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Hello and welcome to the Charles Young Buffalo Soldiers National Monument Veterans Podcast. I'm
your host, ranger Tom Engberg. today we relaunch the parks Veteran Podcast with a very special
episode featuring famed Tuskegee Airman, general Charles E. McGee. his incredible service record of
409 combat missions took him over the battlefields of Europe and Korea and the jungles of Vietnam.
General McGee's career spanned nearly 30 years and saw him in two branches of the military. the U.S.
Army Air Corps and the U.S. Air Force. he received the Bronze Star and the Distinguished Flying
Cross among many other decorations. Sadly, general McGee passed away at the age of 102 years old
onJanuary 16, 2022. Fortunately, we were able to sit down with this true American hero in 2021
with the help of our partners at BPI Productions. In quite possibly his last interview ,general
McGee sat down with us and spoke at length about his military service and also about his
personal experiences throughout life. Before we get started, we have two special introductions for you.
First, allow me to introduce Deputy Regional Director, Mr. Rick Clark. Deputy Regional Director...
Good day, my name is Rick Clark. I'm the Deputy Regional Director for the National
Park Service serving in Interior regions three, four and five, the legacy midwest region, if you will.
One of the parks that I'm honored to be able to have a managerial oversight role in is the
Charles Young Buffalo Soldiers National Monument. The park has been involved in doing a series
of podcasts featuring different veterans that can be forever memorialized for future generations.
The National Park Service prides itself in conducting oral histories as it really
tears to the core mission of our purpose and what we're all about to preserve those voices
and their perspective not only now but for future generations. It is a distinct pleasure,
privilege and honor for me to do the prelude of this next podcast which features General McGee
and the service that he performed on behalf of our country and the armed forces, We appreciate
everything that General McGee did on the country's behalf and i believe you will find this podcast to
be very informative as well as we want to thank him for his honorable service that he provided
over the course of his 102 years of life. Thank you very much and enjoy the following podcast.
Thank you, Deputy Regional Director Clark. Next, Charles Young Buffalo Soldiers National Monument
Superintendent Mr. Robert Stewart would like to express his gratitude for General McGee. Superintendent Stewart...
Thanks Tom. Hello and good day. I'm Robert Stewart the superintendent
here at the Charles Young Buffalo Soldiers National Monument located in Wilberforce, Ohio.
You're getting ready to take part in our Veterans Podcast and we are also highlighting today
General Charles McGee of the Tuskegee Airmen. I had the opportunity to sit down and talk to General
McGee several years ago when I was a ranger at the Tuskegee Airman National Historical Site.
It was great to speak with him. It felt more like a conversation with a family member rather than
an interview or a documentary. He opened up about his life, he opened up about his service, and he
also shared what it meant for him to serve our nation. I wanted this time to thank General McGee.
He helped me get a deeper understanding of what it was to be a Tuskegee Airman
and what it was to serve our nation during world war 2. So sit back and relax, I hope you enjoy
this podcast the same way i enjoyed my sit down with General McGee. All the best.
Thank you, Superintendent Stewart. We encourage you to explore and learn about the life and legacies of not only General
McGee but the countless other men and women of the famed Tuskegee Airmen. If you're not already
familiar with their stories we're sure that you'll find them inspiring, sobering, and patriotic. Now,
we present to you the special episode of the Veterans Podcast featuring General Charles E. McGee.
My dad was in Gary, Indiana at the time and because of my birthday and Christmas coming I was home
for from from college but i was with the Coleridge Taylor glee club driving from Gary,
Indiana to South Chicago for five o'clock evening program. I think it was a few minutes after four
the message came over of what was taking place and we of course nothing we could do about
it where we were. We went went on with our program but literally uh got it over the radio on a
trip from Gary to South Chicago. As I say we were prepared for a program and so
we didn't change our minds on that we'd just say I guess you'd say oh boy but go on with
what we're doing and who knew that more information would be coming down the line.
To be truthful I have to say I was avoiding the draft. I was in ROTC in college,
learned to handle the rifle and Pershing rifles program because I was in school. My draft board
fortunately wasn't calling my number or at least occasionally they did but they didn't get to me.
So had I been drafted I'm sure it would have been in the Army with the
rifle that would be on the ground it wasn't very inviting but I learned of the flying program
and decided to go that route. But after my ride I was hooked I knew i'd made the right decision.
First time I was in an airplane when I went down to Tuskegee, Alabama and the Moten Field.
Got into a PT-17 I'd never been in a plane or kicked a tire before that and that was
in october of 42. My first flight well we had pre-flight and then so it would be in January
because December in the first few weeks and I skipped upper pre flight I think
probably because of my ROTC training and and ended up graduating in 30 June 43.
but uh,
We had this 17 at Moten Field which uh Tuskegee Institute got for the training and that's where
Chief Anderson became the head flight training that that the the flying that was taking place.
Before they got the contract for the Tuskegee Airmen, Chief Anderson was well,
Tuskegee Institute had a very successful civilian pilot training program and he was with that group.
Interesting, Army said we can't fly but they were allowed to contract the primary
phase of military training to a civilian pilot training school. Tuskegee Institute, here we are!
Applied and got the job so we can't fly by combat, instructor, black pilot, uh, amazing. Well sometimes
what they say action speaks louder than words. Has a focus there I think, but Black
pilots trained us in our primary training in that PT-17 and of course the military side of the flying,
there were the white pilots but not in primary. They were at Tuskegee Army Airfield, so we were
with Tuskegee Institute during primary, shipped out to the airfield and that's when we had our
first contact with the with the Black pilots and of course, they're the ones that with with military
experience a flying experience and and certainly that was appropriate too to the
what we were there for. To become, at that time, Army Air Corps and then later, Air Force pilots.
We left uh the states by boat into the Mediterranean Theater and we went into uh
Italy was our destination and and and our the site for our bases throughout our tour all of 1944.
In August 44 I had uh I just shot down a Focke Wulf that had tried to penetrate the
bombers that we were escorting. The way we operated the flight lead depending on where
if an aircraft was being aggressive determined who what you you know just about eye on my wingman
because you always had a wingman with you but it doesn't need my element to
chase them off and they didn't he thought he could dive away but uh we were able to stay on his tail
and as I say, see somewhere in our jinking, as we called it, around I I've always said if he
turned left I don't think I'd have got him but he turned right and he was right in my
gunsight line and we ended up over the airfield. The plane crashed on the airfield.
I don't know whether the pilot survived or not. We had many missions in the Ploesti oil
fields and of course that was the key there, to destroy the war making potential. Once we had
destroyed their production then we had fighter sweeps and then we probably
had destroyed more aircraft on the ground that couldn't get in the air.
When we weren't on an escort mission or weather kept the bombers from certain targets we were
given a free free run to we caught something on the ground to destroy
many aircraft and equipment on the ground as well.
Thank you for joining us for this episode of the Veterans Podcast.
We look forward to seeing you for segment two of this very special episode
featuring General Charles E. McGee. Until then, I'm ranger Tom Engberg. Stay healthy, stay safe.
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