Tuskegee Airman Inspires Residents to ‘Do the Right Thing’

October 8, 2024
• Enoch “Woody” Woodhouse imparted nearly 100 years of wisdom to a large crowd in Needham, recounting stories of his youth, military service and the years that followed.

On Dec. 7, 1941, the attack on Pearl Harbor radically changed the course of World War II.

That morning, Enoch Woodhouse, then just a teenager living in Roxbury, was on his way to church with his family. His mother turned to him and his brother, imploring them to serve their country.

“Can you imagine a Black woman telling all she had in life was to go and fight for America?” Woodhouse asked.

Both he and his brother enlisted, and in just a couple years, Woodhouse made history — he joined the 333nd Fighter Group, AKA the Tuskegee Airmen. The all-Black flying squadron defended the nation at a time when the military was still segregated. Woodhouse eventually earned the title of brigadier general.

Woodhouse — who goes by Woody — shared stories from his service and lessons learned to a substantial crowd at the Center at the Heights Monday. At 98 years old, he is one of the last remaining Tuskegee Airmen.

Both in Boston and in the U.S. Army, Woodhouse experienced discrimination. On the way to Texas for basic training, he recalls getting kicked off the train in St. Louis, as he would be forced to wait for the Black train. Dressed in his military uniform, Woodhouse arrived at his station eight hours late as a result.

Woodhouse couldn’t eat alongside his white peers during meal time, he said. Instead, he ate at the snack bar or, at one time, with a screen around him.

“Folks, this is America, your country, in 1945,” Woodhouse said.

While applying to high schools, Woodhouse waited to hear back from Boston Latin School, only to discover administrators refused to accept students from his neighborhood. And later in life, while running for the U.S. House of Representatives, Woodhouse was beaten and his car was destroyed in South Boston.

Those hardships, however, didn’t define him.

“You can’t let adversity get you,” he said.

Woodhouse shared his four-word mantra: Do the right thing.

“As a Black person, that’s what we learned when we were born,” Woodhouse said. “To survive here, we have to do the right thing.”

In the Tuskegee Airmen, Woodhouse worked as the first Black paymaster, traveling between bases to ensure servicemen were paid. About 1,000 Black pilots fought with the Tuskegee Airmen during the war, who earned their moniker by training in Tuskegee, Alabama. A total of about 16,000 total service members belonged to the Tuskegee Airmen, Woodhouse included.

It was only after significant pressure on the War Department that they formed a Black flying unit, known as the 99th Pursuit Squadron, said Willie Shellman, president of the New England Chapter of the Tuskegee Airmen.

But due to segregation, the unit had to be completely self-sustaining, Shellman told attendees.

“Every job that it took to keep an airplane in the air, from somebody putting air in the tires, to somebody operating the control towers, to somebody loading ammunitions to someone doing navigation, to all of the ground crew administrative jobs,” Shellman said, “all of those had to be filled by someone Black and someone trained specifically to be in this unit.”

Woodhouse served on active duty until 1949 but remained on the Air Force Reserve until retiring as lieutenant colonel in 1972. When asked about his experience in a segregated outfit, Woodhouse said they needed “to be the best of the best.”

After the military, Woodhouse went on to graduate from Yale and Boston University Law School and practiced law for four decades. Woodhouse served as a diplomatic courier for the United States State Department and was appointed as a general in the Massachusetts militia.

His speech concluded to applause and a standing ovation.

Hearing Woodhouse speak reaffirmed the outstanding performance by African Americans in the military, said attendee Ted Gelsthorpe, who served in the U.S. Air Force from 1966 to 1970. Gelsthorpe said he wishes more of their stories could be told.

“They were really a cut above,” Gelsthorpe said of the Tuskegee Airmen.. “They were really the top tier of the U.S. military, and they had to work so hard just to get average recognition. That’s exemplified by Mr. Woodhouse.”

The attendance of both veterans and non-veterans alike surprised Ted Prorok, a Council on Aging board member who served in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War.

“This is amazing,” Prorok said. “I couldn’t have forecasted this attendance.”

LaTanya Steele, director of the Council on Aging, said she was inspired by Woodhouse’s determination in the face of discrimination and societal obstacles. Her own grandfather, Roosevelt Ruffin, served during World War II, which pushes Steele to honor all veterans.

By inviting Woodhouse to Needham — home to about 660 veterans — Steele said it’s a way to inspire, and not just on Veterans Day. Woodhouse is one of very few Tuskegee Airmen still alive.

“I think it may be the only opportunity to hear it, opposed to reading it as the amount of veterans are passing,” Steele said of Woodhouse’s speech. “I think it’s a way to capture that history before it’s lost.”

Woodhouse stressed his story is not exclusively a lesson on Black history.

“I tell all of my friends for the month of February, Black History Month, do not invite me to speak, because whenever I’m invited, I always say I’m here under false pretenses,” Woodhouse said. “I’m not here to talk about Black history. I want to talk about American history. This is our history, not yours and not mine. It’s our history.”