BLACK SOCIAL HISTORY : AFRICAN AMERICAN 2nd LIEUTENANT EUGENE J. RICHARDSON. Jr D.Ed A TUSKEGEE AIRMAN : GOES INTO THE " HALL OF BLACK GENIUS"

BLACK        SOCIAL    HISTORY                                                                                                                                Tuskegee Airmen
		Eugene J. Richardson, Jr., D.Ed 2nd Lieutenant CLASS 45A SE. MARCH 11, 1945 WALTERBORO, ARMY AIR FIELD, GODMAN FIELD, KY. AND LOCKBOURNE ARMY AIR FIELD, COLUMBUS, OHIO, JUNE 1946  Eugene Richardson became interested in flight as a young boy in 1930 when his father and a friend took him along to see the Colored Air Circus, a group of Negro aviators performing an airshow in Mansfield Ohio. Driven by pure interest to fly, he decided to join the Army Air Corps in order to become a pilot. When he turned 17, he went to the Customs House at 2nd and Chestnut here in Philadelphia where he signed up to take a pilot qualification test. His father was actually against his decision to train as a pilot, but he eventually gave his permission and signed the parental permission papers needed since Richardson was still under age. He passed the test and a few months later at the age of 18 he was sent to Keesler Field in Mississippi for 3 months of basic training. From Keesler he went on to Tuskegee Army Air Field for 40 weeks of training(10 weeks. of pre-flight, 10 weeks of primary, 10 weeks of basic, 10 weeks of advanced). Tuskegee held the civilian contract for pilot training for the Army Air Corps at that time and had 42 Negro civilian instructors. White trainees went to different bases for their 10-week training segments. The Negro aviators stayed at Tuskegee for all 40 weeks. After Tuskegee, he went to Eglin for gunnery training and then to Walterboro, SC for combat training. At Walterboro, Richardson learned to fly P-40's and P-47 aircraft. While he and 37 others finished their flight training in March 1945, the war ended in the European Theater just 2 months later so they never saw any combat. Richardson is not sorry about that. " I didn't want to go kill anybody or get killed. I just wanted to fly." Of the 38 pilots in his class, 23 including Richardson graduated as fighter pilots and 15 as B-25 bomber pilots. His most memorable experiences as a pilot were his first solo flight, the first formation flight and the completion of his first simulated combat mission. He also recalled one flight during which he had to return to base immediately after takeoff because the oil temperature gauge pegged itself at overtemp. It turned out that the engine had completely lost all its oil. Richardson got the plane, a P-47, back on the ground before the engine seized. During combat training at Walterboro, the pilots flew twice a day, every day, weather permitting. A typical training flight would last about 2 hours with about 30 minutes of pre-flight briefing and plane checkout before wheels-up. Dr. Richardson was discharged in July 1946. He returned to Philadelphia where he finished his high school degree at then Temple High School. He did his undergraduate work at Temple and got his Masters' and D.Ed at Penn State. He pursued a successful career in education in the Philadelphia School System. He did not pursue a career in Aviation after his discharge from the service because, "there was nowhere for a Black aviator to go in the United States - only Tuskegee." An interesting anecdote: Richardson's son , Eugene Richardson III was also a fighter pilot, and is now the Boeing 777 Fleet Standards Manager with American Airlines. He is responsible for the training and certification of pilots for the 777, and all procedures for the aircraft in flying to airports throughout the world. Dr. Eugene Richardson resides in the West Mt. Airy section of Philadelphia and regularly visits schools telling the story of the Tuskegee Airmen.