Five months after Congress voted to bestow its highest honor on the Tuskegee Airmen -- pioneering aviators who during World War II broke the color bar banning black pilots in the U.S. military -- the Congressional Gold Medal is still not in their hands.
"Every time you pick up a newspaper, one or two more are gone," said retired Lt. Col. Spann Watson of Westbury, N.Y. "We'd like people who are still living to be able to receive them. I want to get my medal in my hand."
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Tuskegee Airmen Still Waiting Washington Post
"There is some concern," said retired Col. Lee Archer, 84, of New Rochelle, N.Y., the nation's first black combat ace. "Since Congress approved it, I know of three people who have passed on and will never see it. But I have no intention of dying before we get the medal."
Of the 994 black aviators who got their training at the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama beginning in 1942, 388 are still alive. Last month, Elmore Kennedy, 90, a retired lieutenant colonel who lived in Philadelphia, died of complications of a stroke. In March, Congress unanimously approved the medal in recognition of the group's aerial exploits -- its fighter escort pilots never lost a bomber to enemy fire -- as well as their battles against racial discrimination. Recipients of the medal have included George Washington, the Wright Brothers, Pope John Paul II, the Navajo Code Talkers, and Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King. The medal, cast in gold, will be displayed in Washington. Bronze duplicates will be distributed to each veteran. An aide to Rep. Charles B. Rangel (D-N.Y.), who co-sponsored legislation authorizing the medal, said the congressman had hoped the medal would be ready in time to be awarded during the annual convention of the Congressional Black Caucus in early September. But the aide, Emile Milne, said several revisions to a design submitted by the aviators group have delayed the medal's issuance. Milne said the medal originally was to have featured the images of three aviators on the front and aircraft on the medal's reverse side. He said efforts to simplify the design have led to delays. "There will be only one gold medal, which will sit in the Smithsonian, honoring the contributions of nearly 1,000 African American pilots who served heroically in World War II under the banner of the Tuskegee Airmen," Milne said. "Everyone wants to get it right." Ron Brewington, a spokesman for Tuskegee Airmen Inc., said the medals are not expected before next year.
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