Last Updated on 5/30/2012

Published on 2/22/2012

Georgetown resident Randy Walker didn’t know  that his great uncle Clarence “Pete” Gardner was once part of an elite, African American flying force for the U.S. Army.
Walker’s cousin, Jacqueline Cotman, began researching parts of Gardner’s life when she wrote a book about her mother, “An Hour of Eternity.”
The information, which was discovered when the government declassified information about the Tuskegee Airmen, showed pictures and proof that their family member had flown in the first group of African American military aviators in the United States.
The book had started out as research into the family’s genealogy and a look at Altamease Gardner Nickson, who was a star basketball player at Florida A&M (Agricultural and Mechanical) University in the 1940s.
Cotman was asked to write about her mother as part of her induction into the Florida A&M Sports Hall of Fame.
“I was always trying to find out more in detail, but I was not working on that extensively,” Cotman said. “The story started to come through. I asked my Uncle Sammy what his days were like in the military and he would discuss his older brother, Pete.”
A movie detailing the many struggles of the  Tuskegee Airmen, “Red Tails,” was released in January.
A picture that is included in Cotman’s book shows Gardner standing with the other airmen in front of a World War II fighter plane.
The picture is also included on the History.com Web site, which tells more about the Tuskegee Airmen.
According to information from the FDR library Web site [Franklin Delano Roosevelt, President during World War II], the airmen completed training at the Tuskegee Institute.
“From 1941 to 1946 over 2,000 African  Americans completed training at Tuskegee and nearly three quarters of them qualified as pilots while the remainder were trained as navigators or support personnel,” the Web site said.
“The 99th Pursuit Squadron was activated and became the 99th Fighter Squadron in May 1942. The Tuskegee Airmen saw combat in over 1,500 missions in Europe and North Africa. Due to the bravery, tenacity, and success of the Tuskegee Airmen, President Harry S Truman desegregated the United States Military in 1948.”
Gardner could not talk about his part in that group because the information, at that time, was still classified, Cotman said.
Gardner’s brother, Sammy, had suspected that Gardner was part of something special when he saw him on the street, dressed in a different uniform, but not acknowledging his close relative.
“He said he went outside, and as he was walking down the sidewalk, a group of men started walking ahead of him,” she said. “One looked like his brother, Pete, but he wasn’t sure it was him, because of the way he was dressed. He kept walking, and that was the last time he saw him before the war ended.”
After the war, Gardner lived in Philadelphia, but returned to Georgetown each summer to visit his family.  
Gardner passed away in 1985, without ever telling his family that he was once a Tuskegee Airman.
Walker, however, remember visiting his great uncle when he was a child.
He was also close to his maternal uncles, Col. Eli Gardner and Art Gardner, and said he heard his mother talk about some aspects of his great uncle’s life.
Many members of the family gathered this week to stand with Cotman’s book, showing the photograph of Gardner and the other airmen.
“These guys were very deep in the military,” Walker said.
“It kind of waters me up when I talk about my uncles. They were like big brothers to me. We have a big family here.”
 “It’s amazing how much history is in this family,” Cotman said. “There is probably a lot more that I could research. There is a lot of good information, but it has taken a long time to gather.”

“An Hour of Eternity,” has been published by Dorrance Publishing. It is available through Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble.com, Books-A-Million and IndieBound.

By Kelly M. Fuller
kfuller@gtowntimes.com