Washington, DC
WILBRAHAM – Tuskegee Airman James Sowell, 94, who lives at Wingate Nursing Home in Wilbraham, was unable to attend the 2007 ceremony in which the Tuskegee airmen were awarded the Congressional Gold Medal by former President George W. Bush.
On Wednesday the ceremony came to him at Wingate Nursing Home when U.S. Rep. Richard Neal, D-Springfield, presented Sowell, a member of the Tuskegee airmen who served in World War II, with a Congressional Gold Medal bronze replica.
Sowell received the medal in the company of his daughters, Adrienne Johnson and Zina Dickson and his wife, Mary Sowell, and other family and friends.
Neal said the work of the Tuskegee airmen is important “in our memory as members of the American family.”
He said the Tuskegee airmen, the group of legendary black aviators, played an important role in a dangerous time when the outcome of the war was not certain.
The airmen played a role in preserving the American freedoms of speech, assembly and religion, Neal said.
“Thank you, Sergeant Sowell, for your performance during World War II.”
This is “a glorious time,” Sowell, who has been blind for the past six years, said.
“Thank you, Jesus, and Thank you, America,” he added.
He told Neal that as a longtime Springfield resident, he was “on your side when you were running for mayor.”
The Tuskegee Airmen were recruited into an Army Air Corps program that trained blacks to fly and maintain combat aircraft. President Roosevelt had overruled his top generals and ordered that such a program be created.
Nearly 1,000 fighter pilots trained as a segregated unit at a Tuskegee, Alabama air base. Not allowed to practice or fight with their white counterparts, the Tuskegee Airmen distinguished themselves by painting the tails of their airplanes red, which led to them becoming known as the “Red Tails.”
Hundreds saw combat throughout Europe, the Mediterranean and North Africa, escorting bomber aircraft on missions and protecting them from the enemy. Dozens died in the fighting; others were held prisoners of war.
Sowell is in good company holding a Congressional Gold Medal. Other black recipients include singer Marian Anderson, athletes Joe Louis, Jesse Owens and Jackie Robinson, civil rights activists Roy Wilkins, Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King, the Little Rock Nine, Rosa Parks and Dorothy Height, and statesmen Nelson Mandela of South Africa and former Secretary of State Colin Powell.
As part of the ground crew which maintained the aircraft, Sowell said he spent many nights sleeping in the rain and snow and walking the shoreline.
He said his job “wasn’t easy,” and took him all over the world.
“I’ve been in many countries,” he said. Sowell was born in 1922 in Blockton, Alabama. He enlisted in the Army Air Corps and trained as an aircraft mechanic. He later served in the 332d Expeditionary Operations Group and was a member of the historic Tuskegee Airmen, the first African American military pilots and ground crew who fought in World War II. He finished his career in the armed services at Westover Air Reserve Base in Chicopee.
In 2007, Bush collectively awarded the Congressional Gold Medal to all of the Tuskegee Airmen in a ceremony in the United States Capital Building. The medal was taken to the Smithsonian Institution National Air & Space Museum.
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