RICHARD R. HALL, JR

Chief Master Sergeant Richard R. Hall, Jr. 1923-2021

There’s a statue of a World War II hero on the west side of Tails airborne, continued his Air Force career through three decades Winter Park. As war memorials go, it’s understated: just a life- and two more wars — Korea and Vietnam — before retiring in 1973. sized reproduction of a man wearing a red blazer and standing In Korea, he flew on bombing runs and manned guns on B-52s. by the front door of the Hannibal Square Heritage Center on New Back in Winter Park, Hall never sought the spotlight — but it someEngland Avenue. times found him regardless. He participated in a compilation of oral his-

You’d have to have to ask somebody what that blazer stood for to tories and photographs of west side senior citizens called the Sage Project, understand the battles, fought and won, that it represents. Maybe it’s developed by Peter Schreyer, executive director of the Crealdé School of better that way. Art. And in 2019, he was the Grand Marshall during Eatonville’s Martin

The statue, erected in 2015, is Luther King Jr. Day parade. of Chief Master Sergeant Richard Born in Brooks County, GeorHall, Jr., who was raised in Win- gia, Hall moved with his family as ter Park and retired to the area an infant to Winter Park, where he after a lengthy military career. He grew up in a three-room shotgun died in January at the age of 97 as home on Swoope Avenue built one of the last surviving members by his father. He was baptized in of the 332nd Fighter Group. the church pool at Mount Moriah

The members of the 332nd are Baptist Church, where his mothperhaps better known as the leg- er was a clerk and his father was endary Tuskegee Airmen — also a deacon. dubbed the Red Tails — the coun- Three years ago, as part of a try’s first African American military story I was writing about the Heraviators. Hall (pictured in white circle), along with 300 other surviving Tuskegee Airmen, itage Center and the Sage Project,

In the early part of the 20th received the Congressional Gold Medal in 2007 in ceremonies at the Capitol I visited with Hall. When I asked century, Blacks were banned Rotunda presided over by President George W. Bush. about his feelings regarding the from serving as pilots in the mil- racism that he’d been subjected itary under the blatantly racist premise that they were neither intelli- to, he quickly changed the subject, seemingly more interested in disgent nor brave enough. As World War II neared, President Franklin cussing black and white photos from his Red Tail days and pointing D. Roosevelt authorized the enlistment of Black airmen. out favorite comrades.

Roosevelt’s wife, Eleanor, took on the cause, famously traveling to the Recently, remembering Hall’s reticence and knowing she was close unit’s training base in Tuskegee, Alabama, to don a set of goggles and — to him, I asked Barbara Chandler, manager of the Heritage Center, to the astonishment of her bodyguards — fly as a passenger with one of if she could explain his unwillingness to engage on an issue that had the airmen. finally, it seemed, come to the forefront.

“Red Tails” would become the nickname of both the aviators and the “Even when you’re seen as a hero, sometimes you don’t want to nimble P-31 and P-51 Mustangs they flew after they painted the tails relive it,” she said. “What you experienced was his humility and his of the planes red to distinguish themselves from other fighter groups. genuine love for people and the country that he served. Those are the

They saw action in Europe, strafing enemy targets and protecting good stories he told you, not the bad. Those are the things he wanted U.S. bombers during long-distance air raids. In all, the unit notched to make sure everyone would remember.” more than 1,500 missions and 15,000 sorties. They were credited Surely, then, he’d want us to remember this: with destroying 261 enemy aircraft. On March 29, 2007, at an emotional gathering in Washington,

Later, during the post-war years, the red blazers Tuskegee veterans D.C., President George W. Bush awarded the Congressional Gold began wearing to reunions became a symbol of their courage in anoth- Medal to the more than 300 surviving Tuskegee Airmen present, deer arena: confronting racism, both during their training in the Deep livering a salute from the stage and saying: “For all the unreturned South and upon their return. salutes and unforgivable indignities, I salute you for your service to

In one much-publicized incident, a small group of Red Tail pilots the United States of America.” stormed into an officer’s club from which they were banned because of Recalled Hall: “I sat right up front. I got to shake the president’s their race. The horrified public reaction helped to accelerate the early hand twice — once when he came in and once when he left. It was a Civil Rights movement. real honor.” As I see it, Chief Master Sergeant Hall, the honor was his.

Hall, who served as a member of the ground crews that kept the Red — Michael McLeod

Hall appears a bit bemused by the statue in his honor at the Hannibal Square Heritage Center.