212772 Major Bernard Shaw Proctor United States Air Force Tuskagee Airmen 99th Fighter Squadron from:West Chester, PA Dr. Proctor was selected as a young man to go to Tuskegge (Alabama) Institute. He became an officer in the Original 99th Fighter Squadron, Tuskagee Airmen, and fought for almost two years in North Africa, Italy and France during World War II.
For his service he received numerous military awards, including 12 battle stars, three distinguished unit citations and the Euorpean-African-Middle Eastern ribbon.
In an interview in 2003, Dr. Proctor told how he encountered racial discrimination as a youngster on the playground at an elementary school.
When a white student fell at recess, the teaching attendant would comfort the child. When Dr. Proctor, who was of West Indian and African American ancestry, fell, no one reacted.
"I learned from that experience that it's better not to fall and expect people to brush you off," he said.
Later, as mess hall officer and adjutant for the 99th Fighter Squadron and 332nd Fighter Group, he was singled out for grueling inspections of the dining hall. Any dirt particle resulted in a half-hour lectur for Dr. Proctor.
After proving to his superior, Gen. Benjamin O. Davis, Jr. and African American, that the facility was the cleanest in the unit, the lectures stopped. "The inspector changed his attitudr," he told the interviewer.
Dr. Proctor also said he encountered a belief in the military that a black man could not pilot a plane, let alone fly it in combat.
The performance of the airmen in 1943, he said in the oral history, proved that "the world could never again say that a black man couldn't shoot down enemy airplanes."
Dr. Proctor was honorably discharged from the Air Force reserve in 1958 with the rank of major.
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