Chief of staff pays tribute to heritage

  • Published
  • By Michael Briggs
  • 12th Flying Training Wing Public Affairs
RANDOLPH AIR FORCE BASE, Texas (AFNS) --  When the Air Force chief of staff visited here recently, it wasn't just about looking forward and to the future of aviation with unmanned aircraft systems; it was also about looking back and recognizing where the service has been.

Before Gen. Norton Schwartz stepped into the 99th Flying Training Squadron auditorium Feb. 19 to address a group of aviators, the Air Force's 19th chief of staff spent a few minutes with the unit's other honored guests that afternoon: two Tuskegee Airmen.

Against the backdrop of a hallway-long Tuskegee Airmen and African-American heritage mural, the general talked with the two local heroes, Dr. Granville Coggs and Dr. Eugene Derricotte.

Both men completed pilot training at the famed Tuskegee Institute in Alabama in the 1940s, and they regularly attend functions at the 99th FTS. The unit's lineage is tied to the Tuskegee Airmen, as it was the first all-black unit in the Army Air Corps when it activated as the 99th Fighter Squadron in May 1942.

Prior to meeting Drs. Coggs and Derricotte, General Schwartz visited the other end of Hangar 6 occupied by the 560th Flying Training Squadron. While there, he viewed the unit's heritage displays: a Vietnam POW/MIA Museum and Freedom Hall, a hallway lined with photos of former Vietnam pilot POWs who got the chance to fly with Airmen from the 560th FTS following their release at the end of the war.

General Schwartz paid tribute to the Vietnam and Tuskegee heroes' legacies when he addressed the aviators in the auditorium about the importance of teamwork in accomplishing the Air Force mission.

"It's a great example to have our two Tuskegee Airmen here, because the Air Force is a family where everybody matters," he said. "Every skill is essential and everyone has to play their position or the team doesn't succeed."

The chief of staff said a unit's heritage provides its foundation for future success.

"You have an organization in the 560th that kept the promise with our predecessors who sacrificed so much along with their families while they were POWs, and likewise with the 99th and the legacy of the Tuskegee Airmen," General Schwartz said. 

"When you think about it, we are all sort of sons and daughters of regular people, and yet look where we've ended up," he said. "That's because, from the very beginning of our Air Force, we were essentially a merit-based organization. It wasn't easy, but today, certainly today, with hard work, commitment, a great attitude and a whole lot of luck, anything is possible." 

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