In Europe, he said, one of his proudest missions involved providing an escort for aircraft that would repatriate hundreds of downed crewmen who were being protected from the Germans by the Yugoslavians. “We went directly to Italy in the spring of 1944, and I served almost a year because I ended my time there in November.” “I served in the Mediterranean theater in WWII in the 302nd Squadron of the 332nd Fighter Group,” he said. McGee ended up flying in World War II for the Army as part of what are now called the Tuskegee Airmen - a group of Black pilots and ground personnel with a remarkable service record during the war. “ my first flight in a PT-17 - to be able to go up there and loop roll and spin and come back and put your feet on the ground - I was hooked! Never have I forgotten that first day.” “I heard about the aviation opportunity and passed the exams,” he said. McGee opted to get involved in something that interested him, and soon found himself in Tuskegee, Alabama, learning to fly military aircraft. The Army training Black aircraft mechanics meant the Army was also looking for Black pilots as well, McGee figured - something which interested him more than the prospect of being a ground-pounder with a rifle. “The Army policy was they couldn’t use pilots because they had no Black mechanics.” “I was in school university 14 miles away - and that’s really where I learned about the program,” he said. In nearby Rantoul, Illinois, McGee said he learned the Army Air Corps had set up a training school for Black aircraft mechanics on Chanute Air Field. “Had they, I would have probably been on the ground with that rifle,” he said. McGee figured it couldn’t last long the draft wouldn’t come after him, especially as things heated up in Europe. “But because I was in school, my draft board wasn’t pulling my number.”

“In ROTC I learned to handle a rifle pretty well,” he said. Less than four months prior, the Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, and the U.S. In March 1942, college student Charles McGee was studying engineering at the University of Illinois in Champaign. Tuskegee Airman Recalls WWII Service, Calls Freedom Key to Opportunity Retired Brigadier General Charles McGee, has died at the age of 102.

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