Tuskegee Airman sees new film about historic WWII unit

RICHLAND COUNTY, SC (WIS) - The film "Red Tails" is about the Tuskegee Airmen, an all black fighter pilot group who fought in Word War II.

90-year-old lieutenant and doctor Leroy Bowman watched the movie Friday afternoon at the Village at Sand Hill.

"I thought it was excellent," said Dr. Bowman.

He says it was an accurate portrayal of the 450 black pilots who learned how to fly through the army air corps segregated Tuskegee experiment.

We went into the service to prove that we weren't stupid. That was the main thing," said Dr. Bowman.

"The mentality was since you are not able to do the technical things like flying, you'd only do those things that were on the level of the thought," he said. "Thought was we'd be good at dive bombing...anything other than flying in the altitude over the area of war."

Dr. Bowman and his group broke down racial stereotypes and proved they could fly planes and serve successfully.

"without what was accomplished by the Tuskegee Airmen, the movement would have been another 75 years."

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