Charles "Buster" Hall, born August 25, 1920 in Brazil, Indiana, was the first African American combat pilot to be awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross. He enlisted in the US Army Air Corps as an aviation cadet in 1941, and assigned to attend Advanced Flight Cadet Training at the Tuskegee Army Airfield in 1942.
He graduated July 3, 1942, earning his wings and being commisssioned as a 2nd Lieutenant. Hall was assigned to the 332nd Fighter Group's 99th Fighter Squadron.
During WWII, he flew 198 missions over North Africa, Italy, the Meditarranean, and Europe. On July 2, 1943, while on a riad on Castelvetrano Airfield in Sicily, Itlay, Hall shot down a German plane, making him the first African American combat fighter to shoot down an enemy aircraft.
For this action, he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, making him the first black man to receive an award. He shot down two more enemy planes in January 1944 over Anzio, Italy.
After the war, like many other African American WWII veteran pilots, he could not find a job with commercial airlines or commercial transport companies. He moved to Oklahoma, where he became an insurance agent and in 1949, worked at Tinker Air Force Base until 1967, when he took a position at the Federal Aviation Administration in Oklahoma City.
He died on November 22, 1971
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