News>Feature - Tuskegee Airman overcomes prejudice, illness to excel as pilot, physician, singer, athlete
Photos
Dr. Granville Coggs shows off a bronze replica of the Congressional Gold Medal bestowed upon all Tuskegee Airmen earlier this year in recognition of their service and sacrifice to the United States during World War II. (Courtesy photo)
7/13/2007 - RANDOLPH AIR FORCE BASE, Texas -- It was in 1935 that a 10-year-old boy sat in the balcony of a movie theater in Pine Bluff, Ark., staring in wonderment at the big-screen motion picture "West Point of the Air."
As a young black man growing up in the segregated South, he said he could never have imagined that he could one day be a pilot like the ones portrayed by Wallace Beery and Robert Young in the film that was shot at Randolph Field.
But less than 10 years later, following in the footsteps of Herbert Clark, from his own hometown, and other young men who blazed a contrail as the first black Army Air Corps fliers in World War II, Granville Coggs ventured into the wild blue yonder, training as a bombardier and then as a pilot for one of the three groups that made up the pioneering Tuskegee Airmen.
More than 60 years later, on March 29 of this year, everyone associated with the Tuskegee Airmen's three groups received long-overdue recognition. At a ceremony in the Rotunda of the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C., President George W. Bush and legislative leaders honored the Airmen with the Congressional Gold Medal.
The former Lieutenant Coggs, who is now Dr. Coggs, a radiologist with more than 50 years of experience, called the hour-long ceremony the proudest event of his life.
"I had tears in my eyes and got goose bumps during the ceremony," he said.
Among the dignitaries who paid tribute to the Tuskegee Airmen were President Bush, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, Senate majority leader Harry Reid and U.S. Rep. Charlie Rangel, who, with U.S. Sen. Carl Levin, co-sponsored the legislation that honored the World War II heroes.
"You couldn't help but be impressed," Dr. Coggs said. "These are the leaders of our nation."
He was especially moved by the comments of former Secretary of State and retired Gen. Colin Powell, who also acknowledged the contributions of the black fighting men who preceded the Tuskegee Airmen.
"His speech was unique," Dr. Coggs said. "It came from his heart. He had no notes. He knew this was a historic occasion because he had a similar experience."
Dr. Coggs joined the Tuskegee Airmen - so-named because they trained at Tuskegee Institute and Tuskegee Army Air Field in Alabama - late in the war. A 1942 high school graduate, he briefly attended Howard University before enlisting in the Army Air Corps.
"Tuskegee was the only place where blacks could train," he said. "Segregation in the military was pervasive."
Dr. Coggs said one reason he joined the Army Air Corps was because pilots were "respected and well-paid."
President Franklin Roosevelt had ordered the creation of the all-black flight-training program despite the prejudices of those who believed blacks weren't up to the task. The Tuskegee Airmen served with distinction, taking part in more than 15,500 sorties and more than 1,500 missions in Europe, North Africa and Sicily. Their primary mission was to escort bombers, and they did so with precision, losing not one bomber to enemy fighter planes.
The war ended before Dr. Coggs saw combat, but he completed training as an aerial gunner, aerial bombardier and multi-engine pilot before he was discharged from the Army Air Corps into the Army Air Corps Reserve in July 1946.
That same year he followed his future wife, Maud Currie, from Tuskegee to the University of Nebraska, where she was pursuing a master's degree. He wanted to marry her, but she asked him how he would support her, and he responded by saying he would go to medical school and become a doctor. He said he started thinking about becoming a doctor when he saw the nice cars that some black physicians were driving when they came to meetings at Tuskegee Institute.
"So I went to college focused," Dr. Coggs said. "Nebraska gave me 18 hours of military credit and I got my degree in three years."
He said President Harry Truman's integration of the military in 1948 changed his life forever. He was accepted to Harvard Medical School, achieving a second milestone in less than a decade, and, with the help of the GI Bill and a scholarship, was able to pay for his medical education.
Dr. Coggs said his acceptance into Harvard's medical school was especially meaningful because he had met the prestigious institution's rigorous standards. He graduated from Harvard Medical School in 1953, and he and other black graduates of the Harvard program were later spotlighted in a book titled "Against All Odds: The Legacy of Students of African Descent at Harvard Medical School before Affirmative Action 1850-1968."
He served internships at two Army hospitals - Murphy in Waltham, Mass., and Letterman in San Francisco - and completed his residency in radiology at University of California hospitals in San Francisco, then practiced and taught radiology in the Bay Area for nearly 20 years.
Dr. Coggs joined the faculty at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio in 1975 as a tenured professor of radiology, and he also joined the radiology staffs at the Bexar County Hospital District and at Audie Murphy Veterans Administration Hospital.
After retiring from the Health Science Center in 1989, he didn't slow down, serving as a radiologist at hospitals and clinics in Texas communities such as Ennis, Pampa, Amarillo, Lubbock, McAllen and El Paso and in Southern California. He has worked as a radiologist at the Otto Kaiser Memorial Hospital in Kenedy and the Gonzaba Medical Group in San Antonio. He currently works as a civilian at Brooke Army Medical Center, serving as special advisor to the commanding general on diversity.
Dr. Coggs has received numerous awards for his work in radiology and was the co-inventor of a low-cost portable device called the Precision Breast Lesion Localizer, which has been patented. He also invented the Central X-Ray Beam Guided Breast Biopsy System, which facilitates biopsies.
More than a decade ago, as a septuagenarian, Dr. Coggs launched an athletic career as a runner when his wife suggested exercise as a means to overcome the narcolepsy that led to his retirement from the Health Science Center.
He has excelled, winning a number of 400- and 1500-meter runs, including gold medals in the 400-meter run at the Florida State Senior Games in 2000, the Texas State Senior Games in 2001 and the San Antonio Senior Games in 2004. His gold medal at the Texas Senior Games came during the same year he overcame prostate cancer, successfully completing radiation therapy and hormonal therapy.
Dr. Coggs is also an accomplished singer, performing as a tenor with the San Antonio Symphony Mastersingers in six seasons between 1982 and 1998.
The father of two daughters and the grandfather of two granddaughters, Dr. Coggs said it was the nurturing environment provided by his parents and siblings that prepared him for a lifetime of achievement. His father, Tandy Washington Coggs Sr., was a lifelong educator, once serving as president of Arkansas Baptist College.
"The most important thing is that I selected my family," he said. "I was blessed with my parents and my siblings. I'm the beneficiary of that environment."
