A local chapter of the Tuskegee Airmen is seeking to honor one of the pioneering airmen with a memorial statute in Petersburg.
The Progress Index reports that about $32,000 has been raised to date for the memorial to retired Col. Howard Baugh, who was among the nearly 1,000 black pilots to graduate from Tuskegee Army Air Field in the 1940s. He was later assigned to the 99th Fighter Squadron in Sicily and flew 135 combat missions.
Baugh grew up and attended public school in Petersburg. He graduated from what was then Virginia State College before joining the U.S. war effort.
The Howard Baugh Chapter of the Tuskegee Airman is asking the city to approve a location for the statue within Petersburg.
The design is already finished.
Copyright AP - Associated Press
