Tuskegee Airmen (Kentucky)

At least 11 of the Tuskegee cadets were from Kentucky, including Colonel Noel Parrish from Versailles. In August 2007 the section of highway I-75 in Fayette County, KY was designated the "Tuskegee Airmen Memorial Trail"; the trail was extended to the entire length of I-75 in KY in July 2010. The state of Kentucky was the first to name a portion of a highway system in honor of the Tuskegee pilots (officially the United States Army Air Corps' 332nd Fighter Group).

On March 29, 2007, the Tuskegee Airmen were honored with a gold medal; five of the Airmen from Kentucky were in attendance at the ceremony in the Capitol Rotunda in Washington, D.C.

Not long before that (in February 2007), a rendering of the bust of Kentucky native Willa Brown [Chappell] by Ron Spriggs and Prof. Bobby Scroggins was unveiled at the Kentucky Capitol Rotunda; it is now installed at the Kentucky History Museum in Frankfort, KY. Willa Brown had trained many of the men who became Tuskegee pilots.

For more see the Kentucky Governor's press release, "Governor Fletcher, Kentucky Transportation Cabinet honor first African-American military pilots," 8/10/2007; Kentucky Educational Television (KET) Connections with Renee Shaw, Season 9, Episode 14: Tuskegee Airmen Historians, 12/26/2013 [online video]; "Sculpture honors Tuskegee Airmen trainer," Lexington Herald-Leader, 2/23/2007, City&Region section, p. C1; HR144; and Ron Spriggs Exhibit of Tuskegee Airmen at 100 Mason Springs Drive in Nicholasville, KY.