Florida Senate - 2020                            (NP)    SR 1904
       
       
        
       By Senator Broxson
       
       
       
       
       
       1-02495A-20                                           20201904__
    1                          Senate Resolution                        
    2         A resolution remembering the outstanding service of
    3         the late General Daniel “Chappie” James, Jr., as a
    4         member of the Tuskegee Airmen and throughout all of
    5         his distinguished military career, on the occasion of
    6         the 100th anniversary of his birth.
    7  
    8         WHEREAS, Daniel “Chappie” James, Jr., was born on February
    9  11, 1920, in Pensacola, not far from the current site of Naval
   10  Air Station Pensacola, and
   11         WHEREAS, Daniel “Chappie” James, Jr., grew up under the
   12  watchful eyes of his father, Daniel James, Sr., an employee of
   13  the Pensacola city gas company, and his mother, Lillie Anna
   14  James, a high school teacher who established a private school
   15  for her own and other African-American children in Pensacola,
   16  and
   17         WHEREAS, in 1937, Daniel “Chappie” James, Jr., enrolled at
   18  the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama and quickly made a name for
   19  himself as an athlete and as a campus leader, and
   20         WHEREAS, with the beginning of World War II, Daniel
   21  “Chappie” James, Jr., seized the opportunity afforded by
   22  Tuskegee University to pursue his dream of flying as a member of
   23  the Tuskegee Airmen, and
   24         WHEREAS, Daniel “Chappie” James, Jr., graduated from
   25  Tuskegee University in 1942 with a Bachelor of Science degree in
   26  physical education and, in July 1943, earned his commission as a
   27  second lieutenant, becoming one of the first African-American
   28  pilots in the United States Army Air Corps, and
   29         WHEREAS, in 1949, Daniel “Chappie” James, Jr., received the
   30  Distinguished Flying Cross for valor, and he went on to fly 101
   31  combat missions over Korea, and
   32         WHEREAS, Daniel “Chappie” James, Jr., flew 78 combat
   33  missions into North Vietnam and later, after he assumed the
   34  command at Wheelus Air Base in Libya, his handling of an
   35  incident involving Muammar Gaddafi led then-President Richard
   36  Nixon to nominate him in 1970 for brigadier general, and
   37         WHEREAS, Daniel “Chappie” James, Jr., was the first African
   38  American to hold the rank of four-star general, and
   39         WHEREAS, throughout his later life General Daniel “Chappie”
   40  James, Jr., kept alive the memory of the dignity and self
   41  sacrifice with which the Tuskegee Airmen served their country,
   42  and
   43         WHEREAS, General Daniel “Chappie” James, Jr., died of a
   44  heart attack on February 25, 1978, but he will forever be
   45  remembered as a fighter pilot with a magnificent record and as
   46  an American patriot, NOW, THEREFORE,
   47  
   48  Be It Resolved by the Senate of the State of Florida:
   49  
   50         That the Florida Senate remembers the outstanding service
   51  of the late General Daniel “Chappie” James, Jr., as a member of
   52  the Tuskegee Airmen and throughout all of his distinguished
   53  military career, on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of his
   54  birth.