Inducted Into Aviation Hall Of Fame And Museum Of New Jersey

It's one thing to be recognized by the President of the United States and receive the Congressional Gold Medal for your service during the war.

It's quite another to be recognized by your old hometown and inducted in your home state's Aviation Hall of Fame and Museum. And although 82-year old Calvin Spann now resides in the Dallas suburb of Allen, TX... he was born in Passaic and lived in Wallington, East Rutherford, and Rutherford, all in the Garden State.

As a Tuskegee Airman, Spann was one of nearly 1,000 black men who graduated from the Tuskegee Army Air Field in Tuskegee, AL, between 1942 and 1946. He and his colleagues served in WW II during a time when many thought they didn't have what it takes to be military airmen.

From 1944 to 1945, Spann flew a P-51 Mustang on 26 combat and reconnaissance missions over the Italian Alps and oilfields and munitions factories of Germany, Yugoslavia, and Czechoslovakia.

"It's because of men like Calvin Spann that we're not speaking German or Japanese today," said Shea Oakley, executive director of the Teterboro-based hall of fame and museum, to the the (NJ) Herald News.

"All the men deserve to be honored. These guys had an additional handicap to overcome, and they did so brilliantly."

Spann said he has received many awards, but the New Jersey commendation was extra special.

"To be honored by the hometown is something that you really like to have," he said. "You really like to have your homefolks think well of you."

And for flying? For Spann, learning to fly allowed him to fulfill a childhood ambition.

Inductees into the Aviation Hall of Fame and Museum of New Jersey must not only have made a significant contribution to aviation, but must have a New Jersey connection, Oakley said. Members of that esteemed group include Charles Lindberg, Amelia Earhart, Buzz Aldrin, and now Calvin Spann.

"Just to be a Tuskegee Airman makes you someone famous," Oakley said. "They broke the color line in military aviation the way Jackie Robinson broke it in baseball."

FMI: www.njahof.org, www.teterboro-online.com/airport/ahof