Red Tailed Angel

This afternoon as Steve, Nathan, Jonathan, myself and Chuck were sitting outside at the Kokomo Airport enjoying the cool summer breeze, a car pulled up by the hangar with our 3:30 appointment. A woman from the Civil Air Patrol brought with her a tiny, frail African American man. He walked hunched over, with a cane, leaning on her as they slowly walked over. He couldn't have been more than about 5' 2" tall and 100 pounds soaking wet, was smartly dressed in white, with the words "Tuskegee Airmen" in red on his white hat. He didn't know why he was there-they had left it as a surprise for him-but as soon as he walked into the hangar and saw the Mustang, he went completely still. Lt. Col. Julius Jackson had flown the now-famous "Red Tail" P-51 Mustang during WWII as part of the group known as the "Tuskegee Airmen". They were the first African American group in the country trained as fighters, and while they were originally shunned, over time they had such an amazing record of protecting their bombers that they became known as the "Red Tailed Angels" and ended up the most requested fighter/protectors by the white bomber pilots.

Mr. Jackson walked around Nathan's Mustang, putting a hand on it here, talking softly to it, and just drinking it all in. When he'd had some time, Chuck and Steve helped him get up in the airplane. As soon as he was seated, his hands covered his face and he was overcome with emotion for just a few seconds, and then we saw something we've seen with other WWII veteran Mustang pilots coming to the P-51 for the first time in decades. He sat straighter. His eyes got sharper. He started telling stories, laughing, remembering. And when he got out of the airplane, he never even noticed that he was no longer walking with a cane, he was no longer hunched over, and he was no longer leaning on anyone. He even talked about the fighter jock walk, and he said he was a black fighter jock and he did this cocky little walk with his arm swinging behind his back, and he still had it. We've seen the Mustang become a Time Machine for these men before, and it is just an amazing, incredible, humbling, inspiring sight.

Mr. Jackson moved from the Mustang over to the T-6 and talked about how he'd trained in that airplane too. As I was walking over to the plane with him, he paused and said "Young lady, have you ever figured out why we do this? How to explain what it means?" I told him that I didn't think it was something that people could really explain. Either you understand or you don't. He agreed with me, and said "There's just something...it's just...it's almost..." and he threw his hand up, and I said "It's almost spiritual". He lit up again and said "And that's why you're a woman! You can come up with the right word. That's exactly what it is. I become one with that airplane, and it's spiritual." He then mentioned the line of a poem, "touched the face of God", and I smiled and started quoting it. He was amazed I knew it, but it's a poem I had on my wall for a good long time as a young teen, titled "High Flight". We talked for quite awhile over by the T-6, and we both agree that the best airplanes have sticks not yokes, among other things. :)

He thanked us all, and hugged each and every one of us, and said that he just couldn't tell us what this meant to him, but that only pilots would understand. He then asked for his cane for the first time, and headed back to the car for the trip back to Chicago, back straight, with a promise of coming back next year if he could. We all hope to see him.