Apparently on the 332nd cared about protecting Bombers, all other groups were mavericks. I'll explain.

[Dan Johnson]

Long time lurker, first time poster. I wanted to throw out some food for thought in regards to the original post. I've spent a lot of time researching a crew that went down from the 454th BG of the 15th Air Force. When I got started back in the early 90s there were 3 of the original 5 surviving crewmen left. One of them, the bombardier had taken the time to write his story for his family. It was never meant for publication, so there is no political correctness in it, and it was written long before any Red Tails movie, including the first one back in the mid 90s.

In the course of writing his story, the following comment showed up regarding fighter escorts, and is a direct quote:

"We usually met our fighter escort before we left the Adriatic, although they hated the job and often went after fighters the Germans sent up to lure them away. The only Air Corps black combat group in WW2 was a P51 fighter group who flew cover for us in Italy. We could count on them more then the white boys to stay with us under attack. They didn't seem as anxious as the other groups to chase German fighters."

Depending on how you read it, you could even take the last sentence as a slight against the Red Tails, that they were afraid to go after fighters. I believe that DragonDog is accurate in that the 332nd had that much more reason to not chase because of the consequences of their actions were scrutinized that much harder.

In the trailer, the General's remark is something to the effect, 'will you protect my bombers."

I do believe that within the bomber ranks, there was a perception, regardless of how the fighter guys really felt, that the Red Tails were more likely to stick around. That doesn't mean the other FGs cared less. I think it does indicate that Ben Davis wasn't about to give anyone looking for an excuse, a reason to criticize his Group for obvious reasons.

All that being said, I've very wary of this upcoming movie. Beyond the obvious accuracy in markings mistakes etc, it would be very easy to, for lack of a better word, "romanticize" or even make the story way to melodramatic.

My hope is that it will at least get kids to do a little more digging into the real story. The youngest of my four kids is African American and he loves Mustangs. I never had to think about it much, sharing my WW2 aviation passion with my older son. With my little guy, it's going to be a bit harder discussion having to explain to him that back then, he and his brother could not have flown together.