Charles McGee Archives - First Flight Society

Charles McGee Selected as 2024 Paul E Garber Shrine Honoree.

Charles McGee Selected as 2024 Paul E Garber Shrine Honoree.

By: First Flight Society, Inc

KITTY HAWK, N.C. – April 16, 2024 – The First Flight Society announced today that Brigadier General Charles McGee has been named the 2024 Honoree to be inducted into the Dr. Paul E. Garber First Flight Shrine located in the Museum and Visitors Center at the Wright Brothers National Memorial, Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina, USA.

This honor is selected annually by a high-level panel appointed by the First Flight Society, from among numerous nominations submitted from around the world as well as compiled lists of qualified candidates. The induction ceremony will be held on Wright Brothers Day, December 17, 2024, with a celebration banquet held on December 16, 2024, in Kitty Hawk. A portrait of McGee will be unveiled and presented at the ceremony on December 17th, 2024, celebrating the 121st […]

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Tuskegee Airmen

Inducted in 2004

Legends of Aviation

In spite of adversity and limited opportunities, African-Americans have played a significant role in US military history over the past 300 years. They were denied military leadership roles and skilled training because many believed they lacked qualifications for combat duty. Before 1940, African Americans were barred from flying for the US military. Civil rights organizations and the black press exerted pressure that resulted in the formation of an all African-American pursuit squadron based in Tuskegee, Alabama in 1941. They became known as the Tuskegee Airmen.

“Tuskegee Airmen” refers to all who were involved in the so-called “Tuskegee Experiment,” the Army Air Corps program to train African-Americans to fly and maintain combat aircraft. The Tuskegee Airmen included pilots, navigators, bombardiers, maintenance and support staff, instructors, and all the personnel who kept the planes in the air.

The military selected Tuskegee Institute to train pilots because of its commitment to […]