| NJIPMS is saddened to report
that General Benjamin O. Davis, the leader of the famed Tuskegee Airmen
during World War II and the first black general in the Air Force, died on
July 4, 2002 at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. He was 89 years old. Davis, a native of Washington, began his military career during the era of segregation and led a unit of airmen that was credited with a major role in bringing about the integration of the armed services in the years after the war. He was a 1936 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy and son of Benjamin O. Davis Sr., who rose to brigadier general in the Army. In 1970, after he retired from the Air Force, Davis was put in charge of the federal sky marshal program designed to stop airliner hijackings. The following year, he was named an assistant secretary of transportation. Davis left the Air Force as a lieutenant general with three stars and was the most senior black officer in the armed forces. President Clinton advanced Davis to a full general in 1998, awarding him a fourth star. As commander of the 332nd Fighter Group, Davis and his pilots escorted bombers on 200 air combat missions over Europe during World War II. Davis, whose wife, Agatha, died this year, leaves a sister. Some of the NJIPMS members were fortunate enough to meet some of the Tusgekee Airmen during the Member's night exhibit at Liberty Science Center in May 2001. Learn more about General Davis at the following websites: Gen. Davis' biography on the
US Army website
|