Tuskegee memories: Raymond Cassagnol

[Ishish]

Tuskegee memories: Raymond Cassagnol's Tuskegee training helped start the Haitian air force - Interview

by John B. IV Dendy


Combat situations flew through the computer at Raymond Cassagnol's home in Mobile, Ala., as he wrote the memoirs of his rich 81-year life.

He had a long way to go -- maybe 150 pages -- before he penned the passage about enlisting in Haiti's original air force. Then there were the pilot's wings he earned with America's Tuskegee Airmen, followed by returning to defend his Haitian homeland from invading Nazi submarines in World War II.

As he refined his draft, snippets re-entered his memory in dialects of French, Spanish, Creole and English. He kept writing them, like notes into a flight plan.

As the last of Haiti's original military airmen, Cassagnol's odyssey is already 250 pages and thousands of miles long. To his knowledge, he's the last airman remaining of the six Haitians sent for pilot training at Tuskegee Institute in Tuskegee, Ala. And he laments that he limited his contacts with that hallowed ground of aviation training history since the war ended.

"When you haven't seen something in a long time, it looks small to the imagination. That's why Tuskegee is just a 'remembrance field' to me now," he said. "One day, a friend who was in the American military said he saw my picture in the Smithsonian," Cassagnol said. "I said, 'I'd like to see that.' I went, and there it was. Haitians are part of American aviation history."

Cassagnol was one of three ainnen who left Haiti for America in January 1943. He's still alive, but the others met different fates in life. One was involved in an attack on the Haitian presidential palace in the 1960s. He was killed and dragged through the streets. The other was arrested after he retired. Nobody knew what happened to him after that.
"I avoided the places where I wouldn't be welcome," he said.

Training was rough. Cadets washed out for stupid things three days from graduation, and Cassagnol said "it took an act of God to save" a doomed Tuskegee cadet. "I lived it, so I know." Cassagnol said people tried to shut down "the Tuskegee experiment," as naysayers called the training. There were many pressures on the cadets and leadership to perform.
"It took courage," he said. "Other people might have given up. We didn't. When I went there, I didn't go to play. I went to fly, so I concentrated on that. Thank God for the results."

Cassagnol received his diploma in July 1943. A Tuskegee newspaper published an article describing the three new Haitian pilots as a "Triple threat to the Axis." Three other Haitians arrived before he left and noticed his sergeant's stripes. They told him he'd earned his commission as a second lieutenant in the Haitian air force upon graduation. His success made the radio news in Haiti.

There were other surprises in store for Cassagnol. The "Triple Threat to the Axis" stood by in Miami to ferry two Vultee BT-13 "Valiant" warplanes the U.S. government was sending to Haiti. While they waited -- in the well-pressed American uniforms they'd been issued -- Haitian prejudice shot them down. Two civilian-trained Haitian pilots flew the planes to Haiti instead.

"It would have been a disgrace for some Haitians to see Tuskegee pilots flying those planes," he said. "It was not laudable. We deserved better treatment." Once home, Cassagnol married his sweetheart. But he had trouble readjusting to life in Haiti. He couldn't stand the injustices taking place with the oppressive dictatorship. Cassagnol saw the government of those days as "an occupying force that would bring Haiti to its knees" within his lifetime. So he stayed in Haiti and left its military after the war.

He owned a sawmill and went to work as a lumberman. But he continued flying, and bought a used BT-13 to ferry his own supplies. Today, he still favors the plaid flannel shirts of a woodsman. The rising injustice in his country continued to bother him, So he sought asylum in the Dominican Republic in 1962. Then he moved to the United States.
Today, Cassagnol is the last remaining Haitian with silver wings from Tuskegee. He first returned to Haiti in 1986 and now visits the island regularly. And in 1999, he gave 200 acres of his land on the hilly isle to a charitable organization.

Then, in November 2000, Cassagnol returned to Tuskegee. A lot had changed in 57 years.
"I visualized myself standing there as a 22-year-old. Now I'm 81, with goose bumps and remembrances," he said. "I'm glad I went." Cassagnol wanted to visit Tuskegee for some time. But he said he was waiting for the right moment, rather than forcing things.
When the time was right, "revisiting Tuskegee was a dream come true," the aviator said.

[lakay509]

Chichadò, ou poste yon bann ak yon pakèt infòmativ post isit la. Sèl bagay mwen te mande...si'w ou te ka lage yon ti personal commentaire ladan, li tap bel anpil. Ou konprann?

[Ishish]

Non visye mwen pa konprann :-). Mwen pa renmen mete personal comments sou literati si literati a deja anpil. Yon bagay ka manke. Yon post konsa fe m fye menm jan mwen panse li fe tout ayisyen fye tou. Nou te toujou la!

[lakay509]

ou wè bèl ti kòmantè ou lage paske mwen mande. Si'm pat mande ou patap kouman sa fè'w fyè kòm Aysyèn...From that comment alone, I learned something new. What is it you may ask? That you are Haitian... :-)