Marion Raymond "Rodge" Rodgers USAAF (23 September 1921 – 5 December 2017) was a member of the

Tuskegee Airmen The Tuskegee Airmen were a group of primarily African American military pilots (fighter and bomber) and airmen who fought in World War II. They formed the 332d Fighter Group and the 477th Bombardment Group (Medium) of the United States Army ...

, a group of

African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American ...

military

pilots An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its directional flight controls. Some other aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are also considered aviators, because they ar ...

who fought in

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

and were the first African-American military aviators in the

United States armed forces The United States Armed Forces are the military forces of the United States. The armed forces consists of six service branches: the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, Space Force, and Coast Guard. The president of the United States is ...

. He reached the rank of Lieutenant Colonel and served the

Air Force An air force – in the broadest sense – is the national military branch that primarily conducts aerial warfare. More specifically, it is the branch of a nation's armed services that is responsible for aerial warfare as distinct from an ar ...

for 22 years, commanding the renowned 99th Flying Squadron of "Red Tails" after combat, then working in management for

NORAD North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD ), known until March 1981 as the North American Air Defense Command, is a combined organization of the United States and Canada that provides aerospace warning, air sovereignty, and protection ...

and

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeedi ...

. In his nineties, as one of the last surviving members of the Tuskegee Airmen, Rodgers continued to receive media attention as he shared his experiences and was honored at several public events.

Early life and education

Rodgers was born in

Detroit, Michigan Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at ...

, September 23, 1921. Until about the age of eight, he lived with his mother, Lola Rodgers, in Dublin, Laurens County, Georgia. His interest in aviation began when he moved with his brother to

Roselle, New Jersey Roselle (, ) is a borough located in Union County in the U.S. state of New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States census, the borough's population was 21,085,

World War II

Flight Training

When World War II broke out, a program was announced to allow African-Americans to apply for flight training. The American military at that time was still

racially segregated Racial segregation is the systematic separation of people into racial or other ethnic groups in daily life. Racial segregation can amount to the international crime of apartheid and a crime against humanity under the Statute of the Internat ...

. Rodgers, a high-school graduate, applied to the program. He was selected but could not train immediately. The

Tuskegee Institute Tuskegee University (Tuskegee or TU), formerly known as the Tuskegee Institute, is a private, historically black land-grant university in Tuskegee, Alabama. It was founded on Independence Day in 1881 by the state legislature. The campus was d ...

did not have the funds to support all the selectees so Rodgers was in the Army

anti-aircraft artillery Anti-aircraft warfare, counter-air or air defence forces is the battlespace response to aerial warfare, defined by NATO as "all measures designed to nullify or reduce the effectiveness of hostile air action".AAP-6 It includes surface based, ...

for about three months as a

Radar Operator Radar is a detection system that uses radio waves to determine the distance ('' ranging''), angle, and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, ...

guiding the 90 millimeter shells to hit aerial targets. Initially he went for basic training, not to Tuskegee, but to

Keesler Field Keesler Air Force Base is a United States Air Force base located in Biloxi, a city along the Gulf Coast in Harrison County, Mississippi, United States. The base is named in honor of aviator 2d Lt Samuel Reeves Keesler Jr., a Mississippi nati ...

, in Mississippi, along with 200 other aviation Cadet-Selectees. His primary flight training in

PT-17 The Stearman (Boeing) Model 75 is a biplane formerly used as a military trainer aircraft, of which at least 10,626 were built in the United States during the 1930s and 1940s. Stearman Aircraft became a subsidiary of Boeing in 1934. Widely known ...

Stearman Biplanes took place at

Moton Field Moton may refer to: People Given name * Moton Hopkins (born 1986), American professional gridiron football player Surname * LeVelle Moton (born 1974), American college basketball coach * Robert Russa Moton (1867–1940), African American educator a ...

Tuskegee, Alabama Tuskegee () is a city in Macon County, Alabama, United States. It was founded and laid out in 1833 by General Thomas Simpson Woodward, a Creek War veteran under Andrew Jackson, and made the county seat that year. It was incorporated in 1843. ...

. Charles “Chief” Anderson was the instructor for all black pilots. Pilot trainees then returned to

Tuskegee Army Air Field Sharpe Field is a closed private use airport located northwest of the central business district of Tuskegee, a city in Macon County, Alabama, United States. This airport is privately owned by the Bradbury Family Partnership. Formerly known a ...

and closer military scrutiny, while they flew the Vultee BT-13A (450 horse power) for 80 hours in what was called basic training. The PT-17 had more power and was easy to land, but the new training challenged the pilots in other ways, such as acrobatics and navigation. The advanced phase for the next two months included the AT-6 (550 horse-power), which was much harder to land but easy to ground loop. Upon completion of his training in February 1944, In a biography prepared by

Commemorative Air Force The Commemorative Air Force (CAF), formerly known as the Confederate Air Force, is an American non-profit organization based in Dallas, Texas, that preserves and shows historical aircraft at airshows, primarily in the U.S. and Canada. The CAF h ...

for its Red Tail project, he said "I made it, somehow, and was very proud. It was a segregated program. All the instructors in Basic and Advanced Training were white, but most were fair and conscientious. A few should have been somewhere else."

Missions flown

332d Expeditionary Operations Group - Emblem

During the war, Rodgers piloted 69 missions for the Army Air Force. In an interview Rodgers described the August 12 mission in Southern France, August 12 and 14, 1944, by the

332nd Fighter Group The 332d Expeditionary Operations Group is a provisional air expeditionary group of the United States Air Force's Air Combat Command, currently active. It was inactivated on 8 May 2012 and reactivated 16 November 2014. The group forms part of ...

