Major
Weldon K. Groves, Sr. (USAF Ret) was one of the original Tuskegee Airmen. After
attending the University of Kansas and earning a biology degree in 1940 from Sam
Houston College in Huntsville, Texas, he went on to Tuskegee Army Air Force Base
and graduated from Pilot training Class 43-F-SE on June 30, 1943 as a Second Lieutenant.
After graduation he went to the European Theater and flew 93 combat missions in
P-39s, P-47s and P-51 aircraft. While flying with the 302nd Fighter Squadron out
of Italy on July 18, 1944, 1st Lt. Groves shot down a ME-109. After the war ended,
he became a weather forcaster, commanded military weather detachments and retired
in May of 1964.
Class
43-F graduated from flight training on June 30, 1943, at Tuskegee Army Air Field
in Alabama. Front row, left to right: Willie S. Hunter, Wayne V. Liggins, Hezekiah
Lacy, Theodore A. Wilson, Charles E. McGee, Oscar A. Kenney, Richard H. Harris,
Weldon K. Groves. Second row, left to right:
Frank D. Walker, Joe A. Lewis, Wilbert H. Johnson, William F. Williams Jr., Leonard
F. Turner, William G. Wilkerson. Third row, left to right: John S. Sloan, Walter
J. Palmer, Theopolis D. Moore, Wiley W. Selden, Robert R. Alexander, Herbert S.
Harris, Milton R. Henry, Alexander M. Bright. (U.S. Air Force Historical Research
Agency)
Major
Weldon K. Groves, Sr. (USAF Ret) was one of the original Tuskegee Airmen. After
attending the University of Kansas and earning a biology degree in 1940 from Sam
Houston College in Huntsville, Texas, he went on to Tuskegee Army Air Force Base
and graduated from Pilot training Class 43-F-SE on June 30, 1943 as a Second Lieutenant.
After graduation he went to the European Theater and flew 93 combat missions in
P-39s, P-47s and P-51 aircraft. While flying with the 302nd Fighter Squadron out
of Italy on July 18, 1944, 1st Lt. Groves shot down a ME-109. After the war ended,
he became a weather forcaster, commanded military weather detachments and retired
in May of 1964.
