below his signature, “From the land of Sunshine, milk and Honey, Gods Country. Los Angeles, Calif.”

• Alfred M. Gorham (1920-2009) of Waukesha, Wisconsin, shot down two German fighter aircraft in August 1944. In February 1945, his P-51 Mustang had engine trouble over Munich, Germany, and he bailed out. He was captured and held by the Germans for seven months until the end of the war. He wrote, “From an Embryo Pilot to a swell guy. I wish you all the luck in the world. Hope to meet you across the pond.”

• Walter Drake Westmorland (1920-1944) of Atlanta, Georgia, was shot down over Hungary in October 1944: “With your help, we’ll get through this s___.”

• William W. Green (1920-1978) of Staunton, Virginia, flew 123 missions and shot down three German aircraft, earning the Distinguished Flying Cross: “Keep up the good work & then we will all be able to get through with all this lovely s____.”

• William B. Ellis (1916-2010) of Washington, D.C., in addition to a distinguished service career, is best known for his role in the Freeman Field Mutiny in Indiana, when he and fellow African American officers entered an all-white officer’s club in April 1945 and refused to leave. When the “mutineers” refused to sign an affidavit acknowledging that their actions violated regulations, they were arrested and imprisoned. Ellis’s actions led to an official investigation into illegal segregation in the military and were the first step to the official desegregation of the U.S. Armed Forces in 1949. Future Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall defended Ellis and the other officers. Ellis inscribed to Hall, “Say Kid! We both were pretty scared that first ride, but we survived. [May?] we bit the blue wing to wing and turn the lights on again damn soon. Best of luck Kid You know that I am with you.”

• Alix Pasquet (1919-1958) of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, was one of five Haitian members of the Tuskegee Airmen, a soccer star, a law graduate of École Militaire d’Haiti, and an officer in the Haitian army. The U.S. government provided six airplanes for Haitian pilots to patrol the Caribbean Sea for German submarines in the area. Pasquet was exiled in 1957 for supporting an opponent of François Duvalier in the Civil War and killed in an attempted coup in 1958. He wrote in Hall’s volume, “Avec toute mon amitie au pilote qui, le premier, vu a insfire un respect legitime pour le A.T-6.” (“With all my best regards to the pilot who was the first to inspire a legitimate respect for the A.T. 6”). Three of the other four Haitian students are also represented in this volume: Ludovic Audant (1911-1974), Pelissier C. Nicolas, and Raymond Cassagnol (b. 1920).

• Henry A. Wise Jr. (1920-2003) of Cheriton, Virginia, was trained at Tuskegee and served in North Africa and Italy. In August 1944, his plane was shot down over Bulgaria, where he was held as a prisoner of war. Three weeks later, the Russians forced the Bulgarians to sign peace terms. Wise and several hundred other prisoners of war were evacuated through Turkey and Egypt. When he returned to the United States, he graduated from Howard University Medical School and opened a private practice in Maryland. He later served as medical director at Bowie State University. He wrote to Hall, “Here’s hoping we’ll all be old Pilots.”

Despite their service in World War I, African Americans remained segregated in the United States Armed Services through World War II. A total of 992 pilots were trained in Tuskegee between 1941 and 1946. Of those pilots, 335 were deployed overseas. Sixty-eight Tuskegee pilots were killed in action or accidents, twelve died in training or non-combat missions, and thirty-two were captured as prisoners of war. This volume also spoke to the segregation, as the printed directory of USO Locations by State had an asterisk by those facilities that offered "Service to Negroes".

Additionally includes:

• Hall’s CCC yearbook: Indiana District Civilian Conservation Corps 1938-1939, with inscriptions from fellow CCC workers and a certificate of his service;

• November 1944 issue of The Talladegan that includes the text of a commencement address at Talladega College by W.E. B. DuBois from June 1944; and

• A pair of programs for productions of Lillian Hellman’s The Children’s Hour by the Little Theater of the historically black Talladega College (4 March 1944 and 11 March 1944). Talladega, Alabama, is approximately 70 miles north of Tuskegee. Milton Hall’s sister Emily Hall Holloway (1923-2021) attended Talladega College.

Milton T. Hall Jr. (1919-1947) was born in Bloomington, Indiana, and worked for the Civilian Conservation Corps from 1937 to 1939. In the latter year, Hall moved to Owensboro, Kentucky. During World War II, Hall applied for pilot training at Tuskegee Army Air Field and was accepted in April 1942. After he graduated in December 1942 with the rank of 2nd Lieutenant, Hall served as a combat pilot in Italy as a member of the Tuskegee Airmen Red Tail squadron of P-51 Mustang fighters, tasked with escorting bombers on bombing runs into enemy territory. By 1943, Hall returned to Tuskegee, Alabama, where he was one of seven black flight instructors. Hall died in an accident in Lancaster, Ohio, when his AT-6 plane collided with another plane during a training exercise.

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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