Alexander Jefferson, WWII Veteran. Alexander Jefferson was one of 32 Tuskegee Airmen from the 332nd Fighter Group to be shot down defending a country that considered them to be second-class citizens. A Detroit native, Jefferson enlisted in 1942, trained at Tuskegee Institute, Alabama, became a second lieutenant in 1943, and joined one of the most decorated fighting units in the War, flying P51s with their legendary--and feared--"red tails." Based in Italy, Jefferson flew bomber escort missions over southern Europe before being shot down in France in 1944. Captured, he spent the rest of the war in Luftwaffe prison camps in Sagan and Moosberg, Germany. An unvarnished look at life behind barbed wire--and what it meant to be an African-American pilot in enemy hands. It is also a look at race and democracy in America through the eyes of a patriot who fought to protect the promise of freedom. www.carlisle.army.mil/AHEC/index.cfm

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