News first reported by the Montgomery Advertiser has spread fast about the recent discovery by two respected historians—one with the Tuskegee Airmen organization and one with the Air Force—that the famed World War II Tuskegee Airmen did not have a perfect bomber protection record. William Holton, historian for Tuskegee Airmen, Inc., and Daniel Haulman with the Air Force Historical Research Agency, have found combat mission records that indicate there were some aircraft losses. In fact, it appears they found the records at least two years ago. Author Alan Gropman told the Advertiser that it would take “more readings of those mission reports to settle this once and for all.” He also said that the loss of three or four bombers would be “miniscule compared to the losses incurred by white pilots who also escorted bombers.” (Read our 1997 article on Tuskegee leader Benjamin Davis by Gropman.)
Unmanned aerial vehicles and autonomous aircraft may provide a solution to operating in heavily contested domains such as the Taiwan Straits, according to a panel of expert who suggested operationalizing artificial intelligence for such purposes sooner rather than later. The group gathered virtually to help launch the Mitchell Institute for…