Wallace P. Reed: Difference between revisions

Wallace Patillo Reed (November 22, 1919- November 12, 1999) was a U.S. Army Officer in World War II and the first African-American meteorologist in the U.S. Military, serving at Tuskegee Army Air Field in Tuskegee, Alaba as the base's weather officer. Reed is also considered the first African American meteorologist in the U.S. Weather Bureau, the predecessor to the National Weather Service.

Early Life

Reed earned a degree in Mathematics from the University of New Hampshire.

Military Service, First African American Military Meteorologist, Tuskegee Airmen

Wallace P. Reed was the first black cadet of the program. With a mathematics degree, he was commissioned as the first black weather officer in February 1942.

At the beginning of the 1940s, the U.S. Army possess only 62 qualified weather forecasters. To remain a highly functional operation, the Army Air Forces anticipated a minimal requirement of 10,000 weather forecasters and weather observers.

To train a sufficient number of military weather forecasters, the Army Air Forces set up a weather cadet program in collaboration with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), New York University (NYU) and the California Institute of Technology {CIT), and later with the University of Chicago, the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) and a special Army Air Forces program in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The program's prerequisites included degrees in engineering, mathematics, physics or chemistry degrees, with a minimum of two years of coursework required in the program's later years. Through an extensive search for its second weather cadet class in 1941, MIT officials recruited Reed.

After graduating and completing a three-week post-graduation military meteorologist orientation at Mitchel Field, New York, Reed was commissioned into the Army Air Corps as a 2nd Lieutenant on March 21, 1942, three weeks before future U.S. General and future Tuskegee Airmen Commander Benjamin O. Davis Jr. and fellow members of Tuskegee's inaugural fighter pilot training class graduated.

The Army Air Forces assigned Reed to lead the Tuskegee Army Air Field's inaugural Tuskegee Weather Detachment as base weather officer. Reed would become the first African-American meteorologist in the U.S. military.

As a Lieutenant and as later as a Captain, Reed created a fully operational weather station to provide up-to-date forecasts and weather briefings to flight school officers and instructors. led 15 men, preparing weather officers for deployment overseas. </ref> The Detachment's officer corps represented only 0.2 percent of all U.S. military weather officers. His Weather Detachment officer corps included Lt. Grant Franklin, Lt. Archie Williams, Lt. John Branche, Lt. Paul Wise and Lt. Robert Preer. The Tribune Democrat. "These trailblazers were America’s 1st Black meteorologists." Ashley Williams. Feb 13, 2021 One of Reed's weather officers included Charles E. Anderson (1919–1994), a 1943 graduate of Army Air Forces's TTC program in meteorology at the University of Chicago and the first African American to receive a Ph.D. in Meteorology.

Based on performance and standardized testing, the vast majority of Reed's enlisted staffers were awarded the AAF Weather Observer Badge.

On March 11, 1946, Reed completed his military service.

Post-World War II Years

After In 1946, after serving in World War II, Reed took a post as a government official, connected with the U.S. Weather Bureau at Nickols Field. He lived in Manila for over three decades before moving back to the United States.

After the war, Reed relocated to the Philippines where he worked for Pan American Airways. Reed became a U.S. government official with the U.S. Weather Bureau at Nickols Field in Manila, Philippines, working there for over 30 years until back to the United States years later.

Death

On November 12, 1999, Reed passed away in Los Angeles, California. He is interred at Roosevelt Memorial Park in Los Angeles, California. Find a Grave. "Wallace P. Reed."