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Somewhere in America, late in the evening, a family sits around the television, about to watch a rented movie. One of the kids asks his pop what the point is of renting the same movie for the second year in a row.
"Sure, Cuba Gooding Jr. and Lawrence Fishbourne are great actors," he said. "We loved them in `The Matrix' and 'Jerry Maguire.' But why did you rent `The Tuskegee Airmen' again?" The movie tells the story of the Tuskegee Airmen, America's first black military aviators, and the hate and negativism they overcame in serving their country. Of how they became some of the Army Air Force's most decorated and respected airmen with impeccable records in escorting U.S. bombers over Europe.
The movie also depicts the racist attitudes some white aviators held for their black counterparts during those dark days of World War II.
There are good reasons for watching the movie again, the father said. First is that he likes it. But also that he loves his family - even the cat. And that he wants his kids to learn from the movie that it doesn't pay to hate others. That a person's skin color doesn't determine what he can achieve.
What some in the family didn't realize was that a few of the people in the movie are real. That some are alive today. And that the attitude some of the white airmen had then toward black counterparts has changed. Though not depicted in the movie, one bomber crew wanted to atone for the way some of them treated black airmen. The Tuskegee Airmen protected many air crews during the war. But after the war, people just wanted to carry on with their lives. Some didn't want to recall that time. And some may have thought the Tuskegee Airmen would not accept their gratitude.
The remaining crew of B-24 Liberator 'Yellow Oboe" - known as Crew 396 - didn't know either. But they contacted the Tuskegee Airmen they flew with in the war. To date, they're the only World War II airmen to have gone back as a crew to thank the black airmen who saved their lives 57 years ago. The airmen of Crew 396 are accepted among the inner circle of...