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Call sign "Sub Soil" |
| In the first part of November of, 1941 the initial ground crew of the contingent of the 99th arrived at the partially
completed Tuskegee Army Air Field. On November 8, the flying cadets completed their primary flying training at
Tuskegee Institutes Moton Field. They were then transferred to the new army air field to begin training in higher
performance aircraft and military tactics.
After the attack on Pearl Harbor, the non-flying cadets, who had completed their courses in ground-support disciplines at Chanute, were commissioned after only a month of training on the line at the Tuskegee Army Air Field. The armament officer, one of the communications officers and one of the maintenance officers were eventually assigned to the 99th Fighter Squadron. The other communication officer went to base communications and the second maintenance officer was assigned to the AAF Service Detachment #99 as Commander and Engineering Officer. The 99th Fighter Squadron with 26 pilots commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Benjamin O. Davis, Jr., were hit with additional morale problems associated with racial discrimination by the failure of the Army Air Force to find an overseas base to accept the 99th once the squadron had completed all of its training. Successive deployment dates passed and the men were forced to continue to fly training missions for several months after they had satisfactorily passed all Army Air Force tests in preparation for combat. In April of 1943 the 99th was moved to North Africa and after a short period of theater indoctrination at Fes, morocco, the squadron flew to a base near Tunis and began combat on June 2, 1943. The 99th was called to battle during World War II. They fought fiercely over the Mediterranean area, not only with the enemy but also with the segregated style in the U.S. military such as White Americans telling the enemy that Afro-Americans had tails. Men in the 99th proved themselves to be truly outstanding American airmen and pilots. The 99th fighter pilots covered tactical strikes in support of ground troops which included armed reconnaissance, counter air protection, dive bombing, strafing attacks; and the protection of bomber from enemy fighters while on strategic bombing missions. In Europe they were joined by the 332nd Fighter Group. The 332nd had many nicknames including, Schwartze Vogelmenschen (Black birdmen), a name given to them by the Germans who both respected and feared them. The White American bomber pilots called them "Black Red Tail Angels" because they painted their P-47 thunderbolts and P-51 mustangs with distinctive blood red tail markings, and they never lost a bomber they escorted over Europe. The 332nd came home with 150 medals, including Flying Crosses, Legions of Merit, Silver Stars, Purple Hearts, Croix De Guerre, and a Red Star of Yugoslavia. The 99th Fighter Squadron, which had already distinguished itself over North Africa, Sicily and Anzio, was joined with three more Black squadrons: 100th, the 301st, and the 302d. The combine squadrons came to be known as the 332d Fighter Group. Stationed in Italy, the 332d Fighter Group destroyed enemy rail traffic, coast watching surveilliance stations and hundreds of vehicles on air to ground strafing missions. During World War II sixty-six Tuskegee pilots were killed in aerial combat while another thirty-two were shot down and captured as prisoners of war.
Constituted as 99th Pursuit Squadron pm arch 1941, Activated on 22 March 1941. Redesignate 99th Fighter Squadron on 15 May 1942. Inactivated on 1 July 1949.
Army Air Corps, 22 March 1941; Technical Training Command, 26 March 1941; Southeast Air Corps (later Southeast Army Air Force) Training Center, 5 November 1941 (attached to III Fighter Command, 19 August 1942); Twelfth Air Force, 24 April 1943; XII Air Force Support (later Tactical Air) Command, 28 May 1943 (attached to 332d Fighter Group, 29 May 1943; 324 Fighter Group, c. 29 June 1943; 33d Fighter Group, 16 October 1943; 324 Fighter Group 1 April - 6 June 1944); 332d Fighter Group, 1 July 1947 - 1 July 1949.
Chanute Field, Illinois, 22 March 1941; Maxwell Field, Alabama, 5 November 1941; Tuskegee, Alabama, 10 November 1941 - April 1943; Casablanca, French Morocco, 24 April 1943; Oued N'ja French Morocco, 29 April 1943; Fardjouna, Tunisia, 7 June 1943; Licata, Sicily, 28 July 1943; Termini, Sicily, 4 September 1943; Barcellona, Sicily, 17 October 1943; Ramitelli, Italy, 6 July 1944; Catolica, Italy, c. 5 May 1945; Lockbourne Army Air Base, Ohio, 13 March 1946 - 1 July 1949. Operations: Combat in Mediteranean Theater of Operations and European Theater of Operations, 2 June 1943 - 30 April 1945. Service Streamers: American Theater
Sicily; Naples-Foggia; Anzio; Rome-Arno; Normandy; Northern France; Southern France; North Apennines; Rhineland; Central Europe; Po Valley; Air Combat' EAME Theater. Decorations: Distinguished Unit Citiations: (Sicily, June - July) 1943; Cassino, 12-14 May 1944; Germany; 24 March 1945. Emblem: Over and through a medium blue disc, border of nine golden orange segments fimbriated of the field, issuing out a sinister
P-40, 1943 - 1944; P-39, 1944; P-51, P-47 1944, 1945 - 1949, |
99th Fighter Squadron