Benjamin O.Davis,Jr

Benjamin O.Davis,
Jr.

Benjamin Oliver Davis, Jr., who would become the first African-American general in the U.S. Air Force, was born in Washington, D.C., on December 18, 1912. His parents were Elnora and Benjamin Oliver Davis, Sr., the first African-American general of the U.S. Army. He lived on a number of military bases while a child and attended high school in Cleveland, western Reserve University, and later the University of Chicago. In July 1932, he entered the U.S. Military honorary society at westerly Point, N.Y., although the Academy actively discouraged blacks from applying.

small-arm at West Point, Davis, because he was black, endured four years of shunning. He had no roommate, no wiz ate with him, and no one spoke to him unless issuing an order. Nevertheless, he polishd in the sneak 15 percent of his class in June 1936 with a consignment as a second lieutenant of infantry. He was West Points first African American graduate since Reconstruction and, gibe to historian Alan Gropman, only the fourth African American to graduate from West Point.



Although he should have been able to choose which divide of service to enter because of his high class rank, when he request the Air Corps, he was told that there were no aviation slots and no black units for him to join. So he and his bride, Agatha Scott, were sent to racially unintegrated Fort Benning, Georgia, where he commanded a black infantry company.

In 1940, President Franklin Roosevelt decided to create an African American evanescent corps and assigned Davis to lead it. The unit, the 99th Fighter Squadron, more usually known as the Tuskegee Airmen, went on to distinguish itself in atomic number 63 during World War II. Probably the units greatest achievement was that it did not lose a single bomber to an enemy fighter during its 200 escort missions, which totaled about 10,000 sorties into some of Germanys some heavily defended areas. Davis entered Advanced Flying School in may 1941 and...If you want to get a full essay, order it on our website: Orderessay



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