Marion Rodgers
 | This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these messages)
|
Marion Raymond "Rodge" Rodgers USAF (b. 1923) was a member of the Tuskegee Airmen, a group of African-American military pilots who fought in World War II and were the first African-American military aviators in the armed forces.[1][2][3] He reached the rank of Lieutenant Colonel and served the Air Force for 22 years, commanding the renowned 99th Flying Squadron of "Red Tails" after combat, then working in management for NORAD and NASA. In his nineties, as one of the last surviving members of the Tuskegee Airmen, Rodgers continued to receive media attention as he shared his experiences and was honored at several public events.[4][5][6]
Early life and education
Rodgers was born in Detroit, Michigan, September 23, 1921. Until about the age of eight, he lived with his mother, Lois Rodgers, in Dublin, Georgia. In 1929, he moved to Roselle, New Jersey to live with cousins and an older brother, Raymond Rogers, who raised him until after high school. His interest in aviation started in Roselle when he was about nine years old, as he observed men who were running an auto repair garage nearby restore a damaged biplane. Rodgers developed a fascination with aviation, but there were few opportunities at that time for African-Americans to enter the field.
World War II
When World War II broke out, a program was announced to allow African-Americans to apply for flight training, so Rodgers, though only a high-school graduate, applied. He was selected but couldn’t go immediately. Tuskegee didn't have the funds to support all the selectees and he was in the Army anti-aircraft artillery for about three months as a Radar Operator, guiding the 90 millimeter shells to hit aerial targets. Initially he went for basic training not to Tuskegee but to Keesler Field, along with 200 other aviation Cadet-Selectees..[7]
Finally, they went to Tuskegee, the institute, as students. In May 1943, he was sent to Pre-Flight Training at Tuskegee Army Air Field. Preflight was difficult. Heads were shaved, West Point-originated verses memorized and recited and upper class-men exercised and tested their commitment. The recruits went to ground school every day for military customs, leadership, discipline, navigation, aeronautics, radio code, fuel management, weather, aircraft recognition, mathematics, physical fitness, etc." [citation needed]
Primary flight training in PT-17 (220 horse power) Stearman Biplanes at Moten Field. Charles “Chief” Anderson was the instructor for all black pilots. Rodgers flew the PT-17 65 hours. Then back to Tuskegee Army Air Field and closer military scrutiny, while they flew the Vultee BT-13A (450 horse power) for 80 hours in what was called basic training. It had much more power than the PT-17. It was easy to land, but challenged them in other ways, such as acrobatics and navigation. The advanced phase for the next two months included the AT-6 (550 horse-power), was much harder to land but easy to ground loop. Success awarded Second Lieutenant coveted Silver Wings. Rodgers was quoted in a biography prepared by Commemorative Air Force in its Red Tail project, as saying, "I made it, somehow, and was very proud. It was a segregated program. All the instructors in Basic and Advanced Training were white, but most were fair and conscientious. A few should have been somewhere else. "[8] Rodgers flew the P-40 (single engine fighter with 1150 hp) for eight hours, then shipped to Selfridge Field, Michigan for combat replacement Pilot Training in the P-39 Bell Aerocobra (1150 hp) for 101 hours and the P-47 Thunderbolt (2000 hp) for five hours.
Ramitelli, Italy was the next destination to join the 99th Fighter Squadron to fly P-51 Mustangs, the best fighter built during WWII. In 69 combat missions, He flew 370 hours. The pilots flew escort for B-17s and B-24s with occasional strafing and reconnaissance missions. Rodgers became commander of the 99th Fighter Squadron at Lockbourne Air Base in Ohio for a year before the Air Force was integrated. He was appointed by Bill Campbell who had followed Chappy James as commander of the, previously, all African American Squadron.
