POLK CITY, Florida USA — For the fifth year, Fantasy of Flight will once again welcome the Tuskegee Airmen when it kicks off its 2013 Legends & Legacies Symposium Series Thursday, Feb. 7, through Saturday, Feb. 9. The attraction will celebrate Black History Month not only by hosting a three-day limited engagement event called “They Dared to Fly” featuring several surviving Tuskegee Airmen, but also by sponsoring its third annual student essay contest in which students are encouraged to write about the values of leadership, excellence, advocacy and determination (LEAD) embodied by the Tuskegee pilots.
“They Dared to Fly” is scheduled to feature several open-forum/question-and-answer sessions as well as meet/greet autograph signings with five of the original Tuskegee Airmen. Of the original group of nearly 1,000 trained pilots and 15,000 ground personnel that made up the Tuskegee Airmen, roughly 40 pilots and 200 ground crew are alive today. In 2007, President George W. Bush awarded the surviving Airmen the Congressional Gold Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest civilian award.
For the first time, the event will be moderated by pilot and educator Barrington Irving. Raised in Miami’s inner city, surrounded by crime, poverty, and failing schools, he beat the odds to become the youngest person and only African American ever to fly solo around the world. He built a plane himself, made his historic flight, graduated magna cum laude from an aeronautical science program, and founded an educational nonprofit Experience Aviation to boost the numbers of youth in aviation and other science and math related careers — all before the age of 28.
The impact of the Tuskegee Airmen on his career was profound, Irving said. “The Tuskegee Airmen’s legacy is one that we should never forget. Early on in my career, I had the opportunity to work with Lieutenant Colonel Leo Gray and a local Airmen’s chapter in Miami. These men were a great inspiration to me. They had fought two wars — one for their country and another for equality and respect when they got back home. They are my heroes.”