CAPITAL CLOSE-UP

A BELATED
Then-1st Lt. Leo Gray, one of the original
pilots with the famed Tuskegee Airmen,
poses for a photo in his P-51 Mustang
after flying his 13th mission over Europe
during World War II.
By Steve Cox
CAP’s Tuskegee Airmen honored
with Congressional Gold Medal
Photo courtesy of the Red Tail Project
L
Lt. Col. Leo Gray of Fort Lauderdale,
Fla., likes to tell the story.
“They took that picture of me after I flew
my 13th mission, on Friday 13 April, 1945, in
plane No. 13,” he said with a chuckle, describing
a now-vintage photo of himself
strapped into a P-51 Mustang he
flew over Europe during World War II
as a member of the 100th Fighter Squadron, 332nd
Fighter Group, 15th U.S. Air Force.
But make no mistake. Gray, a member of Class
44G (SE) and one of the first black aviators in the
U.S. Army Air Corps, is far from unlucky. He lives a
charmed life these days. He even has a Congressional
Gold Medal too big to hang from his neck.
Gray, now active in the U.S. Civil Air Patrol’s
aerospace education mission in south Florida, joined
300 other original Tuskegee Airmen — including
Col. George M. Boyd, former commander of CAP’s
Kansas Wing — in Washington, D.C., for a national
celebration recognizing the famed black aviators and
their support personnel who overcame racial segregation
to become some of the most distinguished military
and civilian citizens in the U.S.
Civil Air Patrol Volunteer 28 May-June 2007