Welcome
 

 

 
NAI Recognizes Lt. Col. William H. Holloman III
“At a few "Tuskegee Airmen" events, as "Skyhook" at Moton Fld., Tuskegee, Alabama; the "Tuskegee Airmen Convention" in Philadelphia and at the "Congressional Gold Medal Of Honor" presentation by President Bush, I had the opportunity of talking with Bill and a few other Tuskegee Airmen whom I have known .  Several others have exspired during the last few months, including the only known "Ace" combat pilot of the group which escorted and protected the bomber pilots during the assaults on Germany.”
Charles T. Cross / NAI Member
Tuskegee Airman,
Class 45-B
 
Lt. Col. William H. Holloman III, who grew up in St. Louis and went on to fight with the famed Tuskegee Airmen in World War II, died Friday (June 11, 2010) at a hospital near Seattle.

He had suffered a heart attack several days earlier, said a daughter, Lesley A. Holloman, of St. Louis. Lt. Col. Holloman was 85 and lived in Kent, Wash. From the time he was a young boy growing up south of The Ville neighborhood, his was a life destined for the skies. "I wanted to fly since I was 4 years old," Lt. Col. Holloman told the Post-Dispatch in an interview last year. By his teens, he and about two dozen other friends and acquaintances from St. Louis found themselves in Tuskegee, Ala., training for war with the Army Air Forces' first black combat unit. They eventually became the 332nd Fighter Group and by the end of the war in Europe were credited with having shot down 112 enemy aircraft and destroying an additional 150 on the ground. Their record of accomplishment contributed to President Harry S Truman's decision to integrate the armed services. Lt. Col. Holloman spent three years with the unit, including 10 months in Europe flying combat missions in a P-51 Mustang.

In the 1950s, Lt. Col. Holloman became the Air Force's first black helicopter pilot. He flew in three wars — World War II, the Korean War and Vietnam. He later taught history at the University of Washington. But it was his experiences as a fighter pilot with the legendary airmen and the pivotal role they played in integration that Lt. Col. Holloman spent the rest of his life sharing with anyone willing to listen. He crisscrossed the country speaking to students and others, encouraging them to pursue Air Force and aerospace careers.

"He was proud that they'd proved that blacks were able to attain any goal they set out to accomplish," said Lesley Holloman, an Overland police officer. "The experience was very important for him to get out there because it's not in the history books. It became my dad's life goal to share that with people."  
In a Post-Dispatch story last year that examined the number of Purple Hearts the airmen had received, Lt. Col. Holloman talked of the urgency he felt to make sure that the unit's record was accurate. As airmen continued to die, he felt he was losing a race with time to set the record straight.

"History should be right," he said. "As right as we can make it."
 

 

 
 
 

 

For years, black aviation history, like most black experiences in America, has been relegated to the back pages of newspapers or to footnotes in books and journals.

Consequently, many aviation buffs have no first-hand knowledge of the black contributions to aviation. These contributions do exist, however, a very small portion been formally chronicled and documented. Because of this, American aviation is often perceived as an exclusively white profession.
OBAP
The Negro Airmen International
 
Number of Student Pilots Down
By National Public Radio (NPR)
STEVE INSKEEP, host:
Fewer people are becoming student pilots, and the Federal Aviation Administration is projecting a 10-year low by 2011. A shortage of pilots could pose challenges, of course, for the airline industry, as Melanie Herschorn reports.
MELANIE HERSCHORN: It's a sunny Saturday morning and a h and ful of small planes are coming and going from the vast grassy l and scape at Moyer Aviation. The regional airport is just outside Allentown , Pennsylvania .
Emily Loakes(ph) is a 19-year-old flight student who's starting the day doing what she loves: flying.
Ms. EMILY LOAKES: It's constantly what I think about. It's kind of like a sickness. I know that's going to be my career choice. Like, I just - that's the only thing I can see myself doing.
HERSCHORN: But Loakes is in the minority. Federal Aviation Administration statistics show the number of student pilots nationwide will drop to about 69,000 next year. That's a nearly 30 percent decrease in a decade.
Vern Moyer chairs the Flight School Association of North America and owns Moyer Aviation. He's been flying about 50 years and recalls a time before the Airline Deregulation Act went into effect. He says when the federal government stopped regulating fares and flight routes, the changes trickled down to pilot salaries.
Mr. VERN MOYER (Chairman, Flight School Association of North America): Before that, it was a really great, great career. Airline pilots back in the '90s were making - senior captains were making over $200,000 a year.
HERSCHORN: Moyer says pilots now have longer hours, lower wages, and fewer benefits. He says only about 20 percent of his flight students want to work in the commercial airline industry.
Mr. MOYER: And they're not all going to make it either, because of the commitment it's going to take - maybe 10 years.
HERSCHORN: Flight students are required to log as many as 1,500 flying hours before they can become airline pilots. Twenty-three-year-old Christopher Ashleman(ph) is doing what he can to get hours in the air. He's a full time flight instructor and travels from his home in York , Pennsylvania to tow banners along Florida beaches.
Mr. CHRISTOPHER ASHLEMAN (Fight Instructor): It's obviously unfeasible to buy the time, go out and rent an airplane, so you're forced to work for jobs like flight instructing, banner towing, flying sky divers, pipeline patrol. That's pretty much it.
HERSCHORN: Ashleman has racked up about $100,000 in loans to support his flying habit, but he isn't sure how he's going to pay it back. Pilot jobs can start at just $20,000 a year. When the economy does improve and helps boost the airline industry, a lack of incentives to become a pilot could lead to safety risks.
Mr. STEVE LOTT (International Air Transport Association): When airlines grow, you know, you can't just pick people off the street and put them in a cockpit of an aircraft.
HERSCHORN: That's Steve Lott. He's a spokesman for the International Air Transport Association, a trade group that represents commercial airlines. He says a smaller pool of qualified pilots could prevent airlines from exp and ing to new routes, and that could eventually hurt their bottom line. Lott says there's also concern a pilot shortage could force some airlines to lower their hiring requirements and bring on people with just the minimum experience m and ated by the FAA.
Mr. LOTT: You need to have a lengthy training process and you need to keep that pipeline full of applicants and people going through the training process.
HERSCHORN: Flight schools are working to do just that. They're beefing up advertising and reaching out to youngsters, hoping to spark the next generation's interest in taking to the skies.
For NPR News, I'm Melanie Herschorn in Harrisburg , Pennsylvania .

 

 

 

 

 
 
 

 
 

You may also make your Donations to NAI
(a 501 C(3) organization)
NAI
P.O. Box 2311
Savannah, Georgia 31403

Membership Application

Download Membership  Application Form Here

For additional information contact:
Sam Jones (912-376-0454 )
Clint Thompson ( 864-905-7823)