Washington, D.C.
More than 60 years after their wartime service, members of the Tuskegee Airmen, an all-black fighter squadron, were honored last week by Congress and President Bush. In a ceremony in the Capitol Rotunda, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Michigan Sen. Carl Levin awarded nearly 300 surviving airmen the Congressional Gold Medal, the nation’s highest civilian honor. In a separate ceremony, President Bush offered the airmen a salute to “help atone for all the unreturned salutes and unforgivable indignities” they suffered. Formed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt over the objections of his top generals, the Tuskegee Airmen were famed for the skill with which they flew their red-tailed P-51 fighter planes during World War II. “It’s never too late,” said retired Col. Elmer Jones, 89, of Arlington, Va., “for your country to say that you’ve done a great job for us.”
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