Hyfler/Rosner
2006-05-13 14:47:15 UTC
The Washington Post
Joe Holley
May 12, 2006 Friday
James Bryson Jr.;
Touted Tuskegee Pilots
James O. Bryson Jr., 80, a member of the famed Tuskegee
Airmen group of African American pilots and a retired civil
engineer, died of cerebrovascular hemorrhage at Florida
Hospital-Flagler in Palm Coast, Fla. He was a former
resident of the District.
Mr. Bryson graduated from flight school at Tuskegee
Institute in Alabama in June 1945, shortly after the war
ended in Europe. He was slated for a combat assignment in
the Pacific, but Japan surrendered before he could go
overseas.
More than 40 years later, Mr. Bryson published a speech
guide for Tuskegee Airmen Inc., an Arlington-based national
organization established in 1973 to perpetuate the memory of
the combat pilots trained at Tuskegee between 1941 and 1946.
The training program, grudgingly established by the War
Department, was partially the result of a lawsuit filed by
the National Association for the Advancement of Colored
People on behalf of a Howard University student. More than
900 black Americans trained as pilots, navigators and
bombardiers at Tuskegee.
"Despite the burden of discrimination in training and
combat, the Tuskegee Airmen achieved an outstanding combat
record," Mr. Bryson wrote. "They destroyed or damaged over
400 German aircraft, and over a thousand ground and sea
targets. . . . The Tuskegee Airmen lost 66 pilots killed in
combat, and 32 more were shot down and became 'prisoners of
war.' "
James Osborn Bryson Jr. was born at Fort Benning, Ga., and
graduated from Hampton Institute in Virginia. Near the end
of his first semester in 1945, he applied to the Army Air
Corps for pilot training and was inducted shortly after his
18th birthday. He remained at Tuskegee Army Air Field after
the war, where he worked as an airdrome officer and a
special missions pilot.
Mr. Bryson returned to Hampton Institute in 1946, where he
lettered in football, track and swimming. He received a
bachelor's degree in architectural engineering in 1950 and a
master's degree in civil engineering from Catholic
University in 1958.
In 1954, he joined the National Bureau of Standards as a
structural engineer in the building research division, where
his duties involved testing structural materials and
components.
In 1965, he participated in a program at White Sands Missile
Range, N.M., to help determine the effect of sonic booms on
residential structures. He held a number of other positions
having to do with building safety and retired in 1982 as
chief of the Office of Testing Laboratory Evaluation
Technology.
After his retirement, he worked as a civil engineering
consultant until he moved to Florida in 1993.
Mr. Bryson was the author of numerous technical papers and
reports. He received several awards during his engineering
career, including the American Society of Civil Engineers'
State of the Art award in 1973.
His marriage to Lena Jordan Bryson ended in divorce.
Survivors include his wife of 40 years, Doris Dorsey Bryson
of Palm Coast; two stepchildren from his second marriage,
Darrell G. Brown of the District and Karen L. Vails of
Takoma Park; two grandchildren; and one great-grandson.
"He was a Tuskegee airman first, then a golfer," his wife
said. He believed that the Tuskegee program, as he wrote in
the speech guide, "was the genesis of a national struggle by
blacks for equal opportunity that continues to this day."
Joe Holley
May 12, 2006 Friday
James Bryson Jr.;
Touted Tuskegee Pilots
James O. Bryson Jr., 80, a member of the famed Tuskegee
Airmen group of African American pilots and a retired civil
engineer, died of cerebrovascular hemorrhage at Florida
Hospital-Flagler in Palm Coast, Fla. He was a former
resident of the District.
Mr. Bryson graduated from flight school at Tuskegee
Institute in Alabama in June 1945, shortly after the war
ended in Europe. He was slated for a combat assignment in
the Pacific, but Japan surrendered before he could go
overseas.
More than 40 years later, Mr. Bryson published a speech
guide for Tuskegee Airmen Inc., an Arlington-based national
organization established in 1973 to perpetuate the memory of
the combat pilots trained at Tuskegee between 1941 and 1946.
The training program, grudgingly established by the War
Department, was partially the result of a lawsuit filed by
the National Association for the Advancement of Colored
People on behalf of a Howard University student. More than
900 black Americans trained as pilots, navigators and
bombardiers at Tuskegee.
"Despite the burden of discrimination in training and
combat, the Tuskegee Airmen achieved an outstanding combat
record," Mr. Bryson wrote. "They destroyed or damaged over
400 German aircraft, and over a thousand ground and sea
targets. . . . The Tuskegee Airmen lost 66 pilots killed in
combat, and 32 more were shot down and became 'prisoners of
war.' "
James Osborn Bryson Jr. was born at Fort Benning, Ga., and
graduated from Hampton Institute in Virginia. Near the end
of his first semester in 1945, he applied to the Army Air
Corps for pilot training and was inducted shortly after his
18th birthday. He remained at Tuskegee Army Air Field after
the war, where he worked as an airdrome officer and a
special missions pilot.
Mr. Bryson returned to Hampton Institute in 1946, where he
lettered in football, track and swimming. He received a
bachelor's degree in architectural engineering in 1950 and a
master's degree in civil engineering from Catholic
University in 1958.
In 1954, he joined the National Bureau of Standards as a
structural engineer in the building research division, where
his duties involved testing structural materials and
components.
In 1965, he participated in a program at White Sands Missile
Range, N.M., to help determine the effect of sonic booms on
residential structures. He held a number of other positions
having to do with building safety and retired in 1982 as
chief of the Office of Testing Laboratory Evaluation
Technology.
After his retirement, he worked as a civil engineering
consultant until he moved to Florida in 1993.
Mr. Bryson was the author of numerous technical papers and
reports. He received several awards during his engineering
career, including the American Society of Civil Engineers'
State of the Art award in 1973.
His marriage to Lena Jordan Bryson ended in divorce.
Survivors include his wife of 40 years, Doris Dorsey Bryson
of Palm Coast; two stepchildren from his second marriage,
Darrell G. Brown of the District and Karen L. Vails of
Takoma Park; two grandchildren; and one great-grandson.
"He was a Tuskegee airman first, then a golfer," his wife
said. He believed that the Tuskegee program, as he wrote in
the speech guide, "was the genesis of a national struggle by
blacks for equal opportunity that continues to this day."