Another Kind of Fighter

When H. Rap Brown was in diapers and Stokely Carmichael a three-year-old toddler, a group of fledgling Negro flyers shattered tradition in an unsuccessful attempt to integrate the all-white officers' club at Selfridge Field near Detroit. That was in 1944. Last week a veteran of that long-ago sit-in challenged today's hot gospelers of Black Power.

"I resent Stokely setting himself up as a spokesman for Negroes," boomed Daniel ("Chappie") James Jr., 47, now a full colonel and the U.S. Air Force's hottest Negro combat pilot. "That s.o.b. is leading too many kids astray. Under the guise of civil rights, some people set the racial effort back 100 years." James is vice commander of the 8th Tactical Fighter Wing based in Thailand, and already has 56 sweeps over North Viet Nam under his belt. Until it was adopted by Black Power activists, a black panther was his personal trademark.

Between raids north, James strafed ghetto rioters. "I'm not a nonviolent man," averred the massive (6 ft. 4 in., 230 Ibs.) ex-footballer, who has to be shoehorned into the cockpit of his F-4 Phantom jet. "I'm a fighter. But I respect the law of the country. The trouble with burning down your homes is that you can't really be free without a place to be free in."

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