Letter: Tuskegee Airman recalls tough military times as 100th birthday approaches

Submitted by Betty Anderson.

For years he worked in what he called “a high-stress job,” sending pilots into the dangers of war, not knowing if they would return to the base. Even though he sent escorts for U.S. bombers fighting for the world’s freedom, he and his cohorts didn’t have the rights or respect of the people they were protecting.
But that didn’t stop them from doing the right thing and doing it very well.

Staff Sgt. Edward Carl Wadley, who served in the 99th Pursuit Squadron of the Tuskegee Airmen during World War II, will celebrate his 100th birthday on Aug. 12.

The longtime resident of Lakewood Meadows Senior Apartments in Lakewood, WA, will be honored during a special party at from noon to 3 p.m. in the Community Room of the complex. The party is sponsored by Fairfield Residential, the management company that owns the senior housing unit and will be held at 5230 112th St SW in Lakewood. He also will receive honors from the Northwest region’s Sam Bruce Chapter of the Tuskegee Airmen, based in Seattle.

As he approaches the century mark of life in the U.S., he remembers a complex time when the black airmen and their support staff were segregated from the white squadrons of pilots and suffered a monumental lack of respect until the white pilots realized the black escort pilots dispatched almost every enemy that tried to stop the white pilots from reaching U.S. targets. The unappreciated squadrons brought almost everyone safely back to the base. They had a higher success rate than other U.S. escorts and were highly sought after when their reputation spread.

Overall, the Tuskegee Airmen escorts were reported to have lost only 27 of 179 escorted U.S. bombers to enemy aircraft between June 1944 and April 1945. The pilots destroyed 112 enemy aircraft in the air, another 150 on the ground and damaged 148, historical records show.

As operations staff, Wadley was charged with scheduling Tuskegee Airmen to fly missions in Europe and elsewhere during the war. Those airmen flew B-25 bombers and put their lives on the lines for their fellow pilots. He said he would leave work on occasion, go home to wash away his fears with a strong drink.

“I never was a real drinker,” Wadley recalled. He blamed his occasional drink on the extreme stress of the job. But nonetheless, he got back out there and did it again and again.

Wadley recalls most of his military service was marked by segregation. The white pilots and soldiers didn’t eat or sleep with the black pilots and staff.

“There was a lot of discrimination at that time,” he said. It was a strange situation to him because he believed both groups of officers were equally talented and intelligent.

“Black officers I knew had attended college or were attending college,” he said. Some of the pilots had attended Langston University with him. In addition, some of the officers over his squadron were graduates of West Point.

Despite the limitations, he praised the black pilots for their integrity, dependability and sense of national pride. He remembered the close relationship he had with the 10 pilots he was responsible for in his squadron. When the pilots were in town with girlfriends or wives, they would leave their phone numbers and where they could be quickly located in case they were called to duty. The pilots also always made sure Wadley had a car at his office so he could come pick them up if he received urgent orders for them to fly.

Wadley was born in Geary, OK, 60 miles west of Oklahoma City. He graduated from (Frederick) Douglass High School and attended Langston University in Langston, OK. He married his high-school sweetheart, Evelyn Ann Gray, right after high school, and moved to the Bay Area town of Richmond, CA, where he, his parents and siblings worked at the shipyards. Wadley worked as an electrical engineer with the Southern Pacific Railroad.

He and his wife established roots in the Bay Area with the birth of four children – Stanley, Janice, Wanda Carol and Wilford. (Stanley and Janice preceded him in death). Wanda Carol resides in Atlanta, GA and Wilford in Oklahoma City.

Wadley enlisted in the Army Air Corps in Richmond in October 1943. He and his wife decided to keep the family grounded in the area where the children were born while he pursued his military service career. Basic training started in Richmond and continued in South Carolina. He trained for his clerical administration certification in Denver, CO, before he was stationed at Selfridge Field near Detroit, MI, and where he scheduled flights for his fellow airmen. He later did a tour of duty at Godman Army Airfield at Fort Knox, Kentucky.

Wadley said he did see a bit of social change in the military before he was honorably discharged in April of 1946.

“After they got to know each other and found out that they were human like everyone else,” he said, the white and black airmen started socializing with each other. “They got together and ironed things out,” Wadley recalled.

After Wadley retired, military history sources show the U.S. Air Force was created in 1947 when the Army Air Corp was split into two branches – the Army and the Air Force. President Harry S. Truman desegregated the military services and federal civil service in 1948 with executive order 9981. The Air Force was the first fully integrated branch of service and the Army did not fully integrate until 1950 at the onset of the Korean War, military history sources reported.

Wadley and his wife, Evelyn, remained together until the ‘60s until her death. He then wed Vivian and they were a couple until a divorce in the ’60s. He then married Mary Harpole of Portland with whom he had one child, Marietta Wadley.

From the ‘60s to the ‘90s Wadley worked in various jobs with the post office and car dealerships and once owned his own dealership. He resided in Northern California, Oregon and Washington before settling in Lakewood nine years ago.

As for one of the keys to his longevity, Wadley claims: “I think most of that is due to the fact that I never smoked. I tried to smoke a whole pack one time, but couldn’t finish it. . . didn’t like them.”

Betty Anderson is a retired news reporter and copy editor for The Tacoma News Tribune, The Houston Chronicle and The Seattle Times.