TOP STORY>>12 Arkansans on record as trained at Tuskegee between 1941-1946

Of the more than 900 African-American Army Air Corp cadets, personnel and support staff trained at Alabama’s Tuskegee Institute between 1941 and 1946, 12 are documented Arkansans.

Woodrow Crockett, a Dunbar High School graduate; William Mattison, who attended Pine Street School in Conway and the former Arkansas A&M College – now University of Arkansas at Monticello; Herbert Clark of Pine Blue and Richard Caesar, born in Lake Village, successfully completed training at Tuskegee and became World War II fighter pilots.

Granville Coggs, a Pine Bluff native, served as a weather observer until 1946. Jerry Hodges Jr., born in Heth, served as a base statistical control officer and administrative assistant to the director of the Twin Engine Flight Training Program.

James Ewing, of Helena, and Denny Jefferson, of Little Rock, served at flight officers. Both were killed, along with five other crew members, when their B-25bomber crashed four miles east of Gunter Field in June 1945.

Alexander Anderson, served as a one of the first African-American paratroopers. He executed the first parachute jump at Tuskegee, becoming a pioneer in the use of parachutes.

Milton Crenchaw, born in Little Rock, was one of the first African Americans trained as a civilian licensed pilot.

Little is known about Marsille Reed, a Tillar native, and Aurelius Perkins other than they were early Arkansans at Tuskegee Institute program.

(Information courtesy of www.encyclopediaofarkansas.com)