Blog 160: Meet 2nd Lieutenant Fred L. Brewer, Jr.

 

By Leon S. Gill

Guest Writer

     Before the Tuskegee Airmen, no African American had ever been a United States military pilot.  The Jim Crow laws, a series of racist laws that enforced the “separate but equal” treatment of African Americans, were used as justification for blocking previous attempts by African American soldiers to become pilots. 

     In spite of these blocking attempts, early in World War II the Army announced the formation of the first all-black Air Corps, the 99^th Pursuit Squadron, later named the 99^th Fighter Squadron. By 1943, the 99^th Fighter Squadron was sent to North Africa to attack the Italian Island of Pantelleria in preparation for the Allied Invasion of Sicily. The Tuskegee Airmen were successful in bringing the island to surrender.

     The Tuskegee Airmen were dedicated, determined young men who enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Corps to become America’s first black military airmen.  They accepted the challenge during a time when many people thought that black men lacked intelligence, skill, courage and patriotism. 

     They were trained at Tuskegee Army Air Field in Tuskegee, Alabama.  From 1941 through 1946 approximately 1,000 pilots graduated from Tuskegee Army Air Field, receiving commissions and pilot wings.  Three hundred and fifty-five of these pilots served overseas in the all-black 332^nd Fighter group, which included the 99^th Fighter Squadron, 100^th Fighter Squadron, 301^st Fighter Squadron, and 302^nd Fighter Squadron.  During the 332^nd Fighter Group distinguished wartime action in Europe, the Tuskegee Airmen were recognized for its outstanding work by earning awards such as Distinguished Unit Citations, Silver Stars, Distinguished Flying Crosses, Purple Hearts, Bronze Stars, and Air Medals. 

     The Tuskegee Airmen came from every part of the country; each one possessed a strong personal desire to serve the United States of America.  There were about 15,000 Tuskegee Airmen in all, which included pilots, navigators, bombardiers, mechanics, doctors, nurses, instructors, maintenance, and various administrative personnel.

     Fred L. Brewer, Jr. graduated in 1938 from Second Ward High School in Charlotte, North Carolina. According to the 2007 North Carolina General Assembly’s Joint Resolution, which honored the Tuskegee Airmen for their service in World War II, Brewer was the only Tuskegee Airmen pilot from Mecklenburg County. 

     Brewer matriculated to Shaw University, in Raleigh, North Carolina and graduated in the class of 1942. While at Shaw University, he was listed in the 1941-42 edition of Who’s Who Among Students in American Universities and Colleges.  Brewer was editor of the Shaw Journal and Bear during his junior and senior years at Shaw.  He was a student representative at the National Intercollegiate Christian Council at Lake Geneva, Wisconsin in 1941, and was a delegate to the National Conference of Negro Youth in 1942.

     After graduating from Shaw, Brewer enlisted in the US Army on November 1943. On March 12, 1944, he completed pilot training at the Tuskegee Army Air Field in Tuskegee, Alabama, graduating in Class SE-44-C, as a 2^nd Lieutenant and was awarded his pilot wings.  Brewer soon deployed to Italy with the 332^nd Fighter Group’s 100^th Fighter Squadron.  

     During a bomber escort mission over Germany on October 29, 1944, 2^nd Lieutenant Brewer’s P-51 Mustang airplane, which he had nicknamed “Traveling Light,” experienced engine trouble and stalled out, disappeared into the clouds, and was never seen again.  His remains were never recovered.  

     His name is included on the Tablets of the Missing at the Florence American Cemetery and Memorial in Italy.  2^nd Lieutenant Brewer was awarded an Air Medal with an oak leaf cluster and a Purple Heart for his military service.  2nd Lieutenant Brewer was the son of Fred L. and Janis Brewer, of Charlotte, North Carolina, and was a member of the Ebenezer Baptist Church.