First Class at Tuskegee

The original caption for this photograph reads: "The first class of Negro pilots in the history of the U.S. Army Air Corps was graduated at the Advanced Flying School, Tuskegee, Ala., today (March 7, 1942) when ‘wings’ and commissions as second lieutenants in the Air Corps were presented by Major General George E. Stratemeyer, Commanding the Southeast Air Corps Training Center.  Among the members of the class shown here listening to one of their instructors, Lieut. R.M. Long, left, are:  G.S. Roberts, of London, W.Va.; Capt. B.O. Davis of Washington, D.C.; C.H. DeBow of Indianapolis, Ind.; Mac Ross of Dayton, Ohio; and L.R. Curtis of New Rochelle, N.Y.  It is expected that they will be assigned to the 99th Pursuit Squadron, only Negro Squadron in the Air Corps.  Other Negro aviation cadets now in training are expected to be commissioned in the near future."