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Luther McIlwain, Tuskegee Airman
Part II
 METHUEN – As 85-year-old Luther
McIlwain slowly walks around the kitchen table in his
Pleasant Valley home, it is obvious that this Tuskegee
Airman has a lot more story to tell about his military
experience during World War II. Each little parcel of
information he shares tells us about an era where Negroes
were second class citizens that worked and fought hard to
show that they were the equals of white soldiers and
officers.
They had to prove to the military that they had the
skills and knowledge to fly sophisticated aircraft in
life-and-death combat situations.
Today we know they performed superbly with some of the
best records of the war. In last month’s The
Valley Patriot, we followed Luther McIlwain’s early
life and the discrimination problems he endured simply
trying to enlist in the Army’s new Tuskegee program
designed to train Negro pilots, bombardiers and
navigators.
We pick up the story when, after a brief period at Ft
Bragg, N.C., Luther was transferred in January of 1944 to
Keesler Army Airfield at Biloxi, Miss. to become part of
the 1120th training squadron. He was now a preaviation
cadet undergoing three months of physical training,
testing and evaluation in preparation for Tuskegee. Out
of more than 400 original applicants, only 44 passed the
rigorous program to go on to the next step. It was also
here that Luther was assigned to be a
bombardier/navigator rather than a fighter or bomber
pilot, since that’s where the Army needed men at the
time. You had no choice in those days.
In April or May, Luther was sent to Tuskegee as a
full-fledged Army Air Corps cadet. He had a propeller
emblem on the front of his cadet cap and another one  on the
sleeve of his uniform. The first step was ground school,
which consisted of 12-hour days studying aerodynamics,
physics, radio transmission, Morse code, English and
other related subjects. At this time there were
8000 to 9000 Negroes training at Tuskegee under white
officers. By 1944 the Army had managed to replace the
original white ground school instructors with qualified
Negro instructors. As more Negroes were trained and
promoted, they would eventually replace all of the white
officers. Near the end of the war, only the base
commander and his immediate staff were white.
Just 27 of Luther McIlwain’s class of 44 graduated
from ground school. They were then sent to Hondo Army Air
Field near San Antonio, Texas for bomber navigation
training. Here, Luther earned his navigator wings and was
promoted to 2nd lieutenant. He also became a Rated
Instructor. His graduation class was only the second of
Negro cadets to be trained as bombardiers/navigators. Now
his final class size was down to just 23 elite Air Corps
soldiers.
 From
here it was on to San Angelo Army Air Field in Texas for
bombardier training with the famous Norden bombsight.
After a month of ground school, followed by simulator
experience, Luther McIlwain honed his skills in
twin-engine B-25 bomber trainers. At 22 years of age, he
earned his second set of wings - the bombardier wings -
and was making 50 percent more money than the equivalent
non-flying officer.
By now it was mid 1944 and Luther’s next stop was
the University of Chicago’s School of Meteorology
for three months of weather instruction. He graduated as
a Rated Weather Observer, the first and only Negro airman
in a class of 200 other white officers. Then, after a
brief return to Tuskegee, Luther was assigned to the
Tyndall Army Air Base at Panama City, Fla. Here he
practiced firing .30- and .50-caliber aerial guns from
B-17s and B-24s at targets towed by nearby aircraft.
After Tyndall, Luther’s career took an
unusual twist. He was sent to Midland Army Air Base,
Texas for three months where he was one of only four
Negro instructors assigned to help train the first group
of Chinese flying officers from Chiang Kai-shek’s
army. At the time, the Chinese Nationalists were fighting
both the Japanese army and the threat of an internal
Communist takeover.
It was now early 1945 and Luther’s next assignment
was to Godman Army Air Field at Ft. Knox, Ky., where the
all-Negro 477th (C) B-25 Bomber Group was being
assembled. The Army was still wrestling with
discrimination at this time, as the (C) designation was
used to denote “colored.” Luther McIlwain was
given orders to become part of the group’s 617th
squadron.
