RI Aviation Hall of Fame inducts 7 with R.I. ties, lauds Tuskegee

Aviation Hall of Fame inducts 7 with R.I. ties, lauds Tuskegee Airmen

01:00 AM EST on Sunday, November 22, 2009

Halton

William P. Armstrong, a member of the famous African-American aviator’s unit called the Tuskegee Airmen, died while piloting his plane in Austria during World War II.

Navy Lt. Cdr. Paul Gurnon played such a vital role in establishing military installations on Antarctica in the 1950s that a peninsula there was named after him.

And Antoine Gazda, an enemy fighter ace for Austria in World War I, switched his loyalty to the United States in World War II when he came to Providence to share his secret blueprints for antiaircraft guns.

They are among a handful who were recognized Saturday night at the seventh-annual induction ceremonies for the Rhode Island Aviation Hall of Fame, held at the Varnum Armory in East Greenwich.

This year, seven with Rhode Island connections were inducted. In addition, the organization recognized 15 Rhode Islanders who participated in the Tuskegee Experiment, the Army Air Corps program that trained African-Americans to fly and maintain combat aircraft from 1941 to 1949.

Four of this year’s inductees are living, including guest speakers Jim Keck, a retired Air Force lieutenant general and former vice commander of the Strategic Air Command, and his son, Tom Keck, also a retired Air Force lieutenant general who commanded the 8th Air Force. They are the only father-and-son team to have each flown at Mach 3, three times the speed of sound, both in an SR-71 Blackbird.

The other living inductees are Gurnon, who received special recognition from the U.S. Geologic survey for his service in Antarctica in Operation Deep Freeze, and George Chakoian, who flew 46 combat missions in the Pacific as a radio operator and gunner and who served as a project engineer specializing in airborne delivery of equipment to war zones.

Three are being inducted posthumously, including Gazda, whose weaponry work was so sensitive that while living at the Biltmore Hotel, he was under guard 24 hours a day and had the door to the suite next door bricked up. The other is Providence-born Army pilot William Halton, who shot down 10 aircraft in World War II and died in action in Korea in 1952.

The ceremony also recognized 15 Rhode Islanders who were part of the Tuskegee air corps, as well as two from Massachusetts with ties to Rhode Island. The Hall Fame continues to work on developing a complete list.

“Despite all the publicity given to the Tuskegee Airmen, no one has yet developed a definitive list of Rhode Islanders who are eligible for that designation,” said Frank Lennon, founder of the hall of fame. “This is the first step in that direction, although we will be the first to admit this is a work in progress.”

In addition to Armstrong, Rhode Islanders include Charles M “Moe” Adams, of Providence, an aviation cadet; Alfred Steward Barclay, of Newport, an aviation cadet killed in a 1945 training crash; Victor Butler, of North Providence, a mechanic; Pedro Carvalho, of Providence, a B-25 gunner; Peter Coelho, of East Providence, an administrative clerk; Ralph H. Davis, of East Providence, a mechanic and instructor; and Walter S. Gladding, of Providence, a flight officer murdered in Virginia while on leave.

Others were Kenneth Gross, of Providence, an armorer and gunner; William E. Hill, of Narragansett, a pilot killed on a 1943 training flight; Andrew L. Jackson, of Providence, a gunner; George S. Lima, of Fall River and Providence, a photographic officer; Benjamin D. Metts, of Providence, a radioman; Oscar Suggs, of Newport, a professional boxer who served at an Army Air Force base at Lockbourne; and Herman Wells, of Providence, a communications specialist.

The two from Massachusetts are Jack D. Bryant, of Boston, an aviation cadet who heads Bryant Associates, a Lincoln engineering firm, and James W. McLaurin, of Weymouth, a flight engineer whose daughter is an associate dean at Brown University.

Saturday, Nov 21, 2009

http://www.projo.com/news/content/TUSKEGEE_AIRMEN_11-22-09_73GH0FD_v18.34616d3.html