Unit X: The Age of Franklin D. Roosevelt

Question/Problem 3: How did World War II affect people's lives?

WASHINGTON - They flew more than 1,500 missions, downed or damaged 409 enemy planes, demolished more than 1,000 targets, sank a German submarine with machine-gun fire and earned 150 Distinguished Flying Crosses - among other medals.

On 200 escort missions, they never lost an Allied bomber to enemy fire.

Their extraordinary World War II record provided the catalyst for the integration of the U.S. military. But until recent years the saga of these black fighter pilots, known as the Tuskegee Airmen, has been little more than a footnote in most history books.

For better or worse, however, the story of the Tuskegee Airmen is packed with the stuff that dramatic plays are made of. It started in 1941 when the Army Air Corps-- which had banned blacks on the grounds that they were 'inferior'-- reluctantly established a segregated base near the Tuskegee Institute to train black military pilots.

Black ground crews-navigators, bombardiers, gunners, radio men, mechanics-- were trained elsewhere and teamed with the Tuskegee pilots.