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The World and Everything In It
2.10.25 Supreme Court cases on deception and employment benefits, the effect of tariffs, and honoring Tuskegee Airmen
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- [00:06]
Mary Reichard
Good morning. The truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Today on legal docket, the Supreme Court weighs half truths.
- [00:13]
Nick Eicher
And he says, I've done a hundred of these surgeries. Turns out that 99 of the patients have died 100 of these surgeries. True statement correct. The justice is trying to get to the bottom of a political corruption case. Also today, the Monday money beat. David Bonson standing by. Will talk tariffs, jobs and deb. And later, the world history book. Today, the death of one of the last surviving Tuskegee Airmen. We remember the brave pilots.
- [00:47]
Mary Reichard
It's Monday, February 10th. This is the world and everything in it. From listener supported World Radio, I'm Mary Reichard.
- [00:55]
Nick Eicher
And I'm Nick Eicher. Good morning.
- [00:57]
Mary Reichard
Now the news. Here's Kent Covington.
- [01:00]
Kent Covington
Republicans and Democrats continue to clash over Doge. The Department of Government Efficiency. The independent office led by tech business titan Elon Musk, is making good on President Trump's campaign promise to pry open the books on Washington spending. Democrats, though, are not happy about it. Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut told ABC's this Week the president wants to be.
- [01:23]
Nick Eicher
Able to decide how and where money is spent so that he can reward his political friends, he can punish his political enemies. That is the evisceration of democracy.
- [01:34]
Kent Covington
They also say it amounts to allowing an unelected billionaire to take over the government, referring to Musk. Republicans, though, say they have one of the brightest minds in America working under the president's authority to help fix what's broken. Congressman Mike Turner of Ohio.
- [01:49]
Nick Eicher
The fact that we have Elon Musk looking from the private sector into the public sector, advising the president in ways that we can find ways to reduce overall spending, to get this curve down is incredibly important and an unbelievable opportunity for our government.
- [02:07]
Kent Covington
Republicans say Doge is already uncovering shocking waste, fraud and abuse and charge that Democrats are just afraid of what else Doge may find. The Trump administration has been ramping up deportations of illegal immigrants. As of last week, Immigration and Customs enforcement had made 7,400 arrests since President Trump's inauguration. But border czar Tom Holman said Sunday.
- [02:32]
Caroline Flynn
I'm not satisfied yet. We gotta have more criminal arrest.
- [02:35]
Nick Eicher
And the sanctuary cities are slowing us down.
- [02:37]
Caroline Flynn
But we're going to keep coming. We're going to keep coming and they're.
- [02:40]
Nick Eicher
Not going to stop us.
- [02:41]
Kent Covington
And recent numbers shared by the Texas Department of Public Safety suggest that migrant encounters at the southern border are down sharply. Among those deported last week were the first migrants sent to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, under the new Trump administration. The US has had a migrant detention facility at Gitmo for decades. It is separate from the detention facility there used to hold suspected terrorists. Some groups, though, like the aclu, have been highly critical of the decision to house illegal migrants there. But DHS Secretary Kristi Noem says they're not moving just any migrants to Gitmo.
- [03:16]
Nick Eicher
I watched a plane load of people.
- [03:17]
Mary Reichard
Unload at Gitmo that were pedophiles, child.
- [03:20]
Nick Eicher
Pornographers, they were drug dealers in our communities. That's who we're putting down there at Gitmo.
- [03:26]
Kent Covington
And she said even so, the military is on the ground making sure that facilities meet U.S. standards. President Trump's national security adviser Mike Waltz says that top administration officials are traveling to Europe this week. He says they'll be talking to European officials about how to end the war in Ukraine nearly three years after Russia launched an all out invasion. He told NBC's Meet the Press, Russia's.
- [03:51]
Mary Reichard
Economy is not doing well.
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Nick Eicher
He is prepared to tax, to tariff, to sanction.
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Mary Reichard
We need to get all sides of.
