Willie Rogers (Tuskegee) facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Master Sergeant
Willie Rogers
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Willie Rogers in 1943
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| Birth name | Willie N. Rogers |
| Born | April 12, 1915 Apalachicola, Florida, U.S. |
| Died | November 18, 2016 (aged 101) St. Petersburg, Florida, U.S. |
| Service/ |
United States Army Air Force |
| Years of service | 1942–1945 |
| Rank | Master sergeant |
| Unit | 100th Fighter Squadron |
| Awards | |
MSgt. Willie Rogers (April 12, 1915 – November 18, 2016) was a member of the famed group of World War II-era African-Americans known as the Tuskegee Airmen. He was shot twice in Italy during World War II.
Contents
Military service
Rogers was drafted into the United States Army 1942. He was sent to the European theater of the war, and served in a support role in logistics.
During a mission in Italy in 1943, he was wounded in action. He was shot twice, once in the stomach and once in the leg by German soldiers. Rogers spent several months recovering in a London Hospital.
Rogers arrived at the Dachau concentration camp in Germany shortly after it was liberated by American troops April 29, 1945. He and a contingent of Americans took an inventory of the camp.
Rogers did not tell his family that he was a member of the Tuskegee Airmen until 2012. There is a portrait of Rogers hanging in the St. Petersburg Museum of History.
Awards
- Congressional Gold Medal awarded to the Tuskegee Airmen in 2006
Education
- Claflin College of Agriculture and Mechanical Institute
- Tuskegee Institute (1942)
Personal life
Rogers was married and had children. He returned to Florida after WWII and opened Rogers’ Radio Sales and Service in St. Petersburg. He was a lifelong member of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. In 2016 at 101 years old Rogers died of a stroke.
See also
- List of Tuskegee Airmen
- Military history of African Americans
- The Tuskegee Airmen (movie)
