Yes, but let's give them benefit of doubt and put the kill ratio at 2:1, it's odd though that they had no aces. Pretty good but probably not the best of the era especialy given that the bulk of their kills were from late 1944 to the end of the war when the Luftwaffe had already been beaten into a shadow of its old self and pilot quality going down fast. In operation Bodenplatte on 1 January 1945 it was obvious that even with a well planned operation that the Luftwaffe was already beaten. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Bodenplatte
It's a movie 'based on actual events' much like so many other movies. Why is that so wrong? Sure, most of us learned our history in school, heck even on the H channel, doesn't make the movie good or bad. The movie itself can do that of course. I remember way back when I saw Soldier Blue, at first it opened my eyes to how we plundered and killed the Native Americans. We didn't get taught too much about that side in school, more so these days I think. A movie based on real events. "Soldier Blue is a 1970 American Revisionist Western movie directed by Ralph Nelson and inspired by events of the 1864 Sand Creek massacre in the Colorado Territory. The screenplay was written by John Gay based on the novel Arrow in the Sun by Theodore V. Olsen (republished as Soldier Blue after the movie was released). It starred Candice Bergen, Peter Strauss and Donald Pleasence. The title song was performed by Buffy Sainte-Marie. In September 1970, Dotson Rader of The New York Times, wrote that Soldier Blue "must be numbered among the most significant, the most brutal and liberating, the most honest American films ever made". Wikipedia c
Don't give our resident racist, RCG, too much thought. He's only behaving the way he was raised and the way other rasicsts like Jessie Jackson and Al Sharpton with a national forum continue to promote to the black community.
So what did Tuskegee really mean historically? 80 pilots destroying 250 planes total air and ground obviously meant little in the course of WWII, so its meaning was symbolic in that sense. the fact that it keeps getting rehashed is proof of that. Consider that with only 80 guys, you were getting the best and brightest of the blacks available at the time since there was such a high symbolic value placed on that squadron. Todays military is considered by Blacks themselves to be a place where they a 'fair shake'. Having been closely associated with the military I can tell you that they get more than equality, affirmative action is alive and well. The military is 20% black, that tells you a lot right there. Interestingly though in units where quality and skill are not sacrificed for social opportunity, like fighter pilots, blacks lag far behind. I can tell you that the Air Force goes out of its way to find and promote qualified blacks, but unlike cops or firefighters they will not lower their standards. Sadly the results are predictable. Only about 2% of pilots are black. Now you can understand why blacks and Obama put such a high value on symbolism and exaggerating the real success stories. Blacks just have not been able to compete well in anything involving techical skill. I really don't want it that way because it means that there isn't much hope for improvement. We will always have this hating minority who will never stop complaining instead of producing. Note the ever present spin and tone in the article below, it is always white racism that's the problem. Will we ever be able to be honest? http://www.stripes.com/military-lif...ilots-land-in-air-force-navy-cockpits-1.11138
Nope, no hope. As of 2009 the percentage has actually fallen below 2%. Look at the dialogue though from black leaders. All the same shit, racism and slavery are why blacks cannot or will not perform well technically. This excuse making will NEVER lead to anything. http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2009/02/airforce_black_history_022109/
No not really, it was someone drawing my attention to obama's flyover thing. It is always Blacks that will draw attention to race these days. We could not just have a movie about a fighter wing in WWII, it has to be a movie with a social statement about race so therefore I am going to comment on race as I see it. I'd much rather just have a good war movie.
If Wikipedia is correct, race is the sole reason for this unit's existence. So the "social statement" was made back in WWII.
Correct, I should have said social statement about race relations today. I know that discrimation existed then, I would even pay that leftist jerk Lucas the movie cash to watch a well made movie about Tuskegee. But why is there such a large surrounding race context today in 2012? My point is that it is really depressing that this issue will not die a natural death as it should. The accusations and complaining will never stop, all we can do is keep throwing money at them. Consider the Japanese-american experience in WWII. They were actually put into prison camps. They also formed an all Japanese unit that fought very well on the ground in Italy. It's a good war story that we can look back on now and appreciate, however we don't get constant rehashing and racial accusations from them do we?