An agent who was in our office is a celebrated hero from World War Two. His name is Les Williams. One of the Tuskegee Airman, perhaps you saw the recent movie about him and these other courageous men. Les, one of the kindest men in the world, received the Congressional Medal of Honor for his service as a Tuskegee Airman during World War II. Les, now in his 90’s, wrote a book of his experiences entitled: “Victory: Tales of a Tuskegee Airman”. 
 


I would like to help Les with the sales of his book. If you are interested in owning a piece of history from a man who was part of it, please contact me, 650-403-6253, to place your order. The cost of the book is $20.00. If you would like to donate an additional $5.00 or more, Les will autograph the book for you. If you’re a history buff, or would just like to help out a man, who has done so much for us, let me know.

Lee Engdahl, Broker 650-403-6253

Excerpt from: VICTORY Tales of a Tuskegee Airman

by Les Williams

"By the time Williams graduated from high school he had to find a way to pay for college tuition. He turned to his passion—tap dancing—and opened a small studio to finance his studies. He graduated from San Mateo Junior College in 1939 but liked teaching dance so much he kept the business going. Then Pearl Harbor was hit. Williams joined his friends—all white—in applying for the Army Air Corps.

“I wanted to serve. I was very patriotic,” he recalls, “And I didn’t want to get drafted because I thought that as a black man I’d be drafted as an infantryman. And I’d seen so many infantrymen after WWI with amputated limbs. Dancing was my life. I thought—I’d rather crash and die than wind up unable to dance. So I set my sights on flying.”

His application was never even processed and he was soon drafted into the lowest level of service: the quartermasters.

To keep his spirits up, he joined fellow quartermasters in a dance troupe—and they were soon performing for officers and visiting dignitaries. It was after one performance that a general congratulated Williams on the show and asked if he could help him in any way. “I immediately said that I wanted to be a pilot,” he recalls.

By the following week, Williams was on his way to Tuskegee Army Air Field in Alabama where an experimental training program for “negroes” had just been established. The military, like much of American society, was segregated and African Americans had not been allowed to fly. The racism that Williams encountered from the white flight instructors was fierce, and the Tuskegee Airmen had to endure a lot of abuse to get through their training."

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