Decorated Tuskegee Airmen pilots Capt Wendall Pruitt and Lt Col Lee Archer were part of a group of six members of the 332nd Fighter Group that shot down a total of nine enemy aircraft while on a strafing mission from Budapest to Bratislava on October 12, 1944. Lt Col Archer, flying Ina the Macon Bell, shot down three German Me-109s, and Capt Pruitt, flying Alice-Jo, show down an He-111 and Me-109. The combined aerial victories earned the duo the nickname The Gruesome Twosome.

During World War II, Pruitt flew 70 combat missions, disabled a German destroyer, shot down three enemy aircraft and destroyed several more on the ground. He perished in a training accident just a short while after returning to Tuskegee in April 1945. Archer flew 169 combat missions and went on to have a distinguished career in the United States Air Force, retiring with 29 years of service. He passed away in 2010 at the age of 90.