I know Luther. It's nice to see them get the honor they deserve. ![[smile]](/xen/styles/default/xenforo/smilies.vb/001.gif "Smile [smile]")
Eagle Tribune
Methuen's Tuskegee Airman a National Gem
By Jason Tait
Staff Writer
METHUEN — Miles away in Washington, D.C., President Bush announced the all-black Tuskegee Airmen would be awarded the Congressional Gold Medal, the government's highest civilian honor.
In Methuen, an old man wept.
"I felt like yelling yahoo, but I cried," said Luther McIlwain, 84, a member of the famed segregated unit, a corps of nearly 1,000 black aviators, who served during World War II.
They are known as much for their war heroism as breaking racial barriers in the 1940s. About 100 are alive today, McIlwain said, about seven of them in Massachusetts.
The Congressional Gold Medal has gone to such American luminaries as George Washington, the Wright brothers, John Wayne, Martin Luther King Jr. and Lawrence's own Robert Frost.
"We felt we belonged all the time because of our accomplishments," McIlwain said of being included in such distinguished company.
The Tuskegee Airmen faced two enemies in the war — the Axis powers and racism, said City Councilor Kathleen Corey Rahme, who is helping to organize a day in Methuen to honor McIlwain.
"They were fighting two wars," she said.
McIlwain saw his share of bigotry as a 22-year-old college student in South Carolina. Military recruiters balked at his request to become an aviator, telling him that black people could not fly. He even had trouble getting on trains due to segregation.
Eventually becoming an aviator was a major achievement, he said.
"Accomplishing what they said I was not capable of doing set the stage in my mind that I was capable of doing more than other people knew," he said.
McIlwain served as an instructor in the Alabama-based Tuskegee unit, teaching recruits bombing, navigation and weather observation skills.
The Tuskegee Airmen are among many military personnel to receive the Congressional Gold Medal, starting with Gen. George Washington in 1776. More than 100 individuals and groups ranging from athletes to soldiers to scientists have been awarded the medal.
President Bush last month signed into law congressional legislation conferring the medal on the airmen in recognition of their efforts during the war. The chief sponsors of the bill were Congressman Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., and Sen. Carl Levin, D- Michigan.
The Tuskegee medal will be kept at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., after President Bush presents it to the airmen as a group later this year. It is designed by the U.S. Mint and contains 15 ounces of gold.
McIlwain is unsure if he will go to Washington for the ceremony, but he will be given a special day individually in Methuen.
The mayor, City Council and Veterans Affairs Department are honoring McIlwain at City Hall at 10 a.m. May 25.
Discharged in 1947, McIlwain served two decades with the New York Police Department. He returned to his native Methuen, serving as the city's affirmative action officer and on several Massachusetts governors' staffs. He has taught courses on black military history at Harvard.
He lives in his childhood home in the East District, the walls and tables adorned with his Tuskegee Airmen literature and photographs.
Golden lives
The Congressional Gold Medal is the government's highest civilian honor. It is commissioned by Congress and awarded by the president. Here is a partial list of past winners:
George Washington, 1776
Andrew Jackson, 1815
Ulysses Grant, 1863
Wright brothers, 1909
Charles Lindbergh, 1928
Thomas Edison, 1928
Howard Hughes, 1939
Bob Hope, 1962
Walt Disney, 1968
Winston Churchill, 1969
Roberto Clemente, 1973
Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands, 1982
Joe Louis, 1982
Colin Powell, 1991
Billy and Ruth Graham, 1996
Navajo code talkers, 2000
Eagle Tribune
Methuen's Tuskegee Airman a National Gem
By Jason Tait
Staff Writer
METHUEN — Miles away in Washington, D.C., President Bush announced the all-black Tuskegee Airmen would be awarded the Congressional Gold Medal, the government's highest civilian honor.
In Methuen, an old man wept.
"I felt like yelling yahoo, but I cried," said Luther McIlwain, 84, a member of the famed segregated unit, a corps of nearly 1,000 black aviators, who served during World War II.
They are known as much for their war heroism as breaking racial barriers in the 1940s. About 100 are alive today, McIlwain said, about seven of them in Massachusetts.
The Congressional Gold Medal has gone to such American luminaries as George Washington, the Wright brothers, John Wayne, Martin Luther King Jr. and Lawrence's own Robert Frost.
"We felt we belonged all the time because of our accomplishments," McIlwain said of being included in such distinguished company.
The Tuskegee Airmen faced two enemies in the war — the Axis powers and racism, said City Councilor Kathleen Corey Rahme, who is helping to organize a day in Methuen to honor McIlwain.
"They were fighting two wars," she said.
McIlwain saw his share of bigotry as a 22-year-old college student in South Carolina. Military recruiters balked at his request to become an aviator, telling him that black people could not fly. He even had trouble getting on trains due to segregation.
Eventually becoming an aviator was a major achievement, he said.
"Accomplishing what they said I was not capable of doing set the stage in my mind that I was capable of doing more than other people knew," he said.
McIlwain served as an instructor in the Alabama-based Tuskegee unit, teaching recruits bombing, navigation and weather observation skills.
The Tuskegee Airmen are among many military personnel to receive the Congressional Gold Medal, starting with Gen. George Washington in 1776. More than 100 individuals and groups ranging from athletes to soldiers to scientists have been awarded the medal.
President Bush last month signed into law congressional legislation conferring the medal on the airmen in recognition of their efforts during the war. The chief sponsors of the bill were Congressman Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., and Sen. Carl Levin, D- Michigan.
The Tuskegee medal will be kept at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., after President Bush presents it to the airmen as a group later this year. It is designed by the U.S. Mint and contains 15 ounces of gold.
McIlwain is unsure if he will go to Washington for the ceremony, but he will be given a special day individually in Methuen.
The mayor, City Council and Veterans Affairs Department are honoring McIlwain at City Hall at 10 a.m. May 25.
Discharged in 1947, McIlwain served two decades with the New York Police Department. He returned to his native Methuen, serving as the city's affirmative action officer and on several Massachusetts governors' staffs. He has taught courses on black military history at Harvard.
He lives in his childhood home in the East District, the walls and tables adorned with his Tuskegee Airmen literature and photographs.
Golden lives
The Congressional Gold Medal is the government's highest civilian honor. It is commissioned by Congress and awarded by the president. Here is a partial list of past winners:
George Washington, 1776
Andrew Jackson, 1815
Ulysses Grant, 1863
Wright brothers, 1909
Charles Lindbergh, 1928
Thomas Edison, 1928
Howard Hughes, 1939
Bob Hope, 1962
Walt Disney, 1968
Winston Churchill, 1969
Roberto Clemente, 1973
Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands, 1982
Joe Louis, 1982
Colin Powell, 1991
Billy and Ruth Graham, 1996
Navajo code talkers, 2000
![[grin]](/xen/styles/default/xenforo/smilies.vb/041.gif "Grin [grin]")
