More than 10,000 African-American men and women in military and civilian groups supported the Tuskegee Airmen. They served as flight instructors, officers, bombardiers, navigators, radio technicians, mechanics, air traffic controllers, parachute riggers, and electrical and communications specialists.

Support personnel also included laboratory assistants, cooks, musicians, and supply, fire-fighting, and transportation personnel. Their participation helped paved the way for desegregation of the military that began with President Harry S. Truman's Executive Order 9981 in 1948. The civilian world gradually began to integrate and African Americans entered commercial aviation and the space program.

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