“Anything we can do to give back to the veterans of the community, we’ll do,” said Jason Asher, manager of the Colony Square Cinemas 7. “There’s been a lot of interest in this movie. That unit made such a huge contribution to establishing African-Americans in the military.”
The film, produced by George Lucas of “Star Wars” and Indiana Jones fame, stars Cuba Gooding Jr. and Terrence Howard as leaders of 332nd Fighter Group, the first African-American aviators in the U.S. military. They were called Tuskegee Airmen because their training, segregated from white pilots, took place at the historically black Tuskegee Institute.
Although the group was initially only given cleanup type assignments, they eventually proved themselves in battle and became known as Red Tails for the distinctive paint job on their P-51 Mustang fighters.
“I thought it was great because having men of all races, colors and creeds is why we have the freedoms we have,” said Frank Huffman, who served in the U.S. Army during the Korean War.
John D. Butler, also a Korean War veteran, said the film reminded him of how a bomber squadron helped his unit capture a hill during combat.
“They told us, ‘Keep your heads down, we’ve got a bomber coming over and he’s going to take the top of that hill,’ ” he said. “We had no trouble getting to the top of the hill after that.”
Both Huffman and Butler said that even though the Tuskegee Airmen helped break the color barrier, units were still segregated during the Korean War even though they had basic training alongside African-Americans.
DAV member Cynthia Martinelli, who arranged the screening, said that she appreciated the effort to make the movie historically accurate even though the characters are fictional.
“They didn’t get the respect they deserved,” she said, “even when they came back, many of them didn’t get their decorations until many years later.”
Contact this reporter at (513) 820-2188 or rjones@coxohio.com.
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