As July comes to a close, we would like to recognize a gracious donation of a photo album sharing the story of Joshua Lankford, a Tuskegee Airman Pilot from San Antonio who served during World War II, from 1943 to 1946. The album contains printed pages written and edited by Mr. Lankford’s daughter, Terry Lankford, and his son, Morgan Lankford. These excerpts tell the story of their father’s journey toward becoming a Tuskegee Airman, his service, and his career after retiring.

Joshua Lankford was born in San Antonio, Texas, on March 13, 1924, and made history as one of only 992 prestigious Tuskegee Airmen pilots trained at the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama (Haulman, 2020). According to the photo album, Lankford had become a pilot, navigator, and bombardier by the age of 22.

Eventually, he rose to the rank of First Lieutenant in the United States Army Air Forces. The Tuskegee Airmen were America’s first Black military pilots, making Mr. Lankford a pioneer in American history (Tuskegee Airmen National Historical Museum, 2025.) During this time, aspiring Black pilots faced extreme obstacles, which included a segregated military and white officers who believed Black men were incapable of flying sophisticated aircrafts (History, 2025). Despite this, Mr. Lankford entered the Tuskegee Institute in 1943 as an aviation cadet following his basic training. Later, he finished number one in his class at the Navigator Training School at Hondo Army Airfield in Texas. Lt. Lankford then went to Bombardier school in Midland, Texas, to complete his training. After doing so, he was given the opportunity to volunteer for pilot training at Tuskegee.

The photo album provides us with a look into his personal experience and thoughts while taking on this responsibility. Mixed in with the written summary provided by his children are snippets of Lt. Lankford’s personal writings and diaries. In one he wrote, “Flying was more fun than several barrels of monkeys.” This rare look into the life of a Tuskegee Airman’s experience during and after World War II and the pressures they felt as they were constantly looked down upon and expected to fail is an invaluable asset to SAAACAM’s collection and our community.