Montgomery, AL – Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley signed a proclamation honoring the famed Tuskegee Airmen. He said the unit of black fighter pilots fought both an enemy overseas and the enemy of racism at home.
Bentley signed the proclamation in a ceremony in his office Friday. It was the same day the movie ``Red Tails'' about the World War II heroics of the unit of black fighter pilots opened nationwide. Two surviving airmen, Lt. Col. Herbert Carter and Oscar Gadson, sat beside Bentley as he signed the document.
Gadson said when he first joined the airmen at a time of segregation in Alabama, it ``never crossed my mind'' there would be a day when he would be a guest in the governor's office and watch the governor formally praise the unit.
(Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)