Benjamin o davis jr birthday
•
Benjamin Oliver Davis Jr.
General, U.S. Air Force
Benjamin Oliver Davis Jr. was born on 18 December 1912 in Washington, DC, the second of three children born to Benjamin O. Davis, Sr. and Elnora Dickerson Davis. His father was a U.S. Army Officer, and at the time was stationed in Wyoming serving as a Lieutenant with an all-white cavalry unit. Benjamin O. Davis, Sr. served 42 years before he was promoted to Brigadier General. Elnora Davis died from complications after giving birth to their third child (Elnora) in 1916.
At the age of 13, in the summer of 1926, the younger Davis went for a flight with a barnstorming pilot at Bolling Field in Washington, DC. The experience led to his determination to become a pilot. He was the first officer to get his wings from the Tuskegee Army Air Field on 7 March 1942.
After attending the University of Chicago, he entered the U.S. Military Academy in 1932. He was sponsored by Representative Oscar De Priest (R-IL) of Chicago, at the time, t
•
Benjamin O. Davis Jr.
World War II pilot & first African-American US Air Force general officer (1912–2002)
Benjamin Oliver Davis Jr. (December 18, 1912 – July 4, 2002) was a United States Air Force (USAF) general and commander of the World War IITuskegee Airmen.
He was the first African-American brigadier general in the USAF. On December 9, 1998, he was advanced to four-star general by President Bill Clinton. During World War II, Davis was commander of the 99th Fighter Squadron and the 332nd Fighter Group, which escorted bombers on air combat missions over Europe. Davis flew sixty missions in P-39 Airacobra, Curtiss P-40 Warhawk, P-47 Thunderbolt, and P-51 Mustang fighters and was one of the first African-American pilots to see combat. Davis followed in his father's footsteps in breaking racial barriers, as Benjamin O. Davis Sr. had been the first black brigadier general in the United States Army.[citation needed]
Early life
[edit]Benjamin Oliver Davis Jr
•
Benjamin O. Davis Jr. Collection
This collection consists of material gathered by General and Mrs. Davis over the course of their lives to 1993. The bulk of this collection consists of correspondence, newsclippings, and photographs relating to or received by the Davises, especially after General Davis retired from the Air Force. The collection is particularly rich in materials from the black press of the 1940s, documenting the response of the black community to the activities of the 99th Fighter Squadron and 332d Fighter Group during and after World War II, and contains a small amount of ämne related to the controversy surrounding the units' combat performance and the morale issues raised by the segregated samhälle of the 1940s. Most of the remainder of the ämne from Davis' military career centers on his own activities. Davis' tenure as the Director of Public Safety in Cleveland coincides with the activities of the Black Panther movement and the term of Mayor Carl Stokes,