Specific Missions Flown
In an interview published by historian Scott Thompson, Captain Marion Rodgers described the August 12 mission in Southern France, August 12 and 14, 1944, by the 332nd Fighter Group: "My most exciting missions were strafing missions in Southern France, Rumania, Hungary, and Germany. Tuskegee Airmen destroyed aircraft, locomotives, ammo and fuel dumps, box cars, trucks, and even radar stations. Their passes approached 600 mph and they were hundreds of miles from friendly territory."[9][10]
“It was my first strafing mission," Rodgers said. "We went into the target area at 15,000 feet. I was number four man in the lead flight. Our leader brought us over the target, which were radar stations near the coast." Then he rolled his plane over on its back and went down on the target in almost a vertical dive. "I had been nervous up to this time," he said, "but when I started my dive it all left me. Now my attention was centered on bringing my ship out of the dive because it had gathered tremendous speed and the ground was rushing towards me. I still hadn’t located the target. I was slightly to the right of the ship ahead of me and I saw him veer off to the right rather sharply, but I followed the other ships ahead of me while still pushing my own ship through a near split S".[11][12][13]
“As my ship leveled out about 50 feet above the ground, I had a glimpse of something that looked very much like the picture we had seen of radar stations. I had a chance to hold my trigger down for two seconds, then zigzagged out to sea on the deck.When I returned to the base I found out that our flight of eight had lost two ships, one of them being the ship that had veered to my right. I had no vision of the flak." [14][15]
Later life
After World War II, Rodgers worked in the communications-electronics field. He worked in management for the NORAD/ADCOM and then "Space Command" communications-electronics duty requirements for 16 years, and as editor of the Communications & Electronics Digest, for NORAD. He made communications-electronics improvements to most major command, control and communications systems supporting the command mission.
Rodgers served in the Air Force 22 years on active duty, rising to the rank of LtC. He worked 17 years Civil Service and one year with NASA, as a program manager for the Apollo 13 project. After he retired from the military, he worked for 20 years as a weekly host on KKTV’s “Involvement” series, interviewing local talent and civil rights leaders. He was the head of the Inter-Governmental Relations Committee and eventually served as the chairman for a Task Force on Metropolitan Government.
He also participated in the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) locally and nationally, along with his wife of 65 years (at her passing Suzanne T. Rodgers. 01/07/1928--12/21/2013 [citation needed] They had two children, Denise Arlene Vosburgh, (9/23/1952), and Thomas Stephen Rodgers (05/11/1955--1994).
At age 92, Rodgers attracted media attention when he flew once again in a P-51, courtesy the "Wish of a Lifetime" Foundation.[16][17][18]
When the film "Redtails" was released in January 2012. Rodgers participated in several events of celebration, before and after the release.[19] In an interview with the Denver Post about the film, Rodgers noted, “Our airstrips weren’t as nice as the ones shown in the film. ” [20]
Awards and Commemorations
For his heroic actions during World War II, Rodgers was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross.[21][22][23]
Along with the other Tuskegee flyers from Colorado, Rodgers is honored at the Denver International Airport in a permanent exhibit with a poster size photo and his biography.[24] The Georgia State Assembly has formally named the intersection of US Route 80 at US 441 Bypass in Laurens County after Tuskegee Airmen Colonel Major Herndon Cummings, Colonel John Whitehead, and Colonel Marion Rodgers.[25][26] In 2014, The Non-Commissioned Officers Association gave Rodgers a World War II legacy medal.[27]
In 2007, Marion Rodgers was present when the Tuskegee Airmen were collectively awarded a Congressional Gold Medal at a ceremony in the U.S. Capitol rotunda. Senator Mark Udall of Colorado congratulated Rodgers and the other eight airmen from Colorado in a speech in the Colorado House of Representatives.[33]
http://dublinlaurenscountygeorgia.blogspot.com/2014/11/the-tuskegee-airmen-of-laurens-county.html
References
- ^ GROPMAN ALAN L, The AIRFORCE INTEGRATES 1945-64 2E , Dianne Publishing, London, 1978, p. 358
- ^ Joseph Caver, Jerome A. Ennels, Daniel Lee Haulman, The Tuskegee Airmen: An Illustrated History, 1939-1949, NewSouth Books, p. 182
- ^ Nel Lampe ,"Tuskegee Airmen break color barrier", Fort Carson MOUNTAINEER Feb. 25, 2011
- ^ Jerilee Bennett " Tuskegee Airmen Remembered", Colorado Springs Gazette, May 2, 2016.] Jerilee Bennett " Tuskegee Airmen Remembered", Colorado Springs Gazette, May 2, 2016.]
