Daryl Marsaw has always loved airplanes.
He built models as a child. He flew small remote-control airplanes as a teenager. He dreamed that one day he would pilot a real plane.
“I didn’t think I would ever have the opportunity,” says Marsaw, 18, of Florissant, Mo.
That’s because he is black. And blacks have faced much tougher barriers to becoming aviators in the U.S. than whites.
But the Gateway Eagles, a group of black aviators, made sure Marsaw got the opportunity.
It came to him on a sunny, windy afternoon over St. Louis County last October as he sat in the co-pilot seat of a Beechcraft A36 Bonanza. Piloting the single-engine plane was William Duke, 40, of Grover.
Duke took off from Spirit of St. Louis Airport in Chesterfield, circled for a few minutes and nodded to Marsaw.
Marsaw took the controls, and his dream began to come true: He was flying.
“It’s an exciting feeling that’s hard to describe,” Marsaw said. “You just feel like you’re on top of the world.
“It’s a natural high.”
Offering opportunities like that is the aim of the Gateway Eagles, members say.
“Our goal is to serve as a resource for guidance and direction,” said Duke, who is also an account executive with Ryder Systems Inc. “There’s a desperate need for people who have been where these young people are today-for people who will reach back and help them start dreaming again.”
Group members say they want to bring aviation to young blacks. But more than that, they want to show them the possibilities of pursuing other careers as well.
To that end, the Gateway Eagles say they serve as positive role models-their ranks include pilots, executives, engineers, dentists, journalists, ministers and police officers. Many of them are past or current pilots of commercial, military and private aircrafts.
“This is a fun, family oriented group,” said Bill Wilkerson, a local radio personality and Gateway Eagle pilot-in-training. “We encourage men and women to join us, and we want them to bring their kids.”
Members consider the Gateway Eagles to be a continuation of the history of black aviation in America.
That history goes back at least to the 1930s, when black flying clubs in Chicago and Los Angeles promoted piloting, air shows and long-distance flights.
The first black Americans to become licensed pilots-Eugene Bullard and Bessie Coleman-had to travel to France to get pilot training. And even as their numbers in the U.S. slowly rose, black pilots faced segregation and other forms of hostility at airfields around the country.
Black pilots got their first chance at military aviation in World War II with the activation of the 99th Fighter Squadron. Beginning in 1941, these pilots trained at the segregated Tuskegee Army Air Field in Alabama. Black pilots from other squadrons later trained there.
The Tuskegee airmen’s skill, bravery and discipline over Europe dispelled the myth that blacks lacked the ability for combat flying.
Many black pilots got their training at the Tuskegee Institute even after the armed forces were officially integrated by President Harry S Truman in 1948. And since then, aviation-military and civilian-began to reflect national progress in integration and civil rights.
Still, many Gateway Eagles members say, there’s a long way to go.
Tuskegee produced many of the first Gateway Eagles, who came together in the St. Louis area in the early 1960s when military assignments brought them here. The group dwindled as the pilots filtered away to other assignments.
But the Eagles were reborn when Duke met Joe Robinson, a St. Louis Police lieutenant.
Duke and Robinson noticed each other in May 1993 at St. Louis Downtown-Parks Airport in Cahokia, Ill., during a flying skills competition.
“As I was taxiing out, William was taxiing in,” said Robinson, who is the chapter president. “With so few blacks in aviation, we were always looking for other black pilots. We knew we’d see each other again.”
Later, they met, talked and discovered that they wanted to start up the Gateway Eagles chapter again.
The chapter is now one of about three dozen chapters of the resurgent Negro Airmen International Inc., which has more than 1,000 members nationwide.
Duke, who is an association board member, was active in the group’s busy Dallas chapter before moving to St. Louis.
“We’re hoping the same will happen here,” he said.
The Gateway Eagles are off to a good start.
In less than a year, the new chapter has recruited about 40 members, and in July it hosted the Negro Airmen’s annual National Fly-In.
Endorsements of the Eagles have come from corporate supporters such as Anheuser Busch Cos., ESCO Electronics Corp., Executive Beechcraft-St. Louis Inc., McDonnell Douglas Corp. and Ryder Systems Inc.
And they also come from the U.S. Air Force.
“The fascination with flight and interest in aviation crosses all social strata,” said Gen. Ronald Fogleman, commander of the U.S. Air Force’s Air Mobility Command at Scott Air Force Base.
“There’s something about the spirit of adventure-the opportunity to get young men and women up in an airplane-that reinforces the fact that this is something anyone can do,” said Fogleman.
Members of the Gateway Eagles fly with one another, mentor would-be pilots and sponsor social events such as the recent family picnic.
The teenage recruits, some just learning about the group and others more heavily involved in flight-training activities, were the focus of attention.
“Inner-city kids know virtually nothing about aviation,” said KMOX’s Wilkerson. “Many haven’t even flown commercially before.
“We want to show them that flying is fun, and they can do it. All they have to do is come with us and check it out.”
Gateway Eagles members say despite the group’s emphasis on aviation, the promise of flying is primarily used as a hook. Once brought into the group, the younger members get the message that education is crucial to success in life, whether in aviation or any other career.
“We really don’t care if they learn to fly an airplane,” Robinson said. “What we want is to spark an interest and help them build an inner strength, so they can cope with the pressures of their peer group.”
