All language subtitles for The_Real_Red_Tails_2024[_60285]

Isn't that something?

Yeah, it is.

Boy,
what a small world.

Everything had to be perfect.

The instructor gave me a
maneuver to practice until

my next check ride.

I practice, practice, practice
until I got it perfect.

I'm having a
birthday party next year.

The 100th?

Huh?

- 100?
- Yeah.

You fly along
and the sky is so tranquil.

And then all of
a sudden: bang!

And here's an 88 anti-aircraft
shell that might explode

right next to you.

Each one of
us wanted to be the best.

You get all
those best together.

You've got quite
an organization.

And that's what we had.

We painted
not only the rudder, but

the whole damn tail red.

And so became known
as the "Red Tails."

And it was just a symbol.

Because people started talking
about, "The Real Red Tails."

In the waters
of Lake Huron,

lies a P-39 Airacobra

flown during a Tuskegee
training mission in 1944.

Hey there!

Please stand by.

.

Let me
know when there are 12 there.

I got it.

You ready?

You ready?

A recovery team is
piecing together what happened

in these waters
all those years ago.

How many
people know that there are

World War II assets and
archeological sites in America,

no less in the Great Lakes?

Wayne Lusardi
and Brian Smith...

Gary, do
you want to zip me up?

...partnered up six
years ago and they've been

dedicated to this unique
chapter of America's

first Black military
airmen ever since.

Bringing
all this back together,

especially in a museum of the
Tuskegee Airmen,

it's going to just
solidify the fact that

these men who were not
treated as equal citizens,

were willing
to give their lives.

I think what's not in the
history books is...

just the blood,
sweat, and tears that the

Tuskegee airmen went through
to fight for their country.

In training
missions alone, 15 young men

lost their lives here
between 1943 and 1944.

We have a
sense of urgency to bring the

aircraft up because
of its deterioration,

because of a potential
looting threat.

The clock is
definitely ticking.

The plane was piloted
by 22-year-old Frank Moody,

who had already
completed the rigors of the

fledgling Tuskegee program.

Recovering
this from the lake bottom is

really going to hopefully
lead to answering a lot of the

questions that we
have about the site.

The Great Lakes
were an advanced training site,

so by the time the
pilots arrived here,

they were already the
cream of the crop.

As a kid,
I used to view the planes

taking off and landing and
fantasizing about myself being

the pilot who's
flying the plane.

So, I think that's what
actually pointed me towards

trying to get into the
aviation field when

World War II started.

Training for Tuskegee
pilots on the home front

was difficult and dangerous.

There's
this anxiety, every time you

get in that cockpit, you're
always got it in the back of

your mind the
danger that you're in.

The coastline
here in the Great Lakes was

just like the
coastline in France.

I didn't know
what to expect.

All this is new to me.

I completed the exam, passed it,
then went off to learn to fly.

So, they
trained here in P-39 aircraft.

They would take off from
Selfridge and fly no more than

50 feet above trees, hills,
mountains, all the way to

Muskegon, turn around and

come back just to prepare
them for combat.

At that time,
Selfridge Field would have

been abuzz with
wartime activity.

The 332nd had moved from
Tuskegee, Alabama to Michigan

and was supported by young men
who had volunteered to join

the war effort,
just like Frank Moody.

He started
working for an aviation

manufacturing company during
the war and then ultimately

was able to get a spot at
Tuskegee, where he earned his

wings in February 1944.

He had gone
through the primary training,

the basic training, the
advanced training,

and he was in
combat training here

at Selfridge Air
National Guard Base.

It's important
to remember how young these

men and women were when they
were called into the service,

taking on these
training missions.

Each time you go up, you could
potentially lose your life and

you're training to go to war.

I volunteered
to serve my country and

I'm ready to serve my
country and the war.

Their patriotism
was deep and profound

because they not only wanted to
win these military battles,

but they also wanted to change
what America was about.

This isn't the Army's war.

It isn't the Navy's war.

It's the war of all Americans.

But at the time,
the military didn't see

all Americans as fit
to serve equally.

It took the lobbying of civil
rights activists to force

Congress to alter the
Selective Service Act of 1940.

The
Selective Service Act has

non-discrimination provisions
that are written into it based

on the previous protests
of civil right activists.

