Qualla: Moton Field: Where They Fought Two Wars

Moton Field: Where They Fought Two Wars: Introduction

Tue, 10 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ser Amantio di Nicolao, CC BY-SA 4.0. The phrase is stamped on a quarter: THEY FOUGHT TWO WARS. In 2021, the U.S. Mint chose Moton Field in Tuskegee, Alabama, for the final coin in its America the Beautiful series, depicting a Tuskegee Airman suiting up beneath P-51 Mustangs. The image captures a double burden that defined an entire generation of Black servicemen. Before 1940, African Americans were flatly barred from flying for the U.S. military. The idea that Black men could pilot combat aircraft was considered so improbable by the military establishment that when pressure from civil rights organizations and the Black press finally forced the Army Air Corps to act, the resulting program was labeled an "experiment" - as though the capacity of an entire race were a hypothesis requiring proof.

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Image: Ser Amantio di Nicolao | CC BY-SA 4.0

Moton Field: Where They Fought Two Wars: The Experiment That Wasn't

Tue, 10 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ser Amantio di Nicolao, CC BY-SA 4.0. The first class of cadets began training at Moton Field on July 19, 1941. Among them was Captain Benjamin O. Davis Jr., who would go on to become the first African-American general in the United States Air Force. Thirteen cadets started; only five completed the advanced flying tr...

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Image: Ser Amantio di Nicolao | CC BY-SA 4.0

Moton Field: Where They Fought Two Wars: A Field Named for a Principal

Tue, 10 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ser Amantio di Nicolao, CC BY-SA 4.0. Moton Field was constructed in 1941 as a dedicated primary flight training facility, and it was named for Robert Russa Moton, who had served as principal of the Tuskegee Institute until his death the previous year. Moton had succeeded Booker T. Washington, making the airfield's n...

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Image: Ser Amantio di Nicolao | CC BY-SA 4.0

Moton Field: Where They Fought Two Wars: From Runway to Reckoning

Tue, 10 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Jonathunder, Public domain. The Tuskegee Airmen compiled a combat record that dismantled every argument against them. They flew escort missions over North Africa and Europe, and their success forced the military to confront its own assumptions. But the war they fought at home was slower and less decisive. T...

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Image: Jonathunder | Public domain

Moton Field: Where They Fought Two Wars: What Remains at Moton Field

Tue, 10 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ser Amantio di Nicolao, CC BY-SA 4.0. The National Park Service took over the site, which was formally opened as a National Historic Site on October 10, 2008. Visitors enter free of charge, Monday through Saturday, into restored hangars where the original training aircraft once sat. An oral history project completed ...

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Image: Ser Amantio di Nicolao | CC BY-SA 4.0