The Tom Mayfield Sr. Scholarship Breakfast is Saturday, June 13, 2009 at 8AM at the Ramblewood Country Club in Mt. Laurel.
Contact Bro. Guy Williams guy.williams@ibx.com for ticket information.
For decades the Tuskegee Airmen of World War II were largely ignored and denegrated despite official desegration of the U.S. military in 1948.
But eventually, starting in the 1980s, the recognition and honors began rolling in at national and local levels.
Retired Lt. Col. Thomas Mayfield of Willingboro flew Tuskegee fighter planes escorting U.S. bombers over Europe.
“It’s always a great day when we can honor the Tuskegee Airmen and all our veterans who persevered to protect our freedom.
Mayfield, a West Virginia native, has called Willingboro home since retiring from the Air Force in 1971. He later worked 15 years as a special ed teacher in Pemberton.
Mayfield came lives with his wife Barbara.
“I was in my third year of college when some of my friends said we should enlist, so I went with them,” he said. “Later that day, I decided I didn’t want to go, but the recruiting officer said I had signed the papers and that was that.” By 10 p.m. he was on a train heading for Ohio.
Mayfield tells stories about the harassment and discrimination they endured, and how the Tuskegee Airmen had to fight for the right to serve and even die.
“Perseverance got us through,” Mayfield said. “We stuck together. Otherwise, we’d never have made it.