From Godman, the 477th was sent to the much larger
Lockbourne Army Air Base near Columbus, Ohio and became a
composite group of bombers and fighters. Here, Luther
McIlwain was given orders to return to Tuskegee for pilot
training on twin-engine planes. He had accumulated 80
hours of flight  instruction — just 10 hours short of
what he needed for his pilot’s wings — before
the program was abruptly terminated. By now, Germany had
already surrendered and the Japanese were only weeks away
from surrender. The Army didn’t need any more bomber
pilots; they had a surplus. Although Luther had spent
countless hours in the air as a navigator and bombardier,
he never did qualify for his pilot’s wings.
The 477th Bomber Group did not see combat during the war,
primarily because its white commander, Colonel Robert
Selway, as well as Major General Frank Hunter, were so
bigoted that they did almost everything they could to
sabotage the training of the unit. Their treatment of the
Negro officers broke Army regulations and was so
outrageous that 101 of the Negro officers mutinied and
were arrested for refusing to stay out of a newly created
“White Officers’ Club.” After the
war ended, Luther stayed in the service until the end of
1946.
During the post war period, he was privileged to be the
lead navigator in a group of 21 B-25 Bombers escorting
General Jonathan Wainwright (captured by the Japanese at
Corregidor in 1942) from Texas to Ohio for a special
ceremony. Also, in 1946, Luther McIlwain and his
crew took first place in precision bombing at an air show
competition where 50 bomber squadrons were selected from
various air bases around the country to compete in
combat-style maneuvers. Upon completion of his
military service, Luther McIlwain decided to become a
police officer in New York City after the police force
was finally integrated in 1946. He spent 20 years there,
the last 13 as a plainclothes detective.
It was during this time, unfortunately, that all of
Luther’s pictures, patches, wings and other military
memories as a Tuskegee Airman were stolen from his
apartment. All he has left today is his old military ID
and a fuzzy picture of him as a cadet that he had sent to
his mother. Eventually, Luther made it back to
Methuen where he worked for over 20 years as a special
assistant to the mayor in the Office of Equal
Opportunity. He officially retired in 1992. But
Luther McIlwain wasn’t through yet. In 1998, at the
age of 77, he received a phone call from Harvard
University to talk about his
Tuskegee experience in its Division of Continuing
Education. For two years this Tuskegee Airman taught to
overflowing crowds of retired doctors, professors, and
company presidents. Not surprisingly, Luther has
also been the recipient of numerous awards. In 1996, the
Massachusetts Black Legislative Caucus presented him with
a pewter cup and its Public Service Award. In 1997, the
Merrimack Valley Chapter of the NAACP also gave him its
Public Service Award. In 1999, Hanscom Air Force Base
presented him with a “Lifetime Honorary
Membership” in the Hanscom Officer’s Club. Also
in 1999, the Merrimack Valley Planning Commission, on
which Luther had served for 13 years, gave him its
Regional Service Award. And this past February the Boston
Celtics presented him with a “Heroes Among Us”
award prior to a game with Cleveland at the Boston
Garden.
As an aside, it should come as no surprise that
Luther’s younger sister, Glendora, also excelled in
her career. She became a lawyer in 1951 like their father
and would go on to serve as an Assistant Secretary of HUD
in President Ford’s administration. For many years
she was also active on transition teams for newly elected
Republican governors here in Massachusetts, including
Governor Weld’s 1990 move into the gubernatorial
office.
At this point in the story about “Hero in Our
Midst,” it is traditional for this paper to thank
the veteran for his service. Somehow, for Luther McIlwain
this seems woefully inadequate. He not only served his
country well, he helped lead the way by example for the
subsequent integration of the Armed Forces after the war
and the groundbreaking 1964 Civil Rights Act. This has
all led to a much better America in which we live today.
So, we will say simply and with great admiration,
“Thank you, Luther McIlwain, for all that you and
your family have done to make this a better country and
us, a better people.”
*Send your questions comments to ValleyPatriot@aol.com
The May, 2006 Edition of
the Valley Patriot
The Valley Patriot is a Monthly
Publication.
All Contents (C) 2006, Valley Patriot, Inc.
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