That means that Black
Americans can't be excluded

from military service.

Well, I
volunteered at 17, but I was

taken into the service at 18.

At the beginning of
World War II,

they had a mandatory for all

able-bodied males between
the ages of 18 and 36

were to register for the draft.

What
machines did you operate?

I operated boring
mills, tool grinders,

drill presses, planes.

But most of
the African American soldiers,

even though they did a fine job,

they were segregated
to the point where

they were put into
strictly menial labor.

White military
leaders just didn't believe

that Black Americans had
the intelligence, courage,

bravery, to be able to be
good soldiers, and they,

military leaders wrote that into
the official documentation.

"According
to the studies, a Negro was

barely qualified
for combat duty.

Was by nature subservient,
mentally inferior, and

believed himself to be
inferior to the White man.

Was susceptible to crowd
psychology, cannot control

himself in the face of danger,
and did not have the initiative,

courage, and resourcefulness
of the White man."

That's what we
had to put up with.

All wrong.

I went down
to join the Army Air Corps.

Took the test.

Did very well on it, and after
I had hassled them a bit about

not being called, I was
informed by the military that

I would never be called for
the Army Air Corps because

there were no colored units.

There was never
going to be one.

There was no way I could go.

But the Black
activist movement continued

its political assault
on Washington

demanding military equality.

And what Black
activists are demanding are

all things related to the war:
they want access to defense

industry jobs and they want
specific parts of the military

to be opened up, particularly
things like the Army Air Corps.

The White House, Roosevelt,
and other federal officials

just can't ignore anymore.

Roosevelt
was running for a third term.

The Negro press and the NAACP,
they were on the backs of

Congress wanting
something to happen.

And Roosevelt figured that if
he started a fighter squadron,

he'd get the Black vote,
which he did.

And he won.

But all politics; but
it worked out for us.

In January 1941,
the war department established

the 99th Pursuit Squadron,

based out of Tuskegee, Alabama.

It was the first segregated unit
within the Army Air Corps.

I'm proud
of what Tuskegee has done.

I don't whether in any
individual institution,

realize how much they are being
watched by the outside world.

They were
trained to be successful

fighter pilots, but they're
also trained to really prove

to the larger military
establishment that

Black Americans
could do this work.

And that's exactly
what Frank Moody was doing as

he advanced
through the program.

An airman
would have started out at

Tuskegee and then move
to another base that

specifically focused
on combat training.

And that's why they
came to Selfridge.

They were learning how to come
from over the horizon on the

water to strafe or destroy
radar towers or installation

along the coast.

On the morning
of April 11th, 1944, Frank Moody

was flying one of
the most sophisticated

fighter aircraft built at
the time: the P-39.

And did his pre-flight, and
the mission for the day was to

leave early in the morning and
to fly up over Lake Huron,

up the Saint Claire River, and
get out over the Lake Huron

and do some gunnery exercises.

A P-39 Airacobra.

That's a unique airplane; the
engine was behind the pilot.

It had four 50-caliber machine
guns, two of which sat

right on top of the cowling.

In the middle of the airplane,
was a 37-millimeter canon,

which shot a shell
that would destroy tanks.

So, four
aircraft, all P-39s,

left Selfridge Field.

Right before 8:00 in the
morning, they came up over

Lake Huron.

They were flying in
formation from south to north.

And when it was Lieutenant
Moody's time, he discharged

his weapons,
fired into the lake.

And then something happened to
the aircraft that resulted in

an almost instantaneous crash
into the water, cartwheeling

of the aircraft,
and he was gone.

He was killed
immediately in that accident.

His body was
recovered in 54 days,

but the plane was never found.

Until April 11, 2014,

exactly 70 years to
the date of the crash.

Frank Moody's
P-39 was discovered by

Drew and David Losinski,
a father-son dive team.

We were diving,
my son and I, and the water

was crystal clear, this was
early in the Spring, I think.

We went out and
went to the first spot.

We figured it was a rock, I
think, and the second spot,

Drew's at the very bow of
the boat looking down;

we're looking, and he goes,

"Dad, I think you found,
we found an airplane!"

And I'm back driving the boat,

and I says, you know
how parents are,

"yeah, sure, okay."

"No, Dad, it's
really an airplane."

