They entered World War II through 1940s Alabama, when even black soldiers had to sit in the colored section of the local movie theaters, and nobody expected them to thrive as pilots. The Tuskegee Airmen drew eager young black men, such as Wake County Commissioner Harold Webb, who spent two years fixing planes for white pilots before he even saw a black flier -- let alone a black officer.

"A lot of people didn't believe African-Americans could fly," said Webb, 81. "We were fighting two wars. We were fighting segregation, and we were fighting the Nazis."

Today, President Bush and U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will present the Congressional Gold Medal, one of the nation's highest civilian honors, to about 400 men who trained and fought in that celebrated squadron. Some of them are from the Triangle.

More than 900 airmen passed through Tuskegee Army Airfield from 1942 to 1946, many of whom flew 15,000 sorties over North Africa and Europe and destroying more than 400 enemy planes.

Many of the men being honored today are older than 90. Those from the Triangle represent a younger class that saw the war end before their rigorous training, meaning that they never flew overseas.

They reminisced about their experiences.

Chuck Stone, 82

As a cadet in the U.S. Army, Chuck Stone and a fellow soldier got kicked out of the mess hall one day because the sergeant on duty decided it wasn't going to serve blacks.

More than 60 years later, the memory is still etched in Stone's mind. It was a segregated Army and a segregated America.

"You accepted it, but at the same time, you pushed against it," Stone said.

That's why Stone, now a journalism professor at UNC-Chapel Hill, cherishes what the Tuskegee Airmen did.

"A lot of whites thought that, 'These are Negroes. They're inferior,' " said Stone, who will not attend today's ceremony. "We couldn't afford to fail."

Harold Webb, 81

Webb started his flying career at the controls of a Piper Cub, part of a government program to train black college students as civilian pilots.

Drafted in 1943, Webb went to Wichita Falls, Texas, as a mechanic for white pilots. It wasn't until two years later that Webb, still a mechanic, first saw black officers: Tuskegee Airmen flying P-51 Mustangs.

"That motivated me to do something else," said Webb, a retired teacher and administrator, now a Wake commissioner.

He recalls slogging through classes on physics, flight theory and aircraft identification in 1945, seeing fellow pilots leave for missions over Italy as he trained on twin-engine planes. "What we did led to integration," he said.

Walter Chavis, 83

Chavis remembers the hazing. Tuskegee's toughness extended beyond the training and combat.

"They'd have you dig a hole and put a cigarette in it, then you have to dig it up and find the doggoned cigarette butt," said Chavis, a retired plumber from Raleigh.

He followed his older brother to Tuskegee, hoping to find him after his plane disappeared over the Adriatic Sea. "I met a pilot who died this past year who was either on my brother's right or my brother was on his right," Chavis said. "But when they went out of a cloud, his plane was missing."

Chavis missed the fighting and lost his brother but relishes his memories and today's recognition.

"It means quite a bit to me," he said. "No money, but it's the highest award that can be given."

Stewart Fulbright, 87

Fulbright and his fellow pilots had flown practice mission after practice mission, only to see the war end a few weeks before they were to be deployed.

Next page >