Fort Knox, Kentucky -- In May 1944, members of what became the last training class of Tuskegee Airmen arrived here at Godman Army Airfield to learn how to fly the B-25 Mitchell bomber.
Among them and serving in a support role was Army 1st Lt. Eugene Tyree. With the exception of his family, it wouldn't be known until many years later that retired Air Force Col. Tyree, who was laid to rest at Fort Knox's Main Post Cemetery, was one and the same.
Tyree's government tombstone serves as a tie that binds the fort to both prominent black history and military history.
Matthew Rector, Fort Knox historic preservation specialist, said the men of 477th Bombardment Group moved to Godman Army Airfield at Fort Knox from Selfridge Airfield near Detroit, where they had experienced racial discrimination.
"The black officers had been barred from using the officers' club, and they took exception to the discrimination," said Rector.
The 477th would eventually be relocated to six Army airfields from 1943 to 1947 -- twice at Godman. Both of those times followed instances where officers of 477th had been illegally excluded from officers' clubs that were supposed to be integrated.
In one such instance in April 1945, several black officers from 477th returned to stand trial at Godman Army Airfield. They were being tried for willful disobedience under the 64th Article of War for refusing to sign an order acknowledging a regulation granting military clubs the right to segregate based on race.
"[Nearly] 100 of the 477th were arrested and returned to Godman Field to await trial. Most were later released," Rector said. "Three officers faced court-martial, but because the original order ran counter to Army regulation, those three were also released with one of them having to pay a fine."
On May 18, 1945, it was found that segregated clubs were in violation Army Regulation 210-10, which required any officers' club to be open to any officer on any Army post. The ruling set a precedent that predated President Harry Truman's 1948 Executive Order 9981, which fully integrated all armed services.
Events drastically improved in June of 1945 with the arrival of Col. Benjamin Davis Jr., the celebrated commander of 99th Pursuit Squadron and former commander of the famed 332nd "Red Tails" Fighter Group.
"Davis was the distinguished son of the only African-American general in the Army, a West Point graduate and one of five black officers to earn their wings from the first training class of Tuskegee Airmen," Rector said. "He re-designated the bombardment group to the 477th Composite Group the following day, and immediately transferred the white officers out of the unit and replaced them with black officers. That summer, additional black units and WACs (Women's Army Corps) joined the 477th."
While it is unclear exactly when Tyree joined 477th, he was photographed with his team in the Godman Field Beacon newspaper Oct. 1, 1945 as the quartermaster, transportation and maintenance officer.
Tyree came from his first deployment to the India-Burma-China Theater where, according to Rector, he served as a transportation specialist, commanding convoys across India and Burma. By the end of the tour, he was ordered stateside to serve in Headquarters Group at Tuskegee, Alabama. Following that assignment, he served under Davis at Godman Army Airfield.
Tyree's daughter, Gloria Talbott of Louisville, remembered with fondness how close knit the group became.
"I remember the day my father came home from the war like it was yesterday," Talbott said. "I remember him working at Godman Field, and all those people were my father's friends and they were my friends' daddies. I remember seeing B.O. Davis and his wife Agatha all the time and going to their house. We grew up with the story of how no one spoke to [Davis] the whole time he was at West Point. He wasn't a stranger."
Stories of hard times in America were common, according to Talbott, who said it was those hard times that brought her father to the Army in the first place.
"In those days, parents fought to protect their children from knowing all the things that were harsh, but we'd overhear things, and I'd ask my father about some of those things," Talbott said. "When I asked him why he joined the Army, he shared a story about how it was like in the military … how when the cook asked him how many eggs he wanted and he ventured to say two. He said there was plenty of food to eat, he had his own bunk and a job he could do.
"I remember him saying, 'From that day on, Uncle Sam had somebody.'"
An Indiana native, Tyree and his five brothers all joined the military. After graduating from Kentucky State University with degrees in History and Economics, Tyree attended Officer Candidate School at Camp Lee, Virginia, and married Talbott's mother, Clearese, shortly before deploying to Burma.
The war in the Pacific ended before the men of 477th saw action there, and the unit moved to Lockbourne Field near Columbus, Ohio. Tyree proceeded with his military career, making the rank of captain just prior to the Army Air Corps' transition to the U.S. Air Force.
Talbott said she remembers traveling the country as a military family.
"We grew up on the backseat of a car; my daddy always drove a big car and he would place mats on the floor that were even with the seats so that my sister and I would have more room to play or sleep because in the '50s, we couldn't find accommodations," Talbott said. "We'd hop bases and stay with friends so we didn't have to deal with segregated [lodging]."
Tyree would wear his uniform on road trips, recalled Talbott, because it made things easier on the road.
"When we'd pull into a service station, he'd ask the attendant, 'Do you have facilities for my family?' before he would buy gas," Talbott said. "Only once or twice do I ever remember people saying no. Most of them were former military and had served with blacks. They all had stories to tell and so when they had another military man pull up, it was like a reunion for them."
The Tyree family served in both Guam and England. While serving as a Reserve Officer Training Corps instructor at Howard University, Tyree continued to further his education by pursuing a master's degree in Business.
His career progressed steadily, and eventually he became the deputy commander at Larson Air Force Base at Moses Lake, in Washington.
One year after Tyree retired from the Air Force at Wright Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio in 1964, he died, and his body was returned to Fort Knox where he was laid to rest at the Post Cemetery.
"It's rare to find an Air Force veteran in our Army cemetery," Rector said. "To our knowledge, [Tyree] is the only Tuskegee Airman buried here, and we didn't even realize it until 2014 when his wife was buried with him."
At the moment, Tyree's government headstone is the only tribute to his tie with the Tuskegee Airmen at Godman Field and Fort Knox. That's something his daughter would like to change.
"I have no ill will toward the military. The military protected our family, and kept [us] from a lot of the racism and segregation," Talbott said. "[The United States] was a closed society, and when theaters were segregated, we didn't worry about it because we went to movies on base. We went to the base hospital. We went to the commissary on base. I'm amazed at what my friends who weren't military had to put up with that I didn't."
Still, she feels the Tuskegee Airmen's history at Fort Knox history is incomplete.
"The story isn't told, and I don't know that Fort Knox even acknowledges Godman Air Field as [once] home of the Tuskegee Airmen when they returned from World War II," Talbott said. "They were accused of misconduct, and some [faced] court-martial. There hasn't been enough acknowledgement of what they did and how it changed things. Those same men became the United States Air Force.
"I would love to see acknowledgement of what those who didn't get to fight overseas had to fight here at home," concluded Talbott. "I know what my father did; I know what my father's friends did."
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