Jefferson, Alexander
Posted on 14 September, 2021 by in Veterans By Name, J
This bio of Lt. Col. Alexander Jefferson is being written by Larry Martin on 27 July 2019 from notes of our July 2012 interview at the Southfield Michigan library. Much of this is being written by memory since Alexander put on many live Q & A sessions at probably 5 or 6 of my Larry Martin’s World War II In Their Own Words programs in the Jackson and Detroit Michigan area.
Alex was born in 1921 in Detroit Michigan. Alex enlisted in the Army Air Corps in1942. He was picked to be in the Tuskegee Airman. He flew the P-51D. He made 18 combat missions before being shot down on August 12 1944 over Toulon France to strafe a radar installation. When he was captured he was sent to Frankfort on the Maine then to Stalag Luft 3 (which is where the 1963 movie “The Great Escape was in March 1944 before Alex was at the Stalag. He said he was treated the same as the white airmen at the camp. The only time he was afraid for his life once he was in captivity was when he was being transported to Zagan Poland to Stalag Luft 3. I googled the milage it says that it is over 1,000 miles. Alex said that he walked , rode animal pulled carts, trains, and trucks to get to Zagen Poland. While in the Berlin area he was at a train station when his guards left him and several others I believe alone when a group of what he said were “Hitler Youth” who were very young and mad surrounded them and he thought he would be beaten to death and believes he would have been if the German Army guards had not returned and drew their weapons on the Hitler Youth to stop them from attacking him.
He was then force marched to the area of Munich Germany as the Russian Army was nearing Zagan Poland he told me the temperatures were as low as 20 below zero on the march which took three or four days to complete.
When the war ended he kept hearing of a place called Dachau which he had never heard of but people kept telling him that there were bodies everywhere. He “commandeered” a jeep with some other POW’s to go see this place called Dachau. He said you could smell it for over a mile from the camp. He said it was overwhelming in the odor and the amount of death he saw that day. He could not take the horror so he left in several hours. He becomes very angry when people even today tell him that the concentration camps like Dachau and others never existed.
This is a direct quote from Alexander Jefferson. When he arrived back in the United States after being a Commissioned officer, Tuskegee Airman, P-51 pilot and POW he saw a young white buck private shouting “White’s to the right, Niggers to the left” This is a quote on pp 107 of Alexander Jefferson’s book “Red Tail Captured, Red Tail Free. Personally inscribed to me Larry Martin in 2012 by Alexander. Also that most white enlisted men did not salute the Tuskegee men. Alex thought that the white officers told the enlisted men not to salute. Fellow Tuskegee Pilot Lt. Col. Washington Ross who I also interviewed never said anything like this about what he faced during the war.
The following is from a direct conversation that I heard Alexander Jefferson a Tuskegee Airman make at one of my (Larry Martin’s WW II In Their Own Words) programs where he personally made a appearance to do a Q&A after I had shown his DVD interview to a Library audience. He was talking about 2012 Hollywood movie “Red Tails” about the 332nd Tuskegee Airmen group that fought out of Foggia Italy in the 15th Airforce. The movie said the 332nd never lost a B-17 or B-24 that they were guarding while the heavy bombers were on bombing raids. Alexander said that was a bunch of garbage since the Tuskegee airmen could do nothing about the flack coming up at the bombers from the ground. In general he disliked the movie because it had a lot of Hollywood Bull Sh– in the movie. Alexander did not like the movie because it showed a lot of alcohol and cocaine use by the Tuskegee Airmen and he felt that that part of theAugust 30, 2013
I heard Tuskegee Airman Lt. Col. Alexander Jefferson say these things. First was Tuskegee pilots DID loose B-17 and B-24 they were flying cover for. Alexander though the Hollywood movie “Red Tails” from about 2011 which I Larry Martin DID NOT SEE, the movie says they (Tuskegee) Airmen did NOT loose any bombers. He also disliked the movie because it was a lot of Hollywood B.S. He did not like that the movie because it showed the Tuskegee Leaders using a lot of alcohol and cocaine, he thought the drug use was demeaning to African Americans. He also called himself a nerd because he had a bachelor of science degree before he went into the service. move was very demeaning to African American’s. He also called himself a “Nerd” because he had a Bachelor of Science degree.