The main thing that we wanted
to do was to find out what the

plane was or how it
got there, whose it was.

We were down swimming,
looking at the wing,

and we dust it off.

You could see the
red position light.

And looking at pictures,
I figured there should be

something, something
painted, so we fanned it off.

And there was a star,
a box with a star.

It means that it's military,
and it's a U.S. military plane.

So later on,
we found out through lots of

research and finding key parts
of the airplane, we got the

radio call number, which we
linked to the accident report,

which told us that we found
that plane 70 years to the

date of when it crashed.

It was pretty unbelievable.

The Losinski's
became immediate stewards

of this site.

We started kind of putting our
head together about

what are the options.

Should we leave it in place?

Should we document the entire
wreck site ahead of time?

Should it be recovered
either in part or partially?

Finding Frank Moody's
plane triggered one of

the most important World War II
archeological missions in

the Great Lakes.

This is the
first airplane that has been

archeologically documented
in the state of Michigan.

We're trying to determine a
cause of the accident;

we're trying to see
how an intact,

very complicated machine,
suddenly breaks apart.

Recovering a plane
that's been underwater for

70 years is no easy task.

It's a multi-year effort,

trying to raise
it piece by piece

and then immediately
start preservation efforts.

And the collaboration with the

Tuskegee Airmen National
Museum has been key.

Frank Moody
and his crash brings to light

the sacrifices that the Airmen
made just to get to combat.

While we don't have
his first-hand accounts from

Frank, we do from
other Tuskegee Airmen.

I remember
that when I went into the

service, the first place
I was assigned to was

Kessler Field, Mississippi,

that being below what they
call the Mason-Dixon Line.

Below that geographical point,
segregation was the law.

It was not a choice,
but a law there.

For Moody and
other Tuskegee pilots,

they're always fighting two
battles at the same time.

They're trained to fight a
military battle, which was

frightening in its own right,
but they're also fighting a

battle against racism,

a battle against
second-class citizenship.

We
got to Washington D.C.

a little early, so I got
off the train, went and had

breakfast, came back, went
to get in the car I was in,

conductor says,
no, no, no, no.

You ride in the car
where Negroes ride.

So, that was my introduction
to segregation and the South.

So, if you're
trying to think of a welcoming

place to train Black troops,
Alabama in the 1940s wouldn't

be the first place
that you would think of.

One of the challenges at
Tuskegee Air Base was that it

was a Jim Crow base in a Jim
Crow city in a Jim Crow state,

and that shaped almost every
aspect of what training was

like for these Black pilots.

I
didn't go to town.

I stayed on the
base the whole time.

You get into
trouble going into town.

Now, down at Tuskegee, one of
the guys went into town,

and the Sheriff told him, if I
ever catch you back in town,

I'll blow your brains out.

The Tuskegee
Airmen had to channel their

frustration, their anger, into
their military performance.

My heart
must have skipped a couple of

beats and that type of thing,
but I guess it was more with

joy than anything else.

I took off, and as soon as I
broke grounds, I just felt

this exhilaration; I've done it,
I've done it, I've done it!

Despite their
excellence, the military and

the public were not on board,

so the NAACP and the
Black press doubled down.

The Black press
understood themselves

as a fighting press.

And the thing they were
fighting for in the lead up to

World War II and then during
World War II was to make sure

Black Americans had a chance
to be able to serve their

country equally.

This relentless
advocacy laid the foundation

for an innovative initiative:
the Double Victory Campaign.

The Double V
Campaign, is really the

rallying cry for Black
Americans during the war.

It's launched by the
Pittsburgh Courier.

What they're calling for is a
victory over fascism abroad

and victory over
racism at home.

Eleanor Roosevelt
lent her powerful voice to the

fight early on.

Everything
Eleanor Roosevelt says and

does becomes news.

Well, she
had always heard that Negroes

could not fly airplanes,
so she went to Tuskegee,

and she rode with a guy we
call "Chief" Anderson.

And she found out we
can fly airplanes

just like anybody else.

So, when they took the picture
of she and Chief Anderson in

the airplane and it was
in all the newspapers

throughout the country.

That sealed the
deal right there.

Yes, they can fly
just like anybody else.

As a matter of fact,
they can fly better.

Just ask me.

