James Flowers was born in Surry County Virginia. Around 1939, the NAACP began challenging  military policies of only whites flying aircraft. With the threat of legal action, the US Army Air Corps created a program to train back pilots, bombardiers, navigators and aircraft maintenance crews at Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. Flowers joined the Army Air Corps in 1940 and became a pilot. He served until 1945 with the Tuskegee Airmen. Flowers flew with the Red Tails who have inspired books and stories in Hollywood because of their successful escorting bombers over European war  zones. They did received damages but never lost a bomber .  He returned to  the US and became a  teacher in New York, married Evelyn and had two children. Courtesy of ICSun-News.com/news/story