Many black aviators went on to fly in the Korean and Vietnam
Conflicts. Others weren't so lucky. During World War II, at Freeman Field
in Indiana, in March of 1945, 162 Army Air Corps officers defied their
commanders. When the black aviators entered the whites only officers' club,
they were arrested. They had defied an illegal order issued by the commander
of the 447th Bombardment Group. The commander had classified all black
officers as "trainees," and decreed they were not allowed to use the staff
officers club. Instead, the trainees, who had already graduated from flight
school, were required to use a second former NCO club housed in a run-down
building. According to Warren, it was only a ruse to perpetuate segregation
on the base.
"It was unconstitutional, and I wasn't going to take it." said Oliver
Goodall. "We decided to walk into the officers club, and 162 of us were
put under house arrest. When the war ended, they wanted to get rid of us,
and they started with the troublemakers, which included me."
Overseas the pilots not only fought the Germans, but they also battled
deep-seated prejudice amongst fellow countrymen. Lt . Col. James C. Warren
was instrumental in helping plan the protest and was in the first group
of officers to be arrested. His story is of historical, political and social
interest because nine years before Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., and Rosa
Parks ignited the nation by refusing to obey the segregation laws of the
Montgomery, Ala—101 of these black officers later refused a direct order
from their commanding officer to sign an indorsemenet to a regulation agreeing
to be segregated and discriminated against. Refusing to obey a direct order
of a superior officer in wartime was a violation of the 64th Article of
War. Done collectively, it was mutiny!
In mid-April, 1945 all charges against the 101 black officers were dropped
and the officers were freed. Three officers were accused of shoving a provost
marshal, however, and the charges stuck. They were held for trial. By now
the new commander, Colonel Benjamin O. Davis, Jr. was in command of the
477th. A court-martial was conveigned and it acquitted two men of all charges,
convicting only one officer, Lt. Terry for "offering violence against a
superior officer." The fine, $150.
A whole crucial bomber group of B-25 officers charged with mutiny for
entering the officers club. By now this had all slowed training efforts,
and an assault on Japan was imminent.
The maximum punishment for mutiny was death. Lt . Col. James C. Warren's,
USAF (ret) book "The Tuskegee Airmen
Mutiny at Freeman Field" is the account of this historical event. Defiance
of this and other unlawful orders such as by Navy ordnance crews at Port
Chicago, certainly played a significant part in the decision made by President
Harry S. Truman, in 1948 to issue Executive Orders 9980 and 9981, which
spelled the beginning of the end of official segregation in government
and the armed forces.
Although the last chapter of this "mutiny" had a happier ending than
others, some 50 years later the Air Force finally set aside the reprimands,
which haunted these men throughout their careers.
