Black Wings Tour: Lt. Gen. Benjamin O. Davis Jr.

Stand near the Tuskegee Airmen exhibit in the World War II Gallery. Benjamin O. Davis Jr., an aviation pioneer, is one of the most famous Tuskegee Airmen of World War II. Graduating from West Point in 1936, he became one of only two black line officers in the U.S. Army at the time - the other was his father. He received his wings in March 1942 after becoming the first black officer to solo an Army Air Corps aircraft. Flying the distinctive “Red Tail” P-51 Mustangs, Davis led the first Italy-based fighter group to escort bombers to Berlin, a distance of 1,600 miles. Approaching Berlin, they were attacked by 25 Me 262 jets, but the 332nd Fighter Group downed three of the enemy fighters. Under Davis’ command, the group flew more than 15,000 sorties against the Luftwaffe, shot down 112 enemy aircraft and destroyed another 150 on the ground. Davis retired as a lieutenant general in 1970. He was advanced to general Dec. 9, 1998, by President Bill Clinton. Davis died July 4, 2002, at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington at age 89.