Overview

Red Tail Captured, Red Tail Free is a rare gift detailing the experience of Lt. Col. Alexander Jefferson, who was one of 32 Tuskegee Airmen from the 332nd Fighter Group to be shot down defending a country that considered them to be second-class citizens. In this vividly detailed, deeply personal story, Jefferson writes as a genuine American hero about what it meant to be an African American pilot in enemy hands, fighting to protect the promise of freedom. The book features the sketches, drawings, and other illustrations Jefferson created during his nine months as a POW, and Lewis Carlson's authoritative background to the man, his unit, and the fight Alexander Jefferson fought so well. This revised edition covers the story of Jefferson's continuing outreach and education work, as he brings the story of the Tuskegee Airmen to communities and schools across the country, and the presentation of the Congressional Gold Medal to the Airmen in 2007. Red Tail Captured, Red Tail Free is perhaps the only account of the African American experience in a German prison camp.

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9780823274383

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Reviews

... If Detroit's Museum of African American History wants to prosper, it need do no more than establish a wing for one of the great stories of the Second World War, the tales of the Tuskegee Airmen, the military's first black pilots, who were trained at a remote training complex near Tuskegee, Alabama... The black bomber escorts made history because they never lost a bomber to the enemy...Red Tail Captured, Red Tail Free ... 56 years in the making, is the result of thousands of hours of Alexander Jefferson's working in his basement. It should be a part of every public school and community library in America. -Detroit News and Free Press ... One of the few memoirs of combat in World War II by a distinguished African-American flier; it is perhaps the only account of the African-American experience in a German prison camp. -Ebony Photographs and Jefferson's drawings during his imprisonment add to the fascination of this memoir. -Booklist

. . . If Detroit's Museum of African American History wants to prosper, it need do no more than establish a wing for one of the great stories of the Second World War, the tales of the Tuskegee Airmen, the military's first black pilots, who were trained at a remote training complex near Tuskegee, Alabama. . . . The black bomber escorts made history because they never lost a bomber to the enemy. . . .Red Tail Captured, Red Tail Free . . . 56 years in the making, is the result of thousands of hours of Alexander Jefferson's working in his basement. It should be a part of every public school and community library in America. -Detroit News and Free Press. . . One of the few memoirs of combat in World War II by a distinguished African-American flier; it is perhaps the only account of the African-American experience in a German prison camp. -Ebony Photographs and Jefferson's drawings during his imprisonment add to the fascination of this memoir. -Booklist

"""... If Detroit's Museum of African American History wants to prosper, it need do no more than establish a wing for one of the great stories of the Second World War, the tales of the Tuskegee Airmen, the military's first black pilots, who were trained at a remote training complex near Tuskegee, Alabama... The black bomber escorts made history because they never lost a bomber to the enemy...Red Tail Captured, Red Tail Free ... 56 years in the making, is the result of thousands of hours of Alexander Jefferson's working in his basement. It should be a part of every public school and community library in America."" -Detroit News and Free Press ""... One of the few memoirs of combat in World War II by a distinguished African-American flier; it is perhaps the only account of the African-American experience in a German prison camp."" -Ebony ""Photographs and Jefferson's drawings during his imprisonment add to the fascination of this memoir."" -Booklist"

Photographs and Jefferson's drawings during his imprisonment add to the fascination of this memoir. -Booklist ... If Detroit's Museum of African American History wants to prosper, it need do no more than establish a wing for one of the great stories of the Second World War, the tales of the Tuskagee Airmen, the military's first black pilots, who were trained at a remote training complex near Tuskegee, Ala...The black bomber escorts made history because they never lost a bomber to the enemy...Red Tail Captured, Red Tail Free ... 56 years in the making, is the result of thousands of hours of Alex Jefferson working in his basement. It should be a part of every public school and community library in America. Rochelle Riley... One of the few memoirs of combat in World War II by a distinguished African-American flier; it is perhaps the only account of the African-American experience in a German prison camp. Photographs and Jefferson's drawings during his imprisonment add to the fascination of this memoir. --Booklist

Author Information

Lt. Col. Alexander Jefferson, (USAF, Ret.) (1921-2022) had degrees from Clark College and Wayne State University. He won numerous citations and was active in Veterans' and Tuskegee Airmen organizations. He served in Michigan public schools for thirty years as a teacher and administrator, and lived outside Detroit in Southfield. He was an educator and a hero. Lewis H. Carlson is co-author of Life behind Barbed Wire: The World War II Photographs of Prisoner of War Angelo M. Spinelli (Fordham).

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