Sally-Ann Roberts / Eyewitness News
NEW ORLEANS – Members of the community helped pay for and arrange a special screening Friday of “Red Tails,” the new movie about World War II’s Tuskegee Airmen, for one of the heroes depicted in it: Calvin Moret.
WBOK Radio listeners and others helped donate money for the special screening of the George Lucas movie.
The screening capped off a day of honors for Moret. He began his day at City Hall, where Mayor Mitch Landrieu and City Council President Jackie Clarkson met him, presenting him with a key to the city and other honors.
“You've been a great ambassador for the city and of course a great American patriot,” Landrieu told Moret.
Moret was among the nation's first black military pilots. At a time when the city needs a hero, the 86-year-old World War II veteran gave the mayor a letter with his thoughts about how to curb crime.
"Somebody somewhere exerted the influence to make our society believe any reference to God and morality in public places is unconstitutional. And yet reinstating these values is the only way that any curbing of crime will take place,” Moret wrote in his letter, which he read to the mayor.
"Freedom is not free," Landrieu said. "It comes only when people make incredible sacrifices and this is a gentleman who has exhibited the courage to do that and one of the greatest battles that we're having for soul of the city right now is to make the city safe and to save our children."
Tuskegee Airmen know something about battles.
“66 black American pilots died over Europe defending the bombers that were assigned to them,” Moret said. “I knew, I know, some of them personally. I was on a speaking engagement with one guy who was shot down over Germany and was a prisoner of war for nine months.”
The airmen battled not just the enemy but ignorance.
“Many people, especially from the early times, didn't recognize that black Americans had talent, and not only talent, but a love for the country to risk their lives and lose their lives,” Moret said.
He said he is grateful to Lucas for bringing the Tuskegee Airmen's story to light.
"Not just for the dollar investment he made in producing this, but the faith he evidently has that this is a story worth telling."
