Interesting you should bring this up.
Flash back...3 years ago. I was a sim instructor on UPS's new A300 fleet. One morning around 6am, I was talking to one of my sim students, Leon Johnson, who was going to be our new A300 chief pilot, is also an Air Force General (flew A10's)and happens to be African-American.
As we were standing in the hallway looking down into the sim bay and basically shoot'n the sh%t while waiting for the f/o to show, we spotted an older African-American gentleman sweeping and preparing the sim bay floor for some safety striping. At first I thought he was a janitor and really didn't give him a second glance. How wrong I was about to find out. Leon pointed to the man and ask me if I knew who he was? I said I didn't and Leon proceeded to tell me that he was ret. Lt.Col John H. Carter Sr. and was a Tuskegee Airman flying the famed "Red Tail" P51's.
Being completely bowled over at this point and after picking myself up off the floor, Leon asked me if I'd like to go down and meet him. I have to admit, I was like a giggly little school girl at the thought of meeting him.
As we walked down Mr. Carter turned at hearing our approaching footsteps and immediately saluted Leon and said, "Good Morning, General". We talked for a while and Mr. Carter was very polite in answering my stupid questions.
It's impressive enough to meet someone who fought and survived WWII. It's extremely impressive to meet someone like Mr. Carter and to think about what he must have gone through to obtain the level he did in the environment he had to deal with back then.
I search the Internet and found some high quality "Red Tail" P51 models. I bought 2 and presented one engraved model to Mr. Carter on behalf of the UPS pilot group while keeping the second for my own. Mr. Carter graciously signed the wing for me and I have it proudly displayed in my office.
Meeting Mr. Carter was one of the coolest events in my aviation career!! It's not the flying but the people I've met along the way that I'll remember when I retire.