75th Anniversary Celebration of the Gunnery Competition
July 11, 2024 - Despite what the movie “Top Gun” will tell you, the Navy didn’t set up the U.S. military’s first real-world Top Gun program. It was an Air Force program that first took place in 1949. Participants, Tuskegee Airmen: Capt. Alva Temple, 1st Lt. Harry Stewart, 1st Lt. James H. Harvey III, and alternate Halbert Alexander, competing in P-47N Thunderbolts, would win.
In January 1949, the chief of staff of the Air Force put a call out to all U.S.A.F. fighter groups to send their three top scorers to represent their group at the first Top Gun weapons meet.
The airmen went to Las Vegas Air Force Base, now called Nellis Air Force Base, where pilots competed in five events: aerial gunnery, dive bombing, skip bombing, rocket firing, and panel strafing.
Despite flying obsolete Thunderbolts, the Tuskegee Airmen led the 10-day event almost every step of the way. Their competitors were flying the P-51 Mustang and the P-82 Twin Mustang fighters.
The competition is now called “William Tell,” and the winner of the annual event has their name added to the list of past winners in the Air Force Association’s yearly almanac. For 46 years, the winner of the 1949 competition was listed as “unknown.” It wasn’t until 1995 that the 332nd Fighter Group was finally listed as the winner.
“When it was announced that we, the 332nd, had won the trophy, the room was quiet,” Harvey recalled. “There was no applause or anything like that. Because we weren’t supposed to win it, little did I know, this was the last time the public would see the trophy for 55 years.” For much of that time, the trophy sat in storage at the National Museum of the United States Air Force at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio.
Historian Zellie Rainey Orr discovered the trophy and the story of the 332nd’s epic “Top Gun” victory. In 2004, the trophy was finally displayed in the Air Force Museum.
Click here to check out this story and more from the July CAF RISE ABOVE newsletter!
Pictures provided by: CAF Rise Above
About CAF RISE ABOVE CAF RISE ABOVE Squadron (formerly known as the CAF Red Tail Squadron) is our three-fold educational outreach program that brings the history and legacy of the Tuskegee Airmen and Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) to life in communities and classrooms everywhere. What the Tuskegee Airmen and WASP had in common – and what made them ultimately succeed – was the ability to recognize that all of the obstacles they faced could be overcome with hard work and dedication. The timeless lessons they teach us about perseverance and courage are just as applicable today as they were in the 1940s.
