Members of the Tuskegee Airmen were on hand as the Oklahoma History Center honored an Oklahoma member of the famed air fighters. A life-size statue of Air Force Maj. Charles B. Hall is being unveiled at the center, 2401 N. Laird.
Hall was the first Tuskegee Airman to shoot down an enemy plane in World War II. After the war, he moved to Oklahoma City, where he worked at Tinker Air Force Base and later the Federal Aviation Administration. Hall died in 1971.
Attending the ceremony at the history were two airmen who served with Hall. From Detroit, retired Air Force Lt. Col. Alexander Jefferson (pictured), 85, is in Oklahoma for the first time.
"(A statue) in itself is a momentous occasion," Jefferson said. "Not just for me but for all the (Tuskegee) men."
The Tuskegee Airmen were the first black military airmen serving in the United States. They trained at the Tuskegee Army Air Field in Tuskegee, Ala. Nearly 1,000 pilots came from the Tuskegee group. -Scott Cooper
