Tuskegee Airmen Cisco Memorial
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The Tuskegee Airmen Cisco Memorial Committee of Alton, Illinois. We are raising money for a commemorative marker on the graves of Alton's own George and Arnold Cisco. “The Cisco Kids,” the only brothers in the 332nd Fighter Group, died in separate plane accidents during the war.
With the blessing of the Cisco family, the committee will commission an upright granite memorial which will include photos of the brothers, an image of a “Red-tail Angels” fighter plane, and the words “Tuskegee Airmen.” The monument will be dedicated on June 3rd, 2017. The cost of the memorial is $5,000.
The Cisco brothers were buried under flat stones in the Alton Cemetery, 30 years before historians documented the story of World War II segregated armed forces and the struggle of black soldiers encountering virulent racism from their white comrades.
Now every school child learns about The Tuskegee Airmen. Had the Cisco Brothers lived to the modern era, they would have been feted by the last three presidents and buried as heroes.
History: The Tuskegee Airmen, an all-black fighter group in WWII with a distinguished “kill” record, endured unspeakable racism, even after the war was over.
The squadron lost only two fighters and shot down many German planes, including destroying the first jet planes to appear in air combat in history. Pilots also sunk a German warship, the first such kill in aviation history. Known as the Red-Tail Angels, the Tuskegee Airmen's kill record was so impressive that President Truman signed an order desegregating all U.S. armed forces prior to the start of the Korean War.
George Cisco (pictured on the right) joined the U.S. Army’s 761st Tank Battalion after graduating from officer training school at Fort Knox, Kentucky, in 1943, with the rank of Second Lieutenant. Not long after, he transferred to the Army Air Corp and earned his pilot’s wings, officially becoming a Tuskegee Airman. Tragically, he was killed on a training mission on August 16, 1944, when his Thunderbolt plane was hit by another plane as it landed at Walterboro Air Base in South Carolina.
Captain Arnold Cisco (left) joined the Tuskegee Airmen serving as a flight leader in fighter plane attacks on Germen aircraft. Stationed with the 99th Pursuit Squadron at Ramitelli Air Base in Italy, he flew missions protecting the 5th Bomb Wing over Bucharest, Hungary, as the oil refineries below were destroyed, eliminating 30 per cent of Germany’s oil supply. Cisco earned the Oak Leaf Cluster of World War II, the Victory Service Medal and the European-African-Middle Eastern Theater medal.
In 1946, returning from leave with his wife Billie in Chicago, Captain Cisco's transport plane back to Tuskegee crashed when it hit electric wires during a storm.
How You Can Help: For addtional information contact the Alton Museum of History and Art, 2809 College Avenue, Alton IL 62002, or the museum's Facebook page. All contributions are tax deductable.
Tuskegee Airmen Cisco Memorial Committee
member Eugene Jones Baldwin is a researcher/interviewer in the Department of the Interior’s National Tuskegee Airmen Oral History Project. Baldwin wrote this summary.
Lorenzo Small is a nephew of the Cisco brothers a Tuskege Airmen Cisco Memorial Committee member, and affiliate of theAlton Museum of History and Art.
With the blessing of the Cisco family, the committee will commission an upright granite memorial which will include photos of the brothers, an image of a “Red-tail Angels” fighter plane, and the words “Tuskegee Airmen.” The monument will be dedicated on June 3rd, 2017. The cost of the memorial is $5,000.
The Cisco brothers were buried under flat stones in the Alton Cemetery, 30 years before historians documented the story of World War II segregated armed forces and the struggle of black soldiers encountering virulent racism from their white comrades.
Now every school child learns about The Tuskegee Airmen. Had the Cisco Brothers lived to the modern era, they would have been feted by the last three presidents and buried as heroes.
History: The Tuskegee Airmen, an all-black fighter group in WWII with a distinguished “kill” record, endured unspeakable racism, even after the war was over.
The squadron lost only two fighters and shot down many German planes, including destroying the first jet planes to appear in air combat in history. Pilots also sunk a German warship, the first such kill in aviation history. Known as the Red-Tail Angels, the Tuskegee Airmen's kill record was so impressive that President Truman signed an order desegregating all U.S. armed forces prior to the start of the Korean War.
George Cisco (pictured on the right) joined the U.S. Army’s 761st Tank Battalion after graduating from officer training school at Fort Knox, Kentucky, in 1943, with the rank of Second Lieutenant. Not long after, he transferred to the Army Air Corp and earned his pilot’s wings, officially becoming a Tuskegee Airman. Tragically, he was killed on a training mission on August 16, 1944, when his Thunderbolt plane was hit by another plane as it landed at Walterboro Air Base in South Carolina.
Captain Arnold Cisco (left) joined the Tuskegee Airmen serving as a flight leader in fighter plane attacks on Germen aircraft. Stationed with the 99th Pursuit Squadron at Ramitelli Air Base in Italy, he flew missions protecting the 5th Bomb Wing over Bucharest, Hungary, as the oil refineries below were destroyed, eliminating 30 per cent of Germany’s oil supply. Cisco earned the Oak Leaf Cluster of World War II, the Victory Service Medal and the European-African-Middle Eastern Theater medal.
In 1946, returning from leave with his wife Billie in Chicago, Captain Cisco's transport plane back to Tuskegee crashed when it hit electric wires during a storm.
How You Can Help: For addtional information contact the Alton Museum of History and Art, 2809 College Avenue, Alton IL 62002, or the museum's Facebook page. All contributions are tax deductable.
Tuskegee Airmen Cisco Memorial Committee
member Eugene Jones Baldwin is a researcher/interviewer in the Department of the Interior’s National Tuskegee Airmen Oral History Project. Baldwin wrote this summary.
Lorenzo Small is a nephew of the Cisco brothers a Tuskege Airmen Cisco Memorial Committee member, and affiliate of theAlton Museum of History and Art.
Organizer
Lorenzo Small
Organizer
Alton, IL
