The USS North Carolina (BB-55) My all-time favorite warship. As an elementary school student in North Carolina, I donated nickels and dimes to save this ship back in the early sixties.

Tuesday, June 3, 2014

Deaths: Educator and Would-Be Tuskegee Airman

JOSEPH M. SMITH JR. (1927-2014)

As a soldier during World War II, Joseph M. Smith Jr. scored well enough on military flight tests to become eligible to attend the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, the first training program by the Army Air Corps for black pilots in 1941.

"But, while en route to Alabama to begin training as a bomber pilot, the war came to an end and the South Side native was sent home, where he began a long career as a Chicago Public Schools teacher and administrator."

he was a 1944 graduate of Tilden High School and enlisted in the Army at age 17 after getting his mother to sign permission papers to do so.  As an educator, he touched and influenced many lives.

And, speaking of the Tuskegee Airmen, Wednesday, FX is showing "The Red Tails."

One of Those Special People.  --GreGen

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