Jakkar AimeryThe Detroit News
Detroit — A World War II plane piloted by a Tuskegee Airman went down in 1944 in Lake Huron, and until a dive team serendipitously stumbled upon the remnants of the aircraft 70 years later, the plane, pilot and circ*mstances were lost to history.
The chance finding seven decades after the fatal flight resolved the mystery of the plane's whereabouts and spurred a documentary that would feature Michigan's place in history for the famed Tuskegee pilots.
Second Lt. Frank Moody of Los Angeles, California, was executing a routine training mission in his P-39 airplane from the Selfridge Air National Guard Base in Harrison Township in 1944 when a mechanical issue caused the aircraft to nosedive to the bottom of the second largest Great Lake.
His body was recovered 54 days after the crash, accident reports show. Settled in the depths, the 30-foot, 6,500 pound plane broke up in the crash and scattered to the ages, said Wayne Lusardi, a maritime archaeologist with the Michigan Department of Natural Resources.
The plane likely would have remained buried to the ages, but David and Drew Losinski, a father-son dive team intent on finding a barge and tugboat shipwrecks in the spring 2014 instead spotted in the clear waters of Huron the aircraft, buried in 30 feet of water and blanketed beneath the dirt.
More: Divers rescuing key parts of Tuskegee Airmen history from Lake Huron
They had found what they weren't looking for: the remnants of the first WW II plane located in Michigan, one whose pilot along with his squadron trained in Michigan, said Brian Smith, president of the Tuskegee Airmen National Historical Museum in Detroit.
Their find spurred the documentary "The Real Red Tails," which highlights the airmen's ties to the Arsenal of Democracy and the crash. The film recently screened in Detroit and premiered nationally on National Geographic. It can be streamed on Disney+ and Hulu.
"Most people probably do not know the famed Tuskegee Airmen trained right here in Detroit before going into combat during WWII," Smith said.
"This film documents our efforts to recover one of the planes lost during a training flight and in doing so, tells another untold story of the bravery and heroism of the Tuskegee Airmen. National Geographic brings this story to life in a way that adds another dimension to Detroit’s rich history as the Arsenal of Democracy during WWII."
Smith said that Moody, the 22-year-old pilot, was among America’s first Black military airmen during World War II. The Tuskegee Airmen overcame segregation and prejudice and became one of the most highly respected fighter groups of World War II, the U.S Air Forces Central website said. The first aviation cadet class began in July 1941 and completed training nine months later in March 1942, according to the Tuskegee Airmen National Historical Museum. The pilots protected and escorted bomber aircrafts in combat across European skies.
Selfridge served as one of several key training sites for the all-Black units.
The Great Lakes were an advanced training site for the pilots, who would train in P-39 aircrafts, engines purring and producing thunderous sounds while flying 300 mph and 50 feet above sea level from Selfridge to Muskegon and back, Smith said.
"Michigan's Great Lakes coastlines simulated the coast of France; they were practicing to invade France," Smith said. "That's how they came to Michigan."
Seventy years later, the father-son dive team said they had no idea they were looking at a Tuskegee plane when they conducted their dive in 2014.
"I didn't find out about the Tuskegee Airman until we found out it was a military plane. We did some research about it and got interested ...," David Losinski said.
Lusardi said once the DNR learned of the discovery, a recovery team pulled fragments of the plane from Lake Huron.
Interest in creating the documentary spiked when its producer, Erin Reuss, was conducting research on separate National Geographic projects, she said.
"Discussions with Dr. Brian Smith and Wayne Lusardi highlighted the significance of the story, enabling me to develop it into a one-hour program that showcases the incredible story of Frank Moody and his fellow airmen," Reuss said.
The Tuskegee Airmen formed the 332nd Fighter Group and the 477th Bombardment Group of the United States Army Air Forces, which was composed of navigators, bombardiers, mechanics, instructors, crew chiefs, nurses, cooks and other support personnel for the pilots, according to the U.S Air Forces Central.
The 332nd Fighter Group in 1943 prepared for combat at Selfridge from March to December, according to the Tuskegee Airmen National Historical Museum website. The Tuskegee pilots flew planes known as Red Tails, named for the painted tails on the fighter planes.
Tuskegee Airman Bill Welborne lives in Detroit and remembered being stationed at Selfridge in 1948, about three years after the war.
The Tuskegee Airman, he said, played a critical role in history, despite enduring racism and harsh treatment. A military memo dated October 1925 lays out what they faced during their service: "The Negro is physically qualified for combat. He is by nature subservient and believes himself to be inferior to the white man. ... He is mentally inferior to the white man."
Welborne did not know Moody, but was close to servicemen who flew with him, he said. He described the documentary as "amazing," but recalled times at Selfridge and training in the South as "hell" because of racial tension and inequality.
Welborne, 91, said Black servicemen battled in the war overseas, came back home and found they were second-class citizens, facing more harsh treatment and segregation.
"They would call you 'boy' and the n-word ... and they would let us in stores like little kids, one-by-one," Welborne told The Detroit News. "... But if (the Red Tails) hadn't been there, escorting the bombers over there, (the United States) wouldn't have won the war."
In 1948, President Harry Truman barred racial segregation in the U.S. military forces and directed equality and opportunity in the armed services.
Ayisha Mumin of West Bloomfield, who was at the screening in Detroit, said the documentary pieced together details that she hoped would provide peace to Moody's relatives. The film also made her proud, she said.
"I thought it was amazing to see the contributions that went into bringing it all together," said Mumin, who is Black. "I hope we continue to tell the story of the contributions that African Americans had to aviation then and will continue to have today and in the future.
"It's a sense of pride, just to know the role that Michigan played as a part of history, and the contributions to the training and developments of the those groundbreaking Black pilots," Mumin said.
jaimery@detroitnews.com
