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Real Tuskegee Airmen Helped 'Red Tails' Take Flight

NPR | By Beenish Ahmed

Published January 25, 2012 at 9:52 AM MST

Copyright 2012 NPR

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Late Tuskegee Airman Gets Arlington Honors As 'Red Tails' Film Opens

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A member of the famed Tuskegee Airmen was buried Friday morning, the same day that Red Tails, a film dramatizing the pilots' heroic feats, came out. During World War II, Luke Weathers Jr. "shot down two German fighter planes while escorting a damaged bomber to its base," the AP reports.
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Tuskegee Airmen: 'Rock Stars' Of American History

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The number of living World War II veterans shrinks every week, and every time it does, another part of American history fades away. Last month, a distinguished group of black veterans — the nation's first black fighter pilots — reunited to drink a little, laugh a lot and swap war stories.