Tuskegee Airmen Quick Facts

There were 996 original Airmen. These included pilots, bombardiers, and navigators.

More than 10,000 black men and women served as their vital support personnel.

There were 450 pilots who served in combat overseas in the European Theater of Operations, North Africa, and the Mediterranean.

Of the Tuskegee aviators, 66 died in combat.

There were 33 Tuskegee Airmen who became prisoners of war.

They flew over 700 bomber escort missions and ended the war as the only fighter group to never lose an escorted bomber to enemy fighters.

The flight of a combat aircraft on a mission is called a sortie. The Tuskegee Airmen flew 15,533 sorties between May 1943 and June 1945.

White American pilots were not allowed to fly more than 52 missions, but black American pilots often flew up to 100 missions due to lack of replacements.

They destroyed 251 enemy aircraft.

They won more than 850 medals which included:

150 Distinguished Flying Crosses
8 Purple Hearts
14 Bronze Stars
744 Air Medals and clusters
3 distinguished unit citations

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