World War II: Tuskegee Airmen

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World War II: The Forces Awaken
During World War II, the following are special fighting forces that influenced the war greatly:
Tuskegee Airmen is the popular name of a group of African-American military pilots (fighter and bomber) who fought in World War II. As their name may suggest, the pilots were trained in Tuskegee, Alabama. The Army had resisted using black men as pilots but, in response to a pending lawsuit, they created a segregated unit for them. The experiment involved training black pilots and ground support members who originally formed the 99th Pursuit Squadron. The squadron, quickly dubbed as the Tuskegee Airmen, was activated on March 22, 1941 and redesignated the 99th Fighter Squadron on May 15, 1942. They also formed the 332nd …show more content…
When the army announced that young nisei, American-born children of the Japanese immigrants, can join their own regimental combat unit, hundreds leave internment camps to enlist. But many issei, immigrants from Japan, objected to their sons fighting and possibly dying for a country which had stripped them of their rights. However, thousands of the nisei men did join them and they had their own reasons in which their parents often failed to comprehend. Members of the 442 Regimental Combat team were anxious to prove loyalty to their country of birth and to defy prejudice towards legal aliens in their country and a lot of them no longer wanted to be questioned who they were and where they were going. In June 1944, fully formed 442 Regimental Combat team leave for duty in Europe. They became known as the most decorated unit in the entire U.S. Army. It’s men won over 18,000 decorations. They also won a congressional medal of honor for extraordinary bravery under fire, one of only 29 awarded during the …show more content…
Though they were barred from combat, many jobs in the army wrrr administrative and clerical. This made more men available for combat. When congress first allowed women in the military into the military in May 1942, it established the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) and appointed Oveta Culp Hobby to serve as its first director. Although pleased the establishment, many women were unhappy that they were not part of the regular army. Over a year later, the army replaced the WAAC with the Women's Army Corps (WAC). Pilot Jackie Cochran and commander Nancy Love felt as if women should also be able to deliver planes.In 1942 training program began and in 1943 the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASPS) began. WASPS was a paramilitary organization that had 25,000 women apply to serve in the war. Of those 25,000 women only 1,900 were accepted and of the 1,900, only 1,074 women earned their wings and became the first women to fly American military
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