In 1942, the first
class of cadets graduated from

Tuskegee Army Airfield.

One of the
most fantastic days in my life

there that I can never forget.

But it was graduation day, and
just before going up and being

presented my wings and
my bars, as I said,

"I think I've done it!"

Yes,
it was a special day.

We succeeded in the training
and got our wings and now

we're commissioned as an
actual Second Lieutenant in

the United States Army.

And in July, a year before,

I was just getting
into the service.

And now I'm a pilot.

I can fly airplanes.

But the
risks were great.

Nearly 15,000 servicemen died
during training exercises

in the United States alone.

Today, the archeological quest
to understand what happened to

Frank Moody is in
its tenth year.

According to
the U.S. Army accident report,

the other three pilots
that were in formation

with Lieutenant
Frank Moody, two of them

reported seeing fragments
coming off of the aircraft,

near the forward fuselage.

It's always a possibility
that there's some kind of

mechanical problem
with the aircraft.

The airplane
started to shake apart,

and he lost control.

The airplane nosed into
the lake, Lake Huron.

The Army,
because they never found the

airplane, really never came
to any conclusions as to

what caused the accident.

When the team
started exploring the site in

2015, they had to figure out
the best way to recover

all of the parts.

Looking at a
vastly scattered airplane

has been a challenge.

It became very overwhelming.

It's like, okay, well, how
are we going to do this?

The ultimate goal of this
project is to bring the

aircraft up in its entirety.

Nick, you have the go-pro?

Yep.

The site is broken.

It's highly disarticulated.

You had and airplane that was
roughly 30 feet in length and

about a 32-foot wingspan that
is now in literally thousands

of pieces across
the lake floor.

Gimme that knife for the cable.

Alright.
Winch up.

We got this
humongous propeller blade

with the gearbox.

I say stop.

Cool!

The
accident report suggested that

something may have happened
up forward in the fuselage,

and that could have
been a propeller issue.

Of course,
I was imagining

the whole airplane.

That's exactly
what I was thinking too.

The remarkable thing is
how far apart they all are.

You know, this one was 500
feet beyond, or the single

blade was 500 feet north,
and the other one was

1,200 feet
to the south of it.

This is maybe
the last piece in the puzzle

of why the airplane went down.

It's, so far, you know,
up until this point,

it's just been unexplainable.

It's about
70-some years and, wow.

Yeah, it's pretty crazy.

By the time
Frank Moody was flying his

training missions,
Tuskegee Airmen had

been in the European
theater for over a year.

Wing
cameras, synchronized with

blazing guns, record dramatic
evidence of Nazi planes

blasted from the skies.

I never thought
about air-to-air combat as

a big problem.

I looked for it.

I'd be flying along, "oh, I hope
we get some enemy aircraft."

I thought about that is
a duel between two men.

I believed that I was a
competent pilot, and I knew in

my mind that I was.

Lee Archer flew
under the command of

Benjamin O. Davis, Junior.

Davis is one
of the amazing figures

from World War II.

He graduates from
West Point in 1936.

He's the first Black person
to graduate from West Point

in the 20th century,
only the fourth overall.

It's only with the Tuskegee
Experiment getting started

that he has the opportunity to
pursue his lifelong dream of

becoming a pilot.

He
was a no-nonsense guy.

Everything had
to be done right.

And you can't
knock him for that.

That's the way things should
be no matter what you do,

you do it right.

And he was our commander.

He made
a military man out of me.

I think that he
taught us discipline.

And he always tried to
encourage us to improve

ourselves because he said,
"America's watching you."

Today
is a really big deal.

It's a major
piece of the puzzle.

It's going to tell us a lot
about the airplane and what

was going on with it when
Lieutenant Moody crashed here.

It's
really murky down there.

I thought it would be
better today because

it's sunny and calm.

I think yesterday just
stirred everything up.

We're
still waiting on straps, ok?

Ok.

Do
not move the cable.

Very good. Good.

In a few
minutes we're going to see

Alison engine coming up that
powered the P-39 that

Frank Moody was flying.

I can't wait.

I got
that the cradle's

going to be the way.

I'm
seeing the airbag.

The crane hook is coming up.

There it is!

About two feet underwater and
it hasn't been this this high

since 1944, April 11th.

