Why did the Tuskegee airman fight?

Answer 1

The US Military has been intermittently integrated and segregated. Following the Civil War, some Army units were integrated until the time of World War One; President Woodrow Wilson did not believe that Negro Americans were capable of military service in any combat role. When World War II began, many African-Americans wanted to join the military and fight; since the Nazis hated blacks only slightly less than they hated Jews, this was a normal reaction. At the beginning of World War II, blacks were allowed only in "servant" roles; cooks and stewards. As a test, the "Tuskegee Airmen" were African-Americans trained to fly high-performance fighters.

The "Tuskegee Airmen" were spectacularly successful. While it's true that black fighter pilots had a lower kill ratio against Germans than white pilots did, the difference is easily explained. The "Tuskegee Airmen" squadron was primarily assigned to the bomber escort role; in that role, their primary responsibility was to DEFEND THE BOMBERS, not to go shoot down Germans. Too many white pilots would break formation and engage the German fighters; doing so left the bomber formations vulnerable to attack by other German fighters. The black pilots were less aggressive (or perhaps, it would be better phrased as "less glory-seeking") than the average white pilot; they stayed with the bombers, engaging the Germans only long enough to chase the German fighters away. Bomber wings escorted by black pilots were less likely to suffer heavy losses from the Germans.

Bomber squadrons were delighted with the escort, and came to request that the Tuskegee squadron be assigned to their formations.

The end result of the "experiment" was that it demonstrated that there was no reason why African-Americans couldn't do any job that a Caucasian could do.

Answer 2

The Tuskagee airmen were American pilots so they fought for the United States against Nazi Germany.