In May, 1944, Col. Harold Brown graduated from Tuskegee Institute (now Tuskegee University) and was assigned to the 332nd Fighter Group. During World War II, Col. Brown flew 30 missions as a bomber-escort fighter pilot before being shot down on a strafing mission and held as a German POW. He was liberated by General George Patton’s forces in 1945. After the war ended, he continued to serve in the U.S. Air Force, retiring in 1965 as a Lieutenant Colonel, with 23 years of active duty service. Brown’s newly-released memoir chronicles his wartime experiences as one of the famed Tuskegee Airmen, fighting two wars at once: one against Hitler’s fascist regime overseas and one against racial segregation at home.

On August 15, Brown along with his co-author and wife Marsha Bordner will discuss the book and screen a short film about Brown’s life in the Archives’ Joseph M. Farley Alabama Power Auditorium. Keep Your Airspeed Up: The Story of a Tuskegee Airman (2017) is published by the University of Alabama Press. Copies will be available for purchase at the event.