As reported in The Orlando Sentinel…

Orlando Science Center monument to honor Tuskegee Airmen Red Tail pilots

12-foot, $70,000 monument expected by Veterans Day

May 8 | By Jon Busdeker, Orlando Sentinel

More than 65 years after flying fighter planes over Europe, the Red Tail pilots of the Tuskegee Airmen will have a monument designed to honor their World War II exploits while inspiring kids to seek careers in aviation.

“It’s like a dream come true,” retired Red Tail pilot Leo Gray said Tuesday during a groundbreaking ceremony at the Orlando Science Center, where the monument will be installed. Gray, 88, of Fort Lauderdale, was one of three members of the all-black squadron who were spotlighted at the event. He was joined by George Hardy, 87, of Sarasota, and Hiram Mann, 91, of Titusville.

Scheduled for installation by Veterans Day at the museum in Loch Haven Park, the 12-foot monument will depict four P-51 Mustangs — the planes flown by Red Tail pilots — soaring from a bronze spire.

Paid for by Syd Levy, the owner of United Trophy in downtown Orlando and Flea World in Sanford, the $70,000 monument will stand on a marble base in a flower bed. Levy, whose brother was a pilot during World War II, said he met several Red Tail pilots and believed that the monument was a worthy cause.

Once installed, the monument will “celebrate the past while inspiring the future,” said Jeff Stanton of the Science Center.

The Tuskegee Airmen, who trained at Tuskegee Army Air Field in Alabama, were the first black military aviators in the U.S. The Red Tail pilots — an elite group of about 350 men — flew escort missions for bombers and earned their nickname because of the paint on the tail of their planes.

But away from battle, many of the airmen faced racial discrimination.

Hardy, who wore a Tuskegee Airmen baseball cap to Tuesday’s ceremony, said he never imagined as a young man flying planes in Europe that someday a monument would be built in honor of the Red Tails.

“We didn’t think about things like that in those days,” he said.

The monument is the result of two years of work by Levy and Mike McKenzie, the founder of Vision of Flight, an Orlando nonprofit that introduces students to careers in aviation. An avid pilot, McKenzie called the Red Tail pilots heroes.

McKenzie met several of the Red Tail pilots in 2011 at a luncheon at Fantasy of Flight, an air museum in Polk County. After the event, McKenzie was helping Gray get some items in a car and asked if there was anything else he could do.

“You can help us get a monument” was Gray’s response.

“I’m glad … to say we got that monument,” McKenzie said during Tuesday’s ceremony.

The monument is meant as a symbol of courage and triumph, Stanford said. It will also will fit in with the mission of the museum to encourage science learning for life and get students interested in technology, engineering and math.

“Science runs the aviation industry,” said Stanford.

After the groundbreaking, Mann, of Titusville, posed for pictures from his wheelchair and shook hands with fellow military men and women and several children who attended the event. The monument, he said is “late coming, but very welcomed.”