New book details stories of Tuskegee Airmen with ties to Arizona

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“Black Wings Over Arizona” is a collective history featuring the stories of 19 documented original Tuskegee Airmen who had ties to bases in Arizona after WWII.

For over 79 years, their commitment, dedication, performance and contributions were at the forefront of change as civil rights activists, civic leaders, educators and entrepreneurs in Arizona. The book also chronicles the heroism of 855 African American women sent to Europe during WWII to clear a two to three year backlog of mail for the American troops.

Colonel Richard “Dick” Toliver, a retired U.S. Air Force Fighter Pilot and author, joined “Arizona Horizon” to talk about his new book.

Colonel Toliver graduated from the Tuskegee Institute and was mentored, trained and commissioned by the Tuskegee Airmen. He graduated from “Top Gun” school and then flew 446 combat missions in Southeast Asia over two tours. Colonel Toliver retired from the Air Force in 1989 after 26 years of distinguished service.

The title “Black Wings Over Arizona” came about as Colonel Toliver said he “wanted to reflect the character of people, image of the people, the beautiful backdrop of Arizona which I love so dearly.”

“At that time [prior to World War II] no law allowed Blacks to join the military as pilots, officers, etc. so a bill was passed in 1939 that created a civilian pilot training program and it allowed historical black colleges and universities to participate,” Colonel Toliver said.

From there, Tuskegee Institute hired a man to build the training program at the school and they were selected by the program in 1941, that is the start of the Tuskegee Airmen.

Since Colonel Toliver wrote the book on the men themselves he wanted to know why they joined Tuskegee, the drive for becoming pilots, what experiences they had while being in that role. He was fortunate enough to interview and collect information from the children and grandchildren of the original Tuskegee Airmen. The other part of the book is based on the women who were sent to war to improve some failing proponents within the work of the soldiers and generals.

“They were given a 6 month period to unscramble the mail, they did it in 3 months. They did such a fine job they sent the next to France, by the time the war ended, they had sorted through and dispensed and distributed millions of pieces of mail, packages and so on,” Colonel Toliver said.

He says he was inspired to write this book because of his experience in the Tuskegee institute and the impact of becoming a pilot.

Colonel Richard ‘Dick’ Toliver (RET), U.S. Air Force Fighter Pilot

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