Yeah, you can
stop right there.

The bolts are underneath.

Good work Wayne!

Pretty smooth!

Congratulations!

.

Piece by piece
airplane's coming up.

I don't
have the words to express.

Probably the
heaviest single component of

the aircraft.

So, very cool, it's really
going to start to teach us

a lot about this airplane.

Getting it back to the

Tuskegee Airmen
National Museum in Detroit

will start the
conservation process.

Having the engine, the
propeller, the gearbox,

all of that to examine from a
forensics side will help us

determine what was the
cause of the accident.

Are we good to good?

Alright.

Now, we
have to transport it to shore.

We've got to get it off of
this barge, move it onto a

flatbed vehicle, and
then transport it to the

conservation
laboratory in Detroit.

We do need
to move the water machine.

Are
you pumping currently?

No.

- No.
- Ok.

- We just turned it off.
- Ok.

Ready for
the engine?

- We got it.
- I got it.

You go
up, just a little bit.

Alright, hold.

Alright, nice and slow.

Nice.

The laying out
the plane like this today is

an incredible visual
opportunity to get a feel

for how big this airplane is.

It's hard to imagine it when
you're underwater looking at

just a little piece here and
a little piece there and it's

pretty impressive to
kind of see it like this.

This is the first time these
artifacts have come together

in this orientation since
the airplane went apart

79 years ago.

This is the artifact that
designed this entire airplane:

the 37-millimeter cannon.

It was mounted at the nose.

It was also armed with
50-caliber machine guns

on either side.

And so with all of this stuff
up in the forward fuselage,

it was no room for the engine.

So, the engine went
back behind the pilot.

And that was a very unique
situation for a single-seat

fighter aircraft at that time.

It gives me
pause to think this big, massive

1200- pound engine, would
actually fly in an airplane.

But the P-39's
had their limitations;

they performed best
at lower altitudes,

better for strafing.

They needed
airplanes that would go

further, and they got the 51.

It could go further.
It could go higher.

It could fly longer.
It could turn better.

It had all of the
agile traits of a fighter.

When I got
in the P-51 and I took it off,

I fell in love with it,
the first time I flew it.

It was such a beautifully
handling aircraft.

The Tuskegee
pilots had a very specific

role in combat.

Their job was to accompany
bombers on these

targeted bombing runs.

Huge
fleets of allied bombers

protected by umbrellas of
fighter planes, continue their

all-out offensive upon
Nazi war plants in Europe.

The White
fighter groups, they were

averaging 46 bombers
lost per mission.

Per mission.

That's a lot of people.

A lot of people.

That's why we got the
job of escorting bombers.

Colonel Davis
said, "don't leave the bombers.

If that German fighter leaves,
let him go and you stick with

the bombers.

There's ten men on each bomber
airplane, only one man in that

German fighter.

We want to protect the
bombers and bring those home.

When we first
started flying with them,

they knew that there was a new
fighter group that had joined:

the Red Tails.

They said who are these guys
flying these damn Red Tails?

These guys are
with us all the way.

By the way, who
are these guys?

One of the
things that happens after the

Tuskegee Airmen get into
combat is they start to

receive media attention, not
just from Black newspapers,

but now from
national newspapers.

They say that they've mastered
the art of aviation,

that they're squashing
Hitler's Aces like bugs.

It got to
the point where they were

requesting us.

They wanted us.

They didn't believe we were
flying airplanes when we got

over there, because the book
said "no, they can't do that."

On a
bombing mission over enemy

territory, a fighter escort
is a mighty comforting sight.

This man thought it
was plenty good enough.

As far as he was concerned,
this man could fly tough cover

for him any day.

When I was
escorting the bombers,

there were White guys
in these planes here,

they were just Americans there.

We were all on the same team.

That's what they were, and I
never looked at them as being

White or anything else.

We were just team members.

After their
many successes in Europe,

the Tuskegee Airmen
were unstoppable.

Now, you
may ask, who was the best?

Depends on who's
telling the story!

Right now, I am!

Throughout
the world, throngs of people

hail the end
of the war in Europe.

Victory
Over Europe Day was a time of

jubilation for
Black Americans.

The whole
world must be cleansed of the

evil from which half
the world has been freed.

