The territory’s own Tuskegee Airmen, Herbert Hosea Heywood and Henry E. Rohlsen, took the lumps and paved the way for generations of V.I. men and women to follow—including Heywood’s twin daughters Carmen and Cenita Heywood.
The Heywood twins spoke at Rotary of St. Croix’s luncheon at Gertrude’s Restaurant Thursday, sharing the story of the airmen, their experiences exploring their father’s past, and their efforts to preserve and spread information about these heroes.
Since founding the V.I. Chapter of the Tuskegee Airmen three years ago, Carmen and Cenita, who are the twin daughters of Heywood, have been working assiduously to commemorate the two known V.I. members of that fabled corps of black World War II pilots.
Their father was one of two Virgin Islanders to serve in the 332nd Fighter Group, more commonly known as the Tuskegee Airmen. Henry E. Rohlsen also joined the squad, and both he and Heywood graduated from the Tuskegee Flight School class of 44-C-SE on March 12, 1944, as second lieutenants. The airport on St. Croix is named for Rohlsen.
Today, the Tuskegee Airmen are the stuff of legend. School children read of the first unit of black pilots. Flying largely as fighter escorts for Allied bombardiers, the airmen flew more than 15,000 sorties, destroyed hundreds of German aircraft in the air and on the ground, received hundreds of medals and earned more than 15 Distinguished Flying Crosses, according to the national chapter of Tuskegee Airmen, Inc. and any number of textbooks.
The Tuskegee Airmen of the 332nd Fighter Group is the only WWII combat fighter wing not to lose any bomber under its escort to enemy fire—a unique achievement.
But at the time and even for years afterwards, those airmen did not think of the experience as glorious, Carmen said.
"Most of what you hear from the survivors today is about the negative," Carmen said.
Carmen and Cenita both entered the Air Force years later and had very positive experiences, were treated with respect and received invaluable training and experience, Carmen said.
"But for the Tuskegee Airmen, you can’t pull too much information from them because there was a lot of shame." Many of the airmen were arrested for trying to go to the base’s officers’ club and others were arrested for leaving the base and trying to socialize and explore the rural Alabama town near the base, she said.
Those airmen had permanent marks against their military records. Years later, the arrests and marks on their records were expunged, but many of the airmen died before that happened, she said.
"For my father, when he would talk, it was always about the negative," she said. "One story I remember, they went out as a group to go to the movies and young boys threw stones at them."
As a result, neither her father nor her father’s close friends shared that much of their wartime experiences. And when Carmen and Cenita—and their sister Marcelle—all chose to go into the military, their father discouraged them at first, saying it was not a good place for women.
Heywood was 19 when he joined the service in 1944—the same age as Cenita and Carmen when they joined three decades later in 1974. By then, times had changed. Cenita served 20 years. Carmen, who served eight years active duty, then three in the V.I. National Guard, recalls the experience, the responsibility bestowed upon her and the training received as completely positive experiences that helped her develop as a person and find a career.
She worked in avionics for Seaborne Airlines for a number of years, and now works at Juan F. Luis Hospital, overseeing and maintaining their dialysis equipment. She credits her military training for giving her the necessary skills.
Since founding the V.I. chapter of the Tuskegee Airmen, Carmen and Cenita have donated books to every public school on St. Croix, to the two St. Croix public libraries and to the University of the Virgin Islands. They make a point of marching in every Veterans Day and Memorial Day parade and never missing an opportunity to speak about and raise awareness of the V.I. connection to the fabled airmen.
The V.I. chapter meets on a monthly basis and anyone can join. Membership is $100 a year, half of which goes to the national organization and part of which goes to fund scholarships.
More about the Tuskegee Airmen can be found at the national organization’s website.
To find out about the local chapter and to join, you can call (340) 277-1677 or email: tuskegee.airmen.vi@gmail.com.
