Heroism and diversity are in the air at OCC

There was an unusual assembly of American heroes last Friday at Orange Coast College.

For the third year in a row, the college honored the Tuskegee Airmen, who flew during World War II and, famously, never lost a bomber to enemy fire.

The Tuskegee Airmen also are rightly famous for breaking through the armed forces’ segregationist and racist policies, which included beliefs that black people couldn’t learn to fly multiengine planes.

Those tales were a high point of the luncheon, which drew about 100 people.

The airmen being honored were members of the Los Angeles chapter of the Tuskegee Airmen Inc., a group dedicated to keeping the airmen’s history alive They included William Ellis, Theodore Fortier, O. Oliver Goodall, Mitchell Higgenbotham, Ted Lumpkin, Fred Pitcher, Lowell Steward, Levi Thornhill, Ed Tillman and Oscar York.

At this point, you might be wondering the same thing I was: Why is OCC honoring airmen who trained in Alabama? There’s a straightforward answer: OCC is on the grounds of the old Santa Ana Army Base and has a flight-training school, so there’s a long connection with flying.

The lunch also represented a bit of progressive thinking, in that it brought black veterans to an area that isn’t exactly known for being a bubbling melting pot. (As of the last census, Newport Beach was the whitest city in the state, a fact the Pilot has reported.)

Higgenbotham, who spoke at the event and is one of two airmen living in Orange County, mentioned that, when he first moved to Los Angeles following the war, he never would have dreamed he’d end up in Orange County. (He’s in Dana Point, to be precise.)

It was, to be honest, unusual to be in a room in Newport-Mesa that was not overwhelmingly white. It also was refreshing. And listening to the airmen offered a sense that maybe, one day, it won’t have to feel strange.

In a film shown during the tribute, Goodall related a story of how he and several fellow airmen broke the barriers set against them for something as simple as using the officers club. Going into the club ended with their being arrested.

“We decided, that’s it,” Goodall said. “And if they decided to close down the club, that was OK by us.”

Ellis simply encouraged those watching the film.

“You can do anything you want as long as you’re qualified,” Ellis said. “You can’t challenge anything unless you’re qualified.”

And how do you get qualified? Education, he said.

The day wasn’t all heavy remembrances of tougher times. Higgenbotham, one of two featured speakers, related how he had buzzed a Kentucky country club in a bomber during his time in the service. And then he went over to the town’s main street during a parade.

“It scared the heck out of them and broke up the parade,” he said.

The event ended with a good cause: the presentation of a $2,000 scholarship to Adam Ifill, a student at a flight school at Compton Airport, where the L.A. chapter of the Tuskegee Airmen group is based. With the money, Ifill will be able to continue his training at OCC.

That way, he can be certain he’ll be qualified.

How do you spell that?

Here’s something that might bring all our politicians back down to earth: I’d say about 20% of the letters the Pilot received regarding the appointment to replace former Newport Beach Mayor John Heffernan misspelled his name as “Hefferman.”

You can never be too well known, apparently.

* S.J. CAHN is the editor. He may be reached at (714) 966-4607 or by e-mail at s.j.cahn@latimes.com.

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