New Windsor Tuskegee Airmen Sponsor Golf Tournament

Aug 16, 2017

NEW WINDSOR – In what has become a Hudson Valley golfing tradition, the Maj. Gen. Irene

Trowell-Harris Chapter of the national Tuskegee Airmen organization is

sponsoring its 19th annual Tuskegee Airmen/Willie Carter Memorial Golf

Tournament. The golf classic will tee off at 10 a.m. on Monday, August 21st at the

West Hills Country Club, in Middletown. New York, and the public is welcome to

play.

The event is a celebration of heroism twice over–a double victory, as the

original Tuskegee Airmen said after beating both the Luftwaffe and Jim Crow.

The Tuskegee Airmen were the nearly 1,000 African-American officer-pilots who

won their wings at Tuskegee, Alabama, plus the thousands of black enlisted

personnel who supported them on the ground. The Tuskegee Airmen were the

first and only black pilots to fly for their country in World War II. Their bravery

led directly to desegregation of the entire military in 1948, and to the Civil Rights

Movement of the mid-1960s.

Just as proud a pioneer was Orange County educator and golf pro Willie Carter,

for whom the Tuskegee Airmen tournament is co-named. Carter was the first

African-American golf pro in Orange County and taught the game–usually free–to

many young people. He also ultimately became the principal of the

Mechanicstown Elementary School, the first black administrator in the largely

white Middletown School District.

Registration begins at nine a.m. on the 21st, cost of registration, which includes a

golf cart; breakfast, lunch and a banquet dinner; silent auction; and the opportunity

to compete for numerous prizes including a new BMW awarded for a hole in one,

sponsored by BMW of the Hudson Valley.

One particularly spectacular post-play prize will be awarded to the winner of

the Helicopter Golf-Ball Drop. Contestants buy numbered balls and

they are dropped en masse onto a putting green from a helicopter provided by

Stewart Airport’s Independent Helicopters. First one into the hole, or closest to the

hole, wins 10 percent of what has been raised for ball purchases, up to $2,000.

Helicopter Ball Drop, at www.tai-ny.com