: "My most exciting missions were strafing missions in Southern France, Rumania, Hungary, and Germany. Tuskegee Airmen destroyed aircraft, locomotives, ammo and fuel dumps, box cars, trucks, and even radar stations. Their passes approached 600 mph and they were hundreds of miles from friendly territory." “It was my first strafing mission," he said. "We went into the target area at 15,000 feet. I was number four man in the lead flight. Our leader brought us over the target, which were radar stations near the coast." Then he rolled his plane over on its back and went down on the target in almost a vertical dive. "I had been nervous up to this time," he said, "but when I started my dive it all left me. Now my attention was centered on bringing my ship out of the dive because it had gathered tremendous speed and the ground was rushing towards me. I still hadn’t located the target. I was slightly to the right of the ship ahead of me and I saw him veer off to the right rather sharply, but I followed the other ships ahead of me while still pushing my own ship through a near split S". “As my ship leveled out about 50 feet above the ground, I had a glimpse of something that looked very much like the picture we had seen of radar stations. I had a chance to hold my trigger down for two seconds, then zigzagged out to sea on the deck. When I returned to the base I found out that our flight of eight had lost two ships, one of them being the ship that had veered to my right. I had no vision of the flak." On another mission on December 3, 1944, Rodgers successfully

crash landed "Crash Landed" is the second single from pop music project Sweetbox on the album '' The Next Generation'', featuring Jamie Pineda as frontwoman. Georgie Dennis, Tom Barnes, Gavin Jones, Ben Kohn and Peter Kelleher co-wrote the song with Jamie. The ...

at the Ramitelli airbase in Italy. Korean-Citation-Rodgers

After the Korean War, Rodgers was a B29 bomber pilot and helped in military training of South Koreans.

Later life

After the war, Rodgers was the last commander of the 99th Squadron, assigned by William A. Campbell, before

racial integration Racial integration, or simply integration, includes desegregation (the process of ending systematic racial segregation). In addition to desegregation, integration includes goals such as leveling barriers to association, creating equal opportun ...

of the Air Force in 1948 and the squadron's deactivation. Following 22 years in the Air Force, he worked in communications for

and

. When the film ''

Red Tails ''Red Tails'' is a 2012 American war film directed by Anthony Hemingway in his feature film directorial debut, and starring Terrence Howard and Cuba Gooding Jr. The film is about the Tuskegee Airmen, a group of African-American United States ...

'' was released in January 2012. Rodgers participated in several events of celebration, before and after the release. In an interview with the ''

Denver Post ''The Denver Post'' is a daily newspaper and website published in Denver, Colorado. As of June 2022, it has an average print circulation of 57,265. In 2016, its website received roughly six million monthly unique visitors generating more than 13 ...

'' about the film, Rodgers noted, “Our airstrips weren’t as nice as the ones shown in the film.” At age 93, Rodgers attracted media attention when he flew once again in a P-51, courtesy the "Wish of a Lifetime" Foundation. Although a place was reserved for him at Arlington, Rodgers opted to be buried next to his son, Thomas Stephen Rodgers, in Colorado Springs, CO. He was born Sept. 23, 1921 and died Dec. 5, 2017. He was honored by a Tueskegee manned flyover of P-51s https://gazette.com/p-51-flyover-a-final-farewell-for-a-tuskegee-airman/article_a4c955b4-bed4-5d07-af1a-2c5e650bec55.html

Awards and Commemorations

For his actions during World War II, Rodgers was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross. In 2007, although invited and family offered support, Marion Rodgers was not present when the Tuskegee Airmen were collectively awarded a

Congressional Gold Medal The Congressional Gold Medal is an award bestowed by the United States Congress. It is Congress's highest expression of national appreciation for distinguished achievements and contributions by individuals or institutions. The congressional pract ...

at a ceremony in the U.S. Capitol rotunda. (He refused to leave his wife, Suzanne T., a juvenile diabetic.) He did receive his medal. Senator

Mark Udall Mark Emery Udall ( ; born July 18, 1950) is an American politician who served as a United States Senator from Colorado from 2009 to 2015. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously served in the United States House of Representatives, represe ...

of Colorado congratulated Rodgers and the other eight airmen from Colorado in a speech in the

Colorado House of Representatives The Colorado House of Representatives is the lower house of the Colorado General Assembly, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Colorado. The House is composed of 65 members from an equal number of constituent districts, with each distr ...

. Along with the other Tuskegee flyers from Colorado, Rodgers is honored at the

Denver International Airport Denver International Airport , locally known as DIA, is an international airport in the Western United States, primarily serving metropolitan Denver, Colorado, as well as the greater Front Range Urban Corridor. At , it is the largest airport in ...

in a permanent exhibit with a poster size photo and his biography. The

Georgia State Assembly The Georgia General Assembly is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is bicameral, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. Each of the General Assembly's 236 members serve two-year terms and are directly ...

has formally named the intersection of US Route 80 at US 441 Bypass in Laurens County after Tuskegee Airmen Colonel Major Herndon Cummings, Colonel John Whitehead, and Colonel Marion Rodgers. In 2014, The

Non-Commissioned Officers A non-commissioned officer (NCO) is a military officer who has not pursued a commission. Non-commissioned officers usually earn their position of authority by promotion through the enlisted ranks. (Non-officers, which includes most or all enli ...

Association gave Rodgers a World War II legacy medallion.

References

External links

Tuskegee Airmen at Tuskegee University

Tuskegee Airmen Museum
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rodgers, Marion United States Air Force officers Tuskegee Airmen People from Laurens County, Georgia African-American aviators Aviators from Michigan