- ^ Hyoung Chang, Original Tuskegee Airmen Colorado residents Captain Samuel C. Hunter, Jr., and LtCol Marion Raymond Rodgers toss the coin for CU vs. Arizona game", The Denver Post, November 12, 2011
- ^ Andrea Stone, Tuskegee Airman shares experiences with Fort Carson WTB, U.S. Army News, May 1, 2014
- ^ Scott Thompson,"The Tuskegee Airmen of Laurens County", Laurens County Historical Society, , November 10, 2014, retrieved September 4, 2016
- ^ http://laurenscountyafricanamericanhistory.blogspot.com/2013/04/a-flying-man-of-tuskegee-sometimes-it.html
- ^ http://laurenscountyafricanamericanhistory.blogspot.com/2013/04/a-flying-man-of-tuskegee-sometimes-it.htm
- ^ Scott Thompson, "Flying Man of Tuskegee", Flight Lines, September, 2014
- ^ http://laurenscountyafricanamericanhistory.blogspot.com/2013/04/a-flying-man-of-tuskegee-sometimes-it.htm
- ^ Charles E. Francis,The Tuskegee Airmen: The Men who Changed a Nation, Branden Books, 1997, p. 134
- ^ Charles E. Francis, The Tuskegee Airmen: The Story of the Negro in the U.S. Air Force, B. Humphries, Incorporated, 1956, p. 103
- ^ ttp://laurenscountyafricanamericanhistory.blogspot.com/2013/04/a-flying-man-of-tuskegee-sometimes-it.htm
- ^ Charles E. Francis, Adolph Caso Branden Books, The Tuskegee Airmen: The Men who Changed a Nation, 1997
- ^ Tim Pompey, "Original Tuskegee Airman Gets Wish of a Lifetime", Tri-County Sentry, October 02, 2014
- ^ Jeremy Foster, "Tuskegee Airman Flies Over Camarillo", Ventura County Star, September 7, 2014 ]
- ^ "The Hero Next Door," Optimum Life Magazine, Vol. 4, Issue 1, January 2015
- ^ Coin toss at CU Boulder football game by Marion Rodgers and fellow Tuskegee Airman Samuel Hunter.
- ^ Lisa Kennedy, "Quibbles Aside, They Did A Real Good Job..." , Denver Post, January 18, 2012/
- ^ Leo D. Sullivan, Tuskegee Red Tails Graphic Novel, Leo Sullivan Multimedia, Inc., Nov 8, 2014
- ^ Erica Smith, "Tuskegee Airmen awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross," St. Louis Post Dispatch, Sep 26, 2009
- ^ http://www.afhso.af.mil/shared/media/document/AFD-101229-013.pdf
- ^ "Tuskegee Airmen," Wing Tips, March 2013
- ^ http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/20132014/139627.pdf
- ^ Scott Thompson, "The Tuskegee Airmen of Laurens County", Laurens County Historical Society, , November 10, 2014, retrieved September 4, 2016
- ^ Tuskegee Airman Honored for Service in World War II, KRDO News, February 8, 2015
- ^ https://www.commemorativeairforce.org/rss/253-tuskegee-airman-to-be-honored-at-caf-so-cal-wing
- ^ Tuskegee Airman Honored for Service in World War II, KRDO News, February 8, 2015
- ^ http://laurenscountyafricanamericanhistory.blogspot.com/2013/04/a-flying-man-of-tuskegee-sometimes-it.html
- ^ http://www.denverpost.com/2012/01/18/quibbles-aside-they-did-a-real-good-job-tuskegee-veteran-and-retired-lt-col-marion-r-rodgers-says-of-red-tails/
- ^ https://books.google.com/books?id=3BdLCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA134&dq=Marion++Rogers+Tuskegee&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjW8MnV8-_OAhVM7GMKHRX3DHwQ6AEILDAD#v=onepage&q=Marion%20%20Rogers%20Tuskegee&f=false
- ^ Congressional Record, June 7, 2007