The new movie about the Tuskegee Airmen, heroic "all-Negro" 332nd Fighter Group in World War II, called "Red Tails" sparks memories for its star Terrence Howard.
"These guys were real heroes, and real heroes don't brag about their exploits," Howard tells the Philadelphia Inquirer. "That's why very few people know that they helped save the world."
"I'd written reports about them in 1974, 1975, for my dad. That's how my daddy would discipline us," Howard continues. "My dad was big on education, so I grew up knowing about the black pilots who shot down Nazi jets, and flew the P-51 Mustang. For me, the Mustang was always the airplane, not the car."
"Red Tails," produced by George Lucas, brings to light the story of the Tuskegee Airmen who were "often called into battle to protect bomber pilots who had just finished hurling racist epithets at them," writes one movie reviewer. "The African-American Red Tails, so named because of the markings on their planes, stood up for a country that was mostly unwilling to stand up for them."
