Captain Charles E. McGee, of the 301st Fighter Squadron, 332nd Fighter Group, the famed “Tuskegee Airmen”, is awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for extraordinary achievement while participating in aerial flight against the enemy while escorting bombers in the Mediterranean Theater of Operations. On August 23, 1944, while escorting B-17s over Czechoslovakia, Captain McGee engaged and destroyed a German Focke-Wulf (FW 190), Captain McGee’s actions under challenging conditions and against often overwhelming odds contributed materially to the success of the Allied combat operations and reflect great credit upon himself and the Armed Forces of the United States.
Charles E. McGee would go on to fly a total of 409 combat missions (137 in WWII, 100 in Korea, and 172 in Vietnam), receiving two additional Distinguished Flying Crosses, a Bronze Star and numerous other awards. Upon then Brigadier General Charles McGee’s passing in January, 2022, Air Force Chief of Staff Major General C.Q. Brown Jr., in citing Gen. McGee’s thirty years of service, described it as “Nothing shy of heroic”. Charles E. McGee was born in Cleveland, Ohio.