One of the original Tuskegee Airmen will speak about his experiences next month at the University of Central Arkansas.
Milton Pitts Crenchaw was the first black from Arkansas and one of the first in the country to be trained by the federal government as a civilian licensed pilot. He trained hundreds of cadet pilots while at Alabama’s Tuskegee Institute in the 1940s.
He served more than 40 years in the Army Air Corps and U.S. Air Force.
Crenchaw was born in 1919 in Little Rock. He was the first Arkansan to arrive at Moton Airbase in Tuskegee in 1939.
Crenchaw graduated with his civilian pilot license and then commercial pilot certificate in 1941. Crenchaw became a primary civilian flight instructor and eventually one of the two original supervising squadron commanders. He and Charles Foxx were the first instructors for the first group of student pilot trainees between 1941 and 1946 at the Tuskegee Institute.
The lecture will take place on Thursday, Nov. 3 from 12 – 1:30 p.m. in the Ida Waldran Auditorium on the campus of the University of Central Arkansas. This event is free and open to the public. It is hosted by UCA’ s history department.