First Time

The first Negro fighter squadron in the Army Air Forces has seen action. This week Allied Headquarters in North Africa announced that among those present for the bombardment of Pantelleria was the outfit which began training at Tuskegee Institute (Ala.) in July 1941.

Between then and Pantelleria, the squadron had been the subject of many a row over its segregation from white outfits. Its officers, headed by the C.O., slim, tea-colored Lieut. Colonel Benjamin 0. Davis, Jr., joined in none of the debate, plugged hard and long at their training. By the time West Pointer Davis led his P-4OS into battle, white airmen were ready to admit that the outfit was good, that in aerial marksmanship (at which it had had an unusual amount of training) it was one of the best.

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