TUSKEGEE AIRMEN RECEIVE CONGRESSIONAL MEDALS

Wallace C. Higgins isn’t a man who sheds many tears.

But on Veterans Day, as Higgins held his Congressional Gold Medal during a ceremony in Geneseo, Livingston County honoring the Tuskegee Airman, things were different.

“I can’t say enough,” said Higgins, 91, who left behind his education in the Kendall Central Schools in Orleans County in 1943 to join the U.S. Army. After aptitude testing and basic training, he was selected to be part of the Tuskegee Airman experiment in Alabama, and was trained in pre-flight at the Tuskegee Institute. “I don’t cry easily, but I do today.”

Now a retired Alfred University professor, he recalled one of his first early flights in Alabama.

“I flew over a circle of cows and they just looked up at me,” he said, laughing at the memory. “So I kept flying round and round over them, just watching them.”

Higgins was one of five Tuskegee Airmen honored on Friday at the National Warplane Museum in Geneseo.

In 2007, the honor of the Congressional Gold Medal was secured for all men and women involved in the Tuskegee Experience, the Army Air Corps program to train African-Americans to fly and maintain combat aircraft during World War II. “Tuskegee Airmen” refers to “all persons involved in the program and includes pilots, navigators, bombardiers, maintenance and support staff, instructors and all the personnel who kept the planes in the air,” according to TuskegeeAirmen.org.

Brooklyn native Herbert Thorpe of Rome, Oneida County, 93, joined the Army Reserves in 1942. He was commissioned a second lieutenant and earned his B-25 pilot’s wings in October 1942. He, like Higgins and many other Tuskegee Airmen, was unable to attend that original 2007 ceremony.

“Not being able to be at that original presentation; this is very special to me,” said Thorpe, who also received a Gold Medal for his brother Richard Thorpe, who was killed during an orientation flight in Italy in 1945.

“I have to thank so many people for this special occasion,” he said.

More than 200 people gathered for the event amid the museum’s historic warplanes and military memorabilia.

Rep. Christopher Collins, R-Clarence, Erie County, presented the medals.

To read the complete article, see:
5 Tuskegee Airmen honored in Geneseo (www.democratandchronicle.com/story/news/2016/11/11/tuskegee-airmen-honored-geneseo-today/93637848/)

Wayne Homren, Editor

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