Dozens of Black pilots disappeared during WWII. Who are the men still lost?

April 12, 2026

AI Summary

5 min read

Cheryl W. Thompson’s father was a Tuskegee Airman—not a pilot, but one of the roughly 14,000 Black men who served in the training and support apparatus of the famed World War II unit. He used to tell stories, and other airmen would come to the house when she was a child. She wishes she had paid closer attention. Years later, while working as an investigative reporter at the Washington Post, a colleague mentioned that remains of a Tuskegee Airman had been found in Austria. Thompson asked if there were others. Her colleague said yes, and told her the story was hers to write. That conversation became Forgotten Souls: The Search for the Lost Tuskegee Airmen, a book that traces the lives and disappearances of 27 Black pilots who went missing during combat missions overseas and were never recovered.

Who the missing airmen were

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What you'll learn

1 (00:09) **The Lost Tuskegee Airmen** - Introduces the central mystery: dozens of celebrated Black WWII pilots never made it home, and their families were left without answers from the U.S. government.
2 (03:42) **Cheryl’s Personal Connection** - Thompson reveals her father was a Tuskegee Airman, which seeded her interest in the missing pilots.
3 (06:34) **Surprising Youth and Ordinary Lives** - Thompson was struck by how young the missing airmen were and how normal their lives were before the war.
4 (08:03) **A Letter from John Henry Chavis** - Thompson reads a letter from a missing pilot to his mother, showing his hopeful, romantic side just before his death.
5 (09:56) **The Tragedy and Lack of Clarity** - Chavis disappeared on a mission in February 1945; the military blamed engine trouble, but the book shows a pattern of vague explanations for missing pilots.
6 (12:08) **Impact on Families: Never Getting Over It** - Families of the missing airmen were devastated and received no support or acknowledgment from the government.
7 (14:35) **Government Inaction** - None of the families, except for two in the last eight years, have ever heard from the government about their missing loved ones.

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Show Notes

Dozens of Tuskegee Airmen went missing in action during World War II. Most of them have not been found. Who were these men and what happened to them? In her book, "Forgotten Souls," NPR investigative correspondent Cheryl W. Thompson tells their stories.

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