Photograph of Ernest Craigwell with Congressional Gold Medal

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Col Ernest Craig Jr. stopped by to show us his Congressional Gold Medal, on his way home from Washington, D.C.

On March 29, 2007, President George W. Bush collectively awarded the Tuskegee Airmen the Congressional Gold Medal. The Airmen received bronze replicas of the medal. Immediately following the ceremony, the one and only “collective” Tuskegee Airmen CGM was taken to the Smithsonian Institution (National Air & Space Museum), and was later transferred to the Smithsonian Institution (National Museum of African American History and Culture) in March, 2016, where it currently sits.

In the cockpit Craigwell recorded more than 6,000 hours, including 4,100 in a fighter plane, between the end of World War II, the Korean and Vietnam conflicts. He also logged more than 400 combat missions while in the military, earning a total of 26 medals of valor.

Learn more about Col. Ernest Craigwell Jr in TUSKEGEE AIRMEN PROFILES!

See the Virtual Museum posting of the 96th Squadron 1946 Class Yearbook Page Featuring 2nd Lt. Ernest Craigwell, Jr.