The hope that
with the war over, they will

finally be able to come back
to the United States and start

to see some of what they
fought for come into reality.

I remember
this for the rest of my life:

we were coming down the
gangplank, getting off the

boat, they had a sign at
the bottom of the gangplank:

Whites to one side.

Colored to the other side.

And I said to myself,
"This is some country."

After the war, the
Tuskegee pilots returned to

segregated units, but their
successes in Europe

served as a rallying
cry for change.

One of the
first and most important

civil rights milestones after
the war was the signing of

Executive Order 9981.

By
Executive Order of President

Harry S. Truman: integration
of all military units.

It will take time, but
the policy was established.

The more
I thought about it,

we really did something special.

If we had not been as successful
as we were, there is

no way that Truman would have
possibly made that move.

So, the
military becomes integrated

before most of corporate
America, before most of

higher education does.

And so, it really provides one
of the building blocks for the

larger success of the
Civil Right Movement

in the 1950s and 60s.

One of the troubling things
that happens at the end of

World War II is that the first
wave of books that come out

about the war,

really write Black Americans
out of the story.

That's why it took so
long before the service,

the patriotism, the tremendous
successes, and path-breaking

work of the Tuskegee Airmen
to come to the forefront.

Now, Frank
Moody's recovered P-39...

Hey,
we'll swing around.

Is adding a new
chapter to the Airmen's stories.

It's amazing
that this gun isn't bent.

When we start
to look at this and when we

have this all kind of laid out
here, we're starting to see a

lot of damage that happened
in the propeller blades.

And you might think that
that's just a rock hole or

something that was damage as
this artifact was sitting on

the lake floor for the last
eight decades, but when you

start looking at the other two
blades and they have identical

holes in them, suddenly we're
starting to see something

here; a major problem that's
going on with this aircraft.

Synchronization, if you've ever

gone to dance class and
danced with a partner,

you don't want to
step on their toes.

So, you would synchronize your
steps, so that you always

miss each other's feet.

And this airplane had a
synchronizer or an interrupter

in the hub, which knew where
the propeller blade was and

would stop this gun from
firing when the blade was

in front of the gun.

In in a sense,
the pilot's not actually

shooting the gun.

He's pulling the trigger, but
then the airplane's deciding,

right here, when that
gun is actually firing.

Yes.

When Lieutenant
Moody pulled the trigger,

the guns fired into
the propeller blades and

they created an entry
hole and an exit wound.

And that's the same,
very consistent,

on all three of these blades.

If it was
Frank Moody's fault, you know,

due to pilot error or a
collision with another aircraft,

we would see other damage,
especially in these blades

that we're not seeing.

The proof found
in these blades serve as a

testament to Frank Moody and
his extraordinary journey.

Amazing!

In the end, it
was the mechanical system

that failed him.

Now we can
chronicle, highlight, and

talk about his life and the
importance of his life toward

the war effort, toward
fighting the Germans.

Artifacts like
the plane help us make those

jumps between scale in terms
of how we talk about history.

Frank Moody's story is one
piece of the puzzle that helps

to fill in our larger
understanding of what America

was like during World War II.

And more than anything, it
gives us an opportunity to

help honor the service
and sacrifices of

those Black veterans.

For years the
Tuskegee Airmen pushed the

boundaries of what was possible,

distinguishing
themselves in the air,

while breaking barriers for
Black Americans everywhere.

One of the
through lines in Black history

is Black people having to
prove they could do things

other people doubt
that they could do.

Outside, the
next day, then it all came back.

Everything we did
had to be perfect.

Everything had to be perfect.

That helped us and
made us better pilots.

That's why we were so good.

What can I say?

They were trying to
take us down the drain,

and we said, no, no, no.

Well, it's a
matter that we prove them wrong

that we could do a job
and that's about all you can do.

But they'll always be
some doubting Thomases,

but we did the best we could.

Well, that's it.

That's it, we proved it.

And that hangs on you when you
feel as though that every day

you have something to prove.

We showed
them that yes, we can think.

We can think under pressure,
we can think all the time.

We know how to do the job and
get the job done, done right.

I'm in the
mood to fly that Cessna

right now, you want to
go up with me?

Ok.
If I can get in!

That's my problem!

Ok!

Captioned by
Cotter Media Group.