At the Museum of Flying, Santa Monica Airport. Celebrating the 60th Anniversary of the (North American Aviation) P-51 Mustang... from which the Ford Mustang inherited its name... there were two WWII P-51Ds on display (and one very rare P-51A), over 150 Ford and Shelby Mustangs and one 4000-Series Shelby Cobra. Camee and Christi Edelbrock were there to grace the event with their presence, and to sign autographs.

The Legendary Airmen and The Late Night Host!

It was only three weeks ago that I commenced the Cobra Day 2000 feature article with a photo of Carroll Shelby and Jay Leno together, jointly welcoming the throng of Shelby Enthusiasts to the Lynn Park/Petersen Museum bash.

At the Mustang Wings & Wheels Expo, while I was capturing on film those Tuskegee Airmen (seated and standing above) there seemed to be some commotion in the background of my viewfinder; it was Jay Leno extending his personal appreciation to those WWII flyers. I'll provide a little more background on these aging aerial legends at this end of this photo coverage.

Due to my quite punishing schedule, my time at the event was limited and my photo coverage, accordingly, is somewhat abbreviated, but I did manage to capture a few of the event's major highlights...

The Saleen solution, CHP-style: If you recognize this California Highway Patrol pursuit car as a Saleen Mustang, you're mostly correct; it's actually a one-of-a-kind Saleen machine, personally owned by a California Highway patrolman, which he permits the department to use for promotional purposes. Hot-linked image.

The cockpit of that CHP/Saleen.

 

Above: CSX-4089 was on display by its owner, with a dashboard signed by
Carroll Shelby, Bob Bondurant, et al.

Peering down on a sampling of the Ford Mustangs and Shelby Mustangs from the Museum's second level. Hot-linked image.
     

above: the Mustang that started it all... without this war-winning flyin' machine (it was the British who christened it 'Mustang,' incidentally), Ford Motor Company would've probably named its drivin' machine something decidedly less memorable.

 The Tuskegee Airmen in this photo include: Lowell Steward (closest to the camera); further down the table in white shirt & tie Samuel Hughes of Los Angeles; William Pitts of Los Angeles; Charles Foreman of Los Angeles, whose brother Walter was also a fighter pilot during WWII, and Andrew Simon at the far end of the table.

The Tuskegee Airmen

If you're not acquainted with the history surrounding the renowned "Tuskegee Airmen," pull up a chair. Here it is in much-condensed form; historical data provided in large measure by (Tuskegee/retired) Col..William J. Smith:

Amid the rigid pattern of racial prejudice and segregation that still prevailed in the United States during World War.II, an experiment was inaugurated by the Roosevelt administration and the Pentagon to train young African-American men as airmen/officers; 992 of these aviators were trained at the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, and at an isolated training complex and airfield near the college. The first class graduated on 7 March 1942. Those young airmen trainees were up against not just one, but two adversaries: the Axis enemies overseas, and rampant racial prejudice and denied-opportunities in their own country. Briefly put, they excelled in their training and in their subsequent service roles.

Under the command of (then Colonel) Benjamin O. Davis, 450 "Tuskegee Airmen" black fighter pilots fought in the aerial war over North Africa, Sicily and Europe. They piloted, in succession, P-40 Warhawk, P-39 Air.Cobra, P-47 Thunderbolt and P-51 Mustang fighter aircraft. They flew 15,553 sorties and completed 1,578 missions with the 12th Tactical and 15th U.S. Army Air Force. Think about it: with those P-39s and P-51s on their combat record, these guys were squaring off their Cobras and Mustangs against The Luftwaffe's Messerschmitt 109s and Focke-Wulf 190s at a time when the Shelby/Ferrari duel wasn't yet a twinkle in ol' Carroll's eye...

Their German adversaries labeled these airmen "die schwarze Vogelmenschen" (the black birdmen) by the Germans who both respected and feared them. White American bomber crews reverently referred to them as "the black redtailed angels" because of the trademark red paint on their aircrafts' tail assemblies and because of their unparalleled record for losing not a single bomber to enemy fighters as they provided fighter escort for B17 Fortresses and B24 Liberators on bombing missions over Europe. Of those Tuskegee pilots, 66 were killed in action and another 32 were shot down behind enemy lines and taken as POWs by the Germans. Col..Davis eventually rose to the rank of Lt..General... the nation's highest-ranking African-American military officer at the time.

It'd be nice if you'd take the time to email Colonel Bill Smith and express your gratitude for what he and his fellow Tuskegee Airmen accomplished for you and me... on both of their fighting fronts...

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