AskChesapeake

FORT WORTH – The two elderly gentlemen, each wearing a Congressional Gold Medal around their neck, stood before a student-packed auditorium at Monnig Middle School and explained how they went about receiving the most prestigious honor a civilian can get from the United States government.

First they stayed in school -- one of the most important messages Don Elder, 80, and John Flanagan Jr., 85, wanted to get across to the squirming students on March 9, in an event sponsored by Chesapeake Energy and The Greater Fort Worth Area Civic Leaders Association.

 

Secondly, both men are veteran Tuskegee Airmen, a huge honor considering they were part of the first all-black military air combat unit in the country, established in 1940 by the U.S. Army Air Corp. The group is named after its first airfield on the Tuskegee University campus in Alabama.

 

Their righteous place in American history, Elder and Flanagan told the students, shows that people of every color and creed can, with ambition, perseverance and discipline, overcome racism and reach their highest expectations. “You can be whatever you want to be, and be the best,” Flanagan said.

Elder echoed that feeling to the kids. “I want to tell you a little about history,” he said, referring to the events leading up to the creation of the Tuskegee Airmen. “During that time, it was believed the people of color could not learn to fly. But we did learn to fly. We became masters of our profession.”

Elder pointed to a slide show of a teen-ager sitting in the cockpit of a small plane, preparing to take off during a flight-training program. “Think you’d like to fly something like that?” he asked the students. They overwhelmingly shouted yes, at which point Elder said, “the best way to learn … is to stay in school.”

 

The message seemed to resonate among the kids in the auditorium. “It was very beneficial to me,” said Daishai Logan, 13, a 7th-grader at Monnig who talks as if she’s already grown up. “Being a young black woman,” Daishai said, “I think I’d be interested in participating in a (flight-training) program. I think it would be something fun, interesting.”

Caden Gunn, 14, an 8th-grader, was also impressed with the presentation. “I think it was great, very informative,” Caden said.

Once the school bell rang, and they began to file out of the auditorium, some of the students looked back at those shiny gold medals, the ones worn by Elder and Flanagan since 2007, when the incredible honor was bestowed to them by then-President George W. Bush. “Great,” said Caden. “Really great.”