Lt. Robert W Diez

Poster of Tuskegee Airman Lt. Robert W. Diez used in an advert to buy U.S. War Bonds, sponsored by The Office of War Information, 1943. Artist unknown.

2nd Lt. Robert W Deiz
June 17, 1919 – April 6, 1992
Class: 42-H-SE
Graduation Date: 9/6/1942
Unit: 99th Fighter Squadron of the 332nd Fighter Group
Service # 0792419

Born in Portland, Oregon in June 1919, Robert Deiz set track records in the 100-yard dash, the 220-yard race and relays at Franklin High School and the University of Oregon.

Diez was able to enroll in the Civilian Pilot Training Program when President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Civilian Pilot Training Act into law on June 27, 1939. The law not only strengthened our national defense prior to entering World War II, but also opened up pilot training to many who would never have had an opportunity to learn to fly.

The new Civilian Pilot Training Program (CPTP) became the War Training Service (WTS) and, from 1942 to 1944, served primarily as the screening program for potential pilot candidates.

All graduates were required to sign a contract agreeing to enter the military following graduation. The CPTP/WTS program was largely phased out in the summer of 1944, but not before 435,165 people, including Deiz, had been taught to fly. After graduation he joined the U.S Army Air Corps and graduated from the Tuskegee program in 1942 as a member of the 99th Fighter Squadron.

1st Lt Deiz flew 93 missions in 1943-44 in the 332nd Fighter Group and was one of the 99th Fighter Squadron pilots who shot down ten Fw 190s on January 27, 1944. He shot down another one the next day. ‘’Among those in control, some wanted to see us succeed, and others wanted to see us fail,’’ he said on a Portland visit. ‘’For a while, the ones who wanted to see us fail had the upper hand. We couldn’t get near combat. But combat came to us. Things didn’t go the way they were supposed to in Italy, and we got to fight after all. At Anzio, we got the job of protecting the beachhead. After that, they couldn’t ignore us.’’

Mr. Deiz said prejudice had helped create a strong fighting force. ‘’It made us the best of the best,’’ he said. ‘’Prejudice made it a lot tougher for a black fellow to get his wings.’’

Mr. Deiz stayed in the Air Force, as it finally became, and continued as a test pilot. He was among the first to fly jet aircraft.

He retired as a Major in Columbus in 1961 after 20 years’ service. He spent three years in an electronics job at North American Aviation and then became a parole officer for three years and a parole supervisor for 17 years before retiring permanently in the early 1980s.

On April 6, 1992, in Columbus, Ohio, Maj. Deiz suddenly collapsed and died from a heart attack. He left his wife, Ruby Butler Deiz, whom he married in 1943; a son Robert Everett Deiz, his brother Carl and other loved ones. Ruby Deiz passed away years later on August 17, 2012, in West Bloomfield, Michigan. In an April 8, 1992, obituary in the Oregonian newspaper, an earlier observation by Maj. Deiz about his war experience was recounted:

Among those in control, some wanted to see us succeed, and others wanted us to fail. For a while, the ones who wanted to see us fail had the upper hand. We couldn’t get near combat. But combat came to us. Things didn’t go the way they were supposed to in Italy, and we got to fight after all. At Anzio, we got the job of protecting the beachhead. After that they couldn’t ignore us.

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Source: Freedom: A Photographic History of the African American Struggle; by Phaidon; cafriseabove.org; National Archives