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Terry and I saw Red Tails Monday evening. It is a recently released movie about the Tuskagee Airmen, who were a group of negro pilots, aircraft mechanics, etc who were formed during WWII. As the first “African American” personnel allowed to join the US Army Air Force, they faced great discrimination, and many obstacles, but ended up with a very enviable combat record flying bomber escort missions with P-51 Mustangs. Terry and I attended a presentation by Col. Charles McGee at Oshkosh last year, and we were both very moved by his story. Terry hadn’t been aware of the Tuskagee Airmen until then, and she really wanted to see the movie. She also had developed a great attraction for the Mustang while at Oshkosh.

We enjoyed the movie, but even Terry noted right away that the flying and combat scenes were typical modern Hollywood “over the top”. They were very dramatized, and were completely unrealistic. But, if you can ignore that, and realize that it is not a documentary, the movie does provide a pretty good, very top level story of these great men.