New Rochelle man who helped make history, of "Red Tails"

Edward spent Trkkawi when it was over, several minutes talking with a group of children about what they saw on the big screen in Rock Royal multiple new Cinema City.

"This is the best thing about this," said 87-year-tails "red," was the new film about pilots Tuskegee legendary, and black color of the squadron fighter of World War II to racism separate gun in the army at the time, even when the Nazi pilots in the air. "It is inspiring to young people, and gives them something to aspire to."

Trkkawi was 18 in 1942, when he left Harlem for the U.S. Army Air Force and trained as a mechanic for the 322 fighter group, the official name of the Tuskegee pilots. A year later he was in Italy, and save the P - 39, P 47 and P-51 fly.

"We knew that there were examples, and a microscope was there with us all the time," he said. "We were the unity of black in white completely, and we know that we have the mind of P and Q, and be accountable."

Trkkawi watch the movie with your friends on a trip organized by a friend and neighbor Betty Jackson, New Rochelle, author and retired professor, who hosted the meeting in his home.

"I knew he would not see it, and a friend suggested getting a group to see," he said. "He feels happy when she was finished, and this surprised me, and I have not seen him like this before. You can say it means a lot for him."

The Trkkawi, who retired as head of emergency medical service in New York in 1980, and the film produced by George Lucas and starring Terrence Howard did a good job to represent Ramitelli, one of several airports, based in Italy.

"There was a white, except in some cases, most of us when someone was going through, but did not run on the white soldiers in the village. Had no problems, although there was a time when a group of we were in the restaurant and the man told me that I should not be there, "he said with a hint of a smile. "We asked him if he wants to come out and talk with him - he said he was fine, but when we left fled I must say that the local people treated us very well and we were invited to dinner and stuff ..".

While the film focused on the pilots, and scenes showing concern of the ground staff when an aircraft again, or none at all.

"If the man did not return, there was a lot of remorse, a sense of real loss," noted Trkkawi. "You know that the pilots, who were young, 22 and 23 years old and had a cavalier attitude, but I like what I was doing, and depend on you."

Dr. Fred Claire was "amazing" to watch the movie with a friend who was living in it. "You see the story on the screen, and sit next to someone who made history," he said. "It's an indescribable feeling.