The Tuskegee Airmen: Combat Motivation of the Lonely Eagles
Abstract
The Tuskegee Airmen, the best-known black unit in US history, played a pivotal role in the desegregation of the US military institution, and provided momentum to the civil-rights movement as a whole. However, conventional wisdom employs this as a point-of-departure, concluding that the Tuskegee Airmen were aware of the significance of their actions relative to the strategic-level civil-rights struggle. Is this leap of logic grounded in fact? The author explores the civil-rights movement of the 1930s and 1940s, the history of the Tuskegee Airmen, and the connection between the two. The research reveals evidence that refutes the conventional wisdom, pointing instead to initial and combat motivators more consistent with those found in research of other combatant groups. Finally, the author builds upon Kindsvatter's conclusions in American Soldiers: Ground Combat in the World Wars, Korea, and Vietnam to explain the pervasiveness of the debunked myth.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Mar 01, 2010
- Accession Number
- AD1020074
Entities
People
- Steven D. Sylvester
Organizations
- Air Command and Staff College