On War and Marriage and Bad News and Faith (Stuff I'm Reading About)

I have been reading about Bonhoeffer, and his story is leading up to World War II.

I have been reading about biblical marriage, and how marriage is meant to work out the gospel in our lives, and yet our culture pushes envelope after envelope regarding this sacred institution every day.

I have been reading headlines, and they illustrate all too graphically that for all of the positive progress that has been made as the centuries go by, people are still just as prone to depraved acts as they ever were.

And my heart breaks and I want this broken world to be fixed back right and I wonder what place does faith have in it all. 

Everywhere I turn, there are crossways and intersections of ideas, realities, and truths, from the books to the news and even to the field trip I took with the girls today. We went to a small flight museum today and saw many planes that were from the WWII era, but what was an unexpected bonus is the special traveling exhibit that we were able to experience, "Rise Above."

This exhibit purposes to introduce people to a little known group of Airmen who had to fight to even be able to fight in the war on behalf of their country. The traveling exhibit shows a film that tells the story of the first African American pilots and their crews. It is an incredible story. These men wanted to be pilots for the U.S. military and eventually to go fight in a war against a leader who was systematically eradicating an entire race based on their heritage. Even as the U.S. entered the war supporting the Allies, at home they were still advocating the belief that black people were inferior to white people. At the time, segregation was still in full force. However, these young men found an ally themselves in an unexpected person: Eleanor Roosevelt. She visited the Tuskegee Army Air Field (an "experiment" of the Army) in 1941, before the U.S. had entered the war, and insisted on flying with one of the African American pilots. She had a photo taken of herself in the plane with Charles Anderson, the flight instructor at the time. According to her request, the photo was developed immediately so that she could take it back to the White House and show her husband, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and to encourage him to allow the Airmen to fly in combat. 

In 1943 they were sent to North Africa and eventually became escorts to the bombers. The Airmen were known by several names (as far as I can tell): the Red Tails (because of the color of the tails of their planes, which let other pilots know that they were an Allied plane), the 99th Squadron Fighters, and the Tuskegee Airmen. And they are the only squadron or escort unit never to have lost an escorted bomber. In fact, the bombers' pilots began to request that the "Red Tail Angels" escort them on their missions. 

While they were extraordinarily successful on their overseas missions, one of the most important achievements was to open the way for the desegregation of the military in 1948.

I'll save a rant over the fact that it took so unfathomably long for that to happen for another day. I, apparently, have some Very Strong Feelings regarding our country's race-relations history. It boggles my mind that, as a nation, the U.S. was so outraged about the treatment of the Jews, and yet were so slow to recognize how much needed to change on this side of the Atlantic. 

I wish everyone could know this story. I want to know more about it! While I feel blessed to have seen the film and to have learned about this hidden story from our nation's history, shaking the hand of one of the gentlemen who were a part of leaving such an incredible legacy was the highlight of my day. I told him it was an honor to meet him and I thanked him for his service. He smiled at me, and looking me straight in the eyes said,"God bless you." 

He certainly did.

And I find that bad news in a broken world is not the only constant. That faith that seems to waver at times? That faith that seems to be weak and fragile? That faith is actually the thing that, once I'm on my knees, is the one thing that can keep me on solid ground. 

Here are a couple of links if you want to learn more about these extraordinary men (I highly recommend that you do):

http://www.redtail.org/
http://docs.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/tuskegee.html

Comments

[Missy]

We are soul sisters. No doubt about it. I, too, have some deep seeded issues with our Country's race-relations history. We should chat about that someday. Wanting this broken world to be fixed up and healed, right along with you. Clinging to Hope in the Only One who can.