‘Living history’ as Tuskegee Airman highlights 99th Squadron graduation
Ramone Hemphill stands confidently on a stage before the crowd, speaking to the captivated audience about the importance of Black representation in the aviation industry. Sitting a few feet away from Hemphill is 102-year-old Daniel Keel, a Documented Original Tuskegee Airman.
In the crowd below, front row, sits 15-year-old Christopher Lyons, who aspires to become a licensed pilot, flight instructor and even an astronaut physician exploring the boundaries of outer space. The three, Black flight-enthusiasts are from different generations, but share the same euphoria of guiding aircraft above the terrain.
“I’m fascinated by planes and how they work. I like the sensation of being in the air,” said Lyons, of Indian Harbour Beach, who said he recently flew a small plane from the ground into the skies above while led by a flight instructor. “There’s not many other things you can do to feel that sensation. It felt like a roller coaster.”
Lyons was one of 11 students to graduate on Oct. 19 from The 99th Squadron’s Youth Ground School, a five-week course exposing middle and high school students to the basics of flight training. Lyons was part of the fifth-graduating class that was honored during a ceremony held at the Gleason Performing Arts Center at Florida Institute of Technology in Melbourne, Brevard County.
“Our biggest priority is those who wrap up that five-week curriculum,” said Hemphill, a licensed pilot and a co-founder of The 99th Squadron. “It’s all about what more can we do for those students who are truly trying to stay in that game and make a career out of it.”
Hemphill, 41, of Palm Bay, is the glue that binds experienced aviators like Keel with local, future pilots. Hemphill said a partnership between The 99th Squadron and the local General Daniel “Chappe” James Jr. Chapter of Tuskegee Airmen, Incorporated – a national organization that honors the history of African-Americans who were in the Army Air Corps during World War II – allowed him to connect with Keel and his family.
Hemphill said the Tuskegee Airmen – the heavily-influential Black pilots who flew more than 1,800 combat missions and helped the United States win the war in Europe – were activists in their own right. The famed aviators underwent a segregated training program at Moton Field Municipal Airport located on the campus of Tuskegee University in Alabama and also at the Tuskegee Army Air Field.
“These guys were really trying to put a message out. They were actually trying to change things and leave things better than when they got there. They put their lives on the line,” Hemphill said. “With Flight Officer Keel being with us and his daughter (Lynn) being so willing to share him with the community, having folks being able to engage with him and discuss what he has seen through his eyes was amazing.”
Lt. Keel was a triple-rated pilot who trained as a twin-engine navigator, aerial bombardier and a basic single-engine aviator in the 1940s. Keel, who said he was drafted in the military in September 1943, was part of the 477th Bombardment Group with the Tuskegee Airmen, America’s first Black military airmen.
“Having Keel at the graduation was a no-brainer,” Hemphill said. “(Keel) is in the younger generation of Tuskegee Airmen. Some started way back in 1941.”
Lyons said speaking with Keel – still sharp and full of stories – was priceless.
“Meeting Daniel Keel was amazing,” Lyons said. “All of the things that he and the Tuskegee Airmen accomplished and the people of color they influenced to go into aviation – that means a lot to me.”
The fight for people like Keel to push for equality in the military serves as inspiration for Hemphill while running the flight training course. Hemphill took the stage at the commencement hoping to inspire a new generation aiming to command the skies as licensed pilots in the distant future.
The Youth Ground School is considered the centerpiece of the free flight coaching program, creating a spark for youth who may want to study aeronautical engineering, become a pilot, air traffic controller, aviation safety inspector and more. It is one of several programs nationwide aimed at attracting minorities to an interest in aviation.
Black pilots currently make up 3.6 percent of the nation’s commercial pilots, according to the Organization of Black Aerospace Professionals.
Students in the Youth Ground School learn flight lessons in classrooms and virtually before getting hands-on experience from instructors in navigating small aircrafts at the Valkaria Airport. Some of the students have expressed interests in aviation, whether flying commercially or for the military.
“This addresses an issue throughout the world. A lot of times people will get into this (industry) having never been exposed and will drop because it’s too overwhelming,” Hemphill said. “What our class does, by the time you walk away from that experience you can be decisive and say whether or not this is for you. And you can have that confidence because of the exposure.”
The Youth Ground School focuses on five areas: aerodynamics, instruments and engines; choosing which runways to land on; aircraft performance and density altitude; decoding weather forecasts; and flight planning. With guidance and mentorship, students like Lyons are able to navigate the small, single-engine planes with ease while climbing more than 2,000 feet in midair.
Hemphill marveled at Lyons’ ability to immediately identify different controls in the plane mid-flight. Lyons pointed out the air-speed indicator; attitude indicator which shows the plane’s position relative to the Earth’s horizon; altimeter indicator which measures an aircraft’s altitude above a certain level; vertical speed indicator which displays how fast the plane is climbing or descending, and more.
“(Lyons) was able to identify all of these on the spot,” Hemphill said.
Hemphill thinks deeply about the reason why he co-founded The 99th Squadron, a nonprofit organization geared toward teaching minorities the basics of flight training. Hemphill started the group in August 2020 with co-founders including his wife Shannon Hemphill, along with Richard Winchester and Clint Cunningham.
Assembling The 99th Squadron is a task that Hemphill does not take lightly.
“I’ve been an engineer in the aerospace industry for 18 years. In little-to-no time, I realized there aren’t a lot of folks who look like me, but it may not be for the reasons people think,” said Hemphill, who works at Northrop Grumman aerospace and defense company. “It’s just a matter of exposure. A lot of folks don’t know that it’s an option, what it amounts to, the return on investment…all of those different types of things.”
Leaders with The 99th Squadron also help aspiring aviators by pointing them to a directory of highly-competitive flight training scholarships listed on the organization’s website.
Hemphill said he understands the struggles faced by Black pilots, who were previously prohibited from joining the military in America amid the conditions of racial segregation. That’s the reason Hemphill named his nonprofit after The 99th Pursuit Squadron – an all-Black fighter pilot unit and the first designation of Tuskegee Airmen that formed on Jan. 16, 1941 under the War Department.
Black newspapers and college students at the time – less than 80 years after Blacks were freed from enslavement – advocated for African-American pilots to be allowed to join the military. Before the military was officially integrated in 1948, exercises were conducted to show that Blacks were inferior to whites and only suitable for servant positions.
Adversity and resilience from those like Keel helped pave the way for African-Americans to continue to make major achievements in aviation throughout history, leaders say. Hemphill said Keel’s face glowed as he shook hands and spoke with the happy students at the graduation.
“The kids absolutely loved it,” said Hemphill, who was presented a Master Mason of the Year award from the Eugene C. Johnson Lodge #318 during the ceremony. “It may be something they don’t see again. It could be one of those once-in-a-lifetime things.”
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The sun is setting. Hemphill takes a final look at the controls inside his plane. He shuts the doors to the small Cessna 152 plane and slowly rolls the aircraft back into the hangar.
Hemphill looks off into the distance from Valkaria Airport thinking about what the future may hold for Lyons.
“It’s hard to predict Christopher’s path, but if he chooses to pursue any career in the aerospace industry, we’d be grateful to have him,” Hemphill said. “He has been exposed from an early age and has an entire village behind him in support.”
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