March 11, 1945

Marsille P. Reed, an original Arkansas Tuskegee Airman from Tillar (Drew County), graduated as a member of the class 45-A-SE. Arkansas’s original Tuskegee Airmen were a part of a segregated group composed of African-American Army Air Corps cadets, personnel, and support staff known as the Tuskegee Airmen. Twelve Arkansans were known to have performed and maintained various roles at the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. Those roles included flight instructor, pilot, flight officer, engineer, bombardier, navigator, radio technician, air traffic controller, parachute rigger, weather observer, medical professional, and electronic communications specialist. The term “original” is applied to the individuals who received government and civilian instructional training while at Tuskegee between 1941 and 1946.