Move to the Tuskegee Airmen exhibit. During World War II, the U.S. military was racially segregated. Reflecting American society and law at the time, most black soldiers and sailors were restricted to labor battalions and other support positions. An experiment in the U.S. Army Air Forces, however, showed that given equal opportunity and training, African-Americans could fly in, command and support combat units. The USAAF’s African-American fliers, the “Tuskegee Airmen,” served with distinction in combat and directly contributed to the eventual integration of the U.S. armed services, with the U.S. Air Force leading the way. Lt. Mac Ross of Dayton was one of the first five graduates from the flying school at the Tuskegee Army Air Field. He died in 1944 after he crashed during a P-51 transitional training flight. Scotty Hathcock, also of Dayton, was the second Ohioan to become a Tuskegee Airman, and a number of other Ohio natives served with the group.