10/12/2022
While serving as mentor to George C. Marshall, Dwight Eisenhower, Omar Bradley , George S. Patton & Douglas MacArthur, General John J. “Black Jack” Pershing was elevated to General of the Armies (essentially a Six Star General), but General George Washington will forever be “1st in War, 1st in Peace & 1st in the hearts of his countrymen.”
Today, we honor Lt. Col. Lee “Buddy” Archer, a decorated member of the Tuskegee Airmen—African American aviators who served with distinction during World War II. On October 12, 1944, Archer was flying a mission over Hungary and Slovakia when, in the span of 10 minutes, he shot down three German-made fighters flown by the Hungarian Air Force. He received the Distinguished Flying Cross in 1945 in recognition of his actions.
Born in 1919 in Yonkers, New York, Lee Archer grew up in Harlem. He attended college at New York University before voluntarily enlisting in the U.S. Army in 1941. Archer wanted to become an aviator, but the Army initially rejected him from pilot training on account of his race. Instead, he was sent to Camp Wheeler in Macon, Georgia for infantry training. On the trip there, Archer experienced segregation when his train reached Washington, D.C. and all the Black passengers were moved to the front car, directly behind the coal-burning locomotive. “That was my first shock of being an American of color,” Archer said in a 2004 oral history.
In December 1942, Archer learned that the U.S. Army Air Forces had started training Black pilots at the Tuskegee Army Airfield in Alabama, near the historically Black Tuskegee Institute. He volunteered to join and graduated first in his class.
Archer shot down his first enemy fighter on July 18, 1944. He was flying a P-51 Mustang fighter plane, with the Tuskegee Airmen’s distinctive red tail. Speaking about the incident in a 2007 interview, he explained: “I got a good burst in it, and the right wing kind of fell off and the German pilot bailed out.” Archer circled the parachuting pilot until he landed. “And then,” he recalled, “I buzzed down to him, pulled up, did a slow roll and wriggled my wings to say, ‘glad you are safe.’”
Three months later, on October 12, Archer shot down the three enemy planes. Yet after the war, he rarely spoke about this accomplishment. Instead, he chose to speak publicly about the collective accomplishments of the Tuskegee Airmen in advancing African American civil rights.
During World War II, Archer flew 169 combat missions over 11 nations. He explained that the Tuskegee Airmen’s mission —to protect bombers flying out of Italy — prevented them from becoming aces (fighter pilots with at least five victories). “Our commander refused to let us pursue,” he said. “They told us, ‘You stay with the bombers,’ which kept some pilots from becoming aces.”
Archer transitioned to the Air Force after its creation as a separate service branch in 1947. He retired in 1970 as a lieutenant colonel. His accomplishments in the cockpit helped dispel racist stereotypes, proving that African Americans could be excellent pilots. His skills also helped save American lives — those of his fellow pilots and the bomber crews they protected. He is interred in Section 6.
