Spring Break
Professor's hobbies lead to aviator presentation
Heather Holm / Activities Editor
Issue date: 2/17/09 Section: News
Doug Lawhead studies and dissects model aircrafts as one of his hobbies.
"I like building historically-accurate models of military vehicles," said the journalism professor.
Historically accurate does not mean right out of a box, Lawhead said.
"I customize them from the real models," he said. "Typically when I build one, someone has a connection to that vehicle."
A model he has used in the past is his father's army tank. However, Lawhead's main interest these days is Charlie Hall. Lawhead will present Hall's story as part of the African-American Heritage Month event "Tuskegee Airman and Other Coles County Ties to Black Aviation History" at 7 p.m. today in the Effingham Room of the Martin Luther King Jr. University Union.
Hall attended Eastern in the fall of 1938 and went on to become one of the Tuskegee Airmen in World War II. Lawhead is currently working on a small reconstruction of the P-40 plane Hall piloted during the war.
"I was aware of Charlie Hall and what he has accomplished and how he is connected to Eastern," Lawhead said.
Hall was the only black student attending Eastern in the late 1930s, Lawhead said. He came to Eastern on an athletic scholarship and attended the university for two years. Instead of attending college for his junior year, Hall attended the Tuskegee Institute in Tuskegee, Ala. in March 1941.
Lawhead thinks the space between when Hall attended Eastern and when he went to Tuskegee might have been when Hall took flight training.
"After he got to Tuskegee, he survived the program," Lawhead said. "It was a tough program. There were 13 candidates who started in the first program and only five graduated and got their wings in the U.S. Army as Army Air Corps pilots."
Lawhead said Hall was in the 99th Fighter Squadron in World War II and was the trailblazer of a lot of firsts.
He was the first black pilot to lead a combat mission, the first to receive the Distinguished Flying Cross, the first to shoot down an enemy aircraft in American uniform and the first to shoot down two enemy aircrafts in one mission.
Lawhead said racism was still prominent for African Americans during the war.
"Black pilots with tremendous amounts of experience were not allowed to serve even after things got started at Tuskegee," he said.
Lawhead found out that even after the war, nothing changed.
"He was rejected from the airlines because of color and with the help of another airman got a job with the Federal Aviation Agency and worked there until he died from leukemia in 1971," Lawhead said.
Lawhead will also present the story of Grover C. Nash. Nash was the first black pilot to carry airmail from Chicago to Mattoon to Charleston, and then back to Chicago on the 20th anniversary of airmail.
Lawhead will also talk about how the first African-American pilot to get their pilot's license was an African-American woman who attained the license in France.
Lawhead said the campus needs to be aware of the historical significance of these two people.
"Personally, what Charlie Hall did is extremely significant historically, and most people on campus probably had no idea who he was, and Coles County probably has no idea what Grover Nash did," Lawhead said.
Heather Holm can be reached at 581-7942 or at haholm@eiu.edu.
"I like building historically-accurate models of military vehicles," said the journalism professor.
Historically accurate does not mean right out of a box, Lawhead said.
"I customize them from the real models," he said. "Typically when I build one, someone has a connection to that vehicle."
A model he has used in the past is his father's army tank. However, Lawhead's main interest these days is Charlie Hall. Lawhead will present Hall's story as part of the African-American Heritage Month event "Tuskegee Airman and Other Coles County Ties to Black Aviation History" at 7 p.m. today in the Effingham Room of the Martin Luther King Jr. University Union.
Hall attended Eastern in the fall of 1938 and went on to become one of the Tuskegee Airmen in World War II. Lawhead is currently working on a small reconstruction of the P-40 plane Hall piloted during the war.
"I was aware of Charlie Hall and what he has accomplished and how he is connected to Eastern," Lawhead said.
Hall was the only black student attending Eastern in the late 1930s, Lawhead said. He came to Eastern on an athletic scholarship and attended the university for two years. Instead of attending college for his junior year, Hall attended the Tuskegee Institute in Tuskegee, Ala. in March 1941.
Lawhead thinks the space between when Hall attended Eastern and when he went to Tuskegee might have been when Hall took flight training.
"After he got to Tuskegee, he survived the program," Lawhead said. "It was a tough program. There were 13 candidates who started in the first program and only five graduated and got their wings in the U.S. Army as Army Air Corps pilots."
Lawhead said Hall was in the 99th Fighter Squadron in World War II and was the trailblazer of a lot of firsts.
He was the first black pilot to lead a combat mission, the first to receive the Distinguished Flying Cross, the first to shoot down an enemy aircraft in American uniform and the first to shoot down two enemy aircrafts in one mission.
Lawhead said racism was still prominent for African Americans during the war.
"Black pilots with tremendous amounts of experience were not allowed to serve even after things got started at Tuskegee," he said.
Lawhead found out that even after the war, nothing changed.
"He was rejected from the airlines because of color and with the help of another airman got a job with the Federal Aviation Agency and worked there until he died from leukemia in 1971," Lawhead said.
Lawhead will also present the story of Grover C. Nash. Nash was the first black pilot to carry airmail from Chicago to Mattoon to Charleston, and then back to Chicago on the 20th anniversary of airmail.
Lawhead will also talk about how the first African-American pilot to get their pilot's license was an African-American woman who attained the license in France.
Lawhead said the campus needs to be aware of the historical significance of these two people.
"Personally, what Charlie Hall did is extremely significant historically, and most people on campus probably had no idea who he was, and Coles County probably has no idea what Grover Nash did," Lawhead said.
Heather Holm can be reached at 581-7942 or at haholm@eiu.edu.
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