National Parks 2023: Tuskegee Airmen National Historic Site

It’s time for the annual National Parks Club! Find out information about participating shops, Vacay Bingo, the KAL, and more here.

Where is it located?

Tuskegee Airmen National Historic Site, at Moton Field in Tuskegee, Alabama, commemorates the contributions of African-American airmen in World War II.

Whose land does it reside upon?

The Tuskegee Indians were a civilized people that had their own customs and ways of life. They lived not to far from were the Tuskegee Army Airfield was constructed. The Creek nations along with the Tuskegee Indians were forced from their homeland during the white man’s expansion in the 1830’s and 1840’s

When was it established?

1998

About this park:

The Tuskegee Airmen gained notice and respect as the result of a test conducted by the U.S. Army Air Corps (Army Air Forces) to determine if African Americans had the mental and physical abilities to lead, fly military aircraft, and courage to fight in war.

The Airmen were not just pilots. They were technicians, radio operators, medical personnel, quartermasters, parachute riggers, mechanics, bombardiers, navigators, meteorologists, control tower operators, dispatchers, cooks, and others. Also included were Caucasian officers, Native Americans, Caribbean islanders, Latinos, and people of mixed racial heritage.

The women of the “Tuskegee Experience” worked alongside male counterparts as mechanics, gate guards, control tower operators, aircraft fuselage technicians, secretaries, and clerks. There were three permanent female parachute riggers who were responsible for training hundreds of cadets in the correct procedures for packing and maintaining parachutes. Gertrude Anderson served as assistant to G.L. Washington at Kennedy Field where Tuskegee’s Civilian Pilot Training Program was based. She assumed responsibility for continued operation of the airfield when Washington was transferred to Tuskegee Army Air Field.