Commissioned in 1942, he was in the vanguard of the eventual integration of the military. He was among the first African-Americans to lead a fighter squadron into combat, and he was a member of one of the most successful flying squadrons in American military history. He survived a court-martial for buzzing a building and made the Air Force his career.

[…]

In 1941, the military, under executive order, began training at Tuskegee Institute in Alabama for an all-black fighting unit. Col. Dryden was accepted into the second Aviation Cadet Training Class. He was called “A-Train” for his favorite Duke Ellington cut of the song and because of his New York City background, his wife said. He joined the 99th Fighter Squadron, flying P-40F Warhawks.

On June 9, 1943, Col. Dryden, then 22, led six other pilots into combat over Pantelleria, Sicily. “It was the first time in aviation history that black American pilots of the U.S. Army Air Corps engaged aircraft in combat,” he said in a 1997 Atlanta Journal-Constitution article.

The 99th shattered racist stereotypes, flying more than 15,000 missions during the war and fiercely protecting American and Allied bombers they escorted. No bombers escorted by Tuskegee Airmen were lost and, in time, pilots were requesting them as escorts.

“We dared not fail,” Col. Dryden said. “We dared not fail because the white folks could say, ‘See, we knew they couldn’t do it.’ “

(via the AJC)