The Long Blue Line (Winter 2021)

Bobby
Wilks
COAST GUARD AVIATOR
AND TRAILBLAZER
William H. Thiesen, Ph.D., Atlantic Area Historian
In the United States Coast Guard, there
are thousands of highly motivated men
and women doing extraordinary things.
These are the kind of personnel who have
steered the Service throughout its 230-
year history.
The model example of such a Coast Guardsman
was Bobby Charles Wilks, an African American
who led the Coast Guard toward greater diversity
in the post-World War II era by breaking color
barriers for Coast Guard officers and blazing a
trail for all minorities in the Service.
Bobby Wilks was an overachiever, attending
Stowe Teacher’s College in St, Louis, MO, and
serving as president of his senior class. He was
also head of the student choir and his fraternity,
and captain of the college track team. Wilks went
on to complete a master’s degree in education
at Saint Louis University, learning the leadership
skills he would later use in his career. A little over a
year after completing his graduate degree, he had
enlisted in the Coast Guard, received an officer’s
commission, and earned his aviator wings through
the flight school at Pensacola Naval Air Station.
Wilks rose through the officer ranks and broke
many Coast Guard color barriers. In 1956, he
became the first African American to graduate
from the post-World War II Officer Candidate
School. In 1965, he became the first recognized
African American to achieve a rank higher than
lieutenant. Coast Guard predecessor service
Captain Michael “Hell Roarin’ Mike” Healy, the
son of a slave and a plantation owner, became
a senior officer in the late-nineteenth century.
However, Healy appeared to be Caucasian and
he never admitted his racial background to others.
On the other hand, Wilks was always recognized
as a man of color.
THE LONG BLUE LINE WINTER 2021
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