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Deepak Gupta
The table and end this war.
- [03:59]
Nick Eicher
And it has come up in conversations with President Xi, with Prime Minister Modi, with leaders across the Middle East. Everybody is ready to help President Trump in this war.
- [04:10]
Kent Covington
Multiple reports on Sunday stated that Trump has already spoken with Vladimir Putin by phone about ending the war. But neither the White House nor the Kremlin could immediately confirm that. In Alaska, authorities say they have recovered the remains of all 10 people killed when their small plane crashed into ice on the Bering Sea. Recovery crews had been racing to recover the bodies before a winter storm was expected to hit the region. Crews then went to work trying to recover the plane. National Transportation Safety Board Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy.
- [04:41]
Mary Reichard
Please know that we'll work diligently to determine how this happened with the ultimate goal of improving safety here in Alaska and across the United States.
- [04:53]
Kent Covington
The single engine turbo prop plane was traveling from Monalaklete to the hub community of Nome when it disappeared Thursday afternoon. It was found the next day after an extensive search. The Kansas City Chiefs were denied a third straight super bowl victory last night.
- [05:10]
Nick Eicher
For the second time. The Vince Lombardi trophy is headed to Philadelphia.
- [05:15]
Kent Covington
Eagles fly in Super Bowl 59 Fox Sports with the final call of the game right there, the Philadelphia Eagles routed the Chiefs 4022 last night. Quarterback Jalen Hurts was the Super Bowl MVP after throwing for two touchdowns and running for another. President Trump was in attendance last night in New Orleans, becoming the first sitting president ever to attend a Super Bowl. I'm Kent Covington and straight Ahead, the Supreme Court considers the question of whether telling the truth requires telling the whole truth. Plus, the Monday Money beat with economist David Bonson. This is the world and everything in it.
- [06:06]
Mary Reichard
It's Monday, the 10th of February. This is World Radio, and we're so glad to have you along with us today. Good morning. Hi, I'm Mary Reichard.
- [06:14]
Nick Eicher
And I'm Nick Eicher. Well, before we continue, this morning, an exciting opportunity for families of the world and everything in it. World's daily video news for students is once again offering a free trial for three months.
- [06:28]
Mary Reichard
Yeah, it's World Watch. What a great way for families with young students at home to keep up with the news of the day. But it's more than just that. It's a way to spark meaningful conversations about current events, to see your kids grow in compassion and discernment and pray for the world together.
- [06:45]
Nick Eicher
So for more information, you can visit Worldwatch newsradio. We'll include a link in our show notes as well. That's WORLDWATCH newsradio. Now, after the trial period at the end of three months, we will continue offering World Watch each day for just $6.99 a month. And, you know, we took that figure and plugged it into our algorithm, our big computer, and it tells us it comes out to about 35 cent program. What a great deal. And yeah, it's tailored for families who value learning together. The offer ends on February 18th. So while you're thinking about it, take care of it so it doesn't pass you by.
- [07:26]
Mary Reichard
And now time for legal docket. First, a case with big numbers, big questions and even bigger loopholes. The question is, can a technically truthful statement still be a crime if it is a misleading statement? Put another way, can a half truth land you in whole trouble? The trial court heard this dispute in 2022 with lots of media coverage. In Chicago, jury selection has been completed in the federal tax fraud trial of a member of a prominent political family. 11th Ward Alderman Patrick Daley Thompson is facing seven charges that he lied to.
- [08:02]
Nick Eicher
Federal bank regulators and filed false tax returns.
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Mary Reichard
Yes, that daily from the family that ran a political machine and made the term Chicago politics synonymous with political corruption. He's the grandson of the late Mayor Richard J. Daly and the nephew of former Mayor Richard M. Daly.
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Kent Covington
His lawyers are arguing that, you know.
- [08:23]
Mary Reichard
He'S just sort of sloppy and forgetful. Bit of a hot mess, prosecutors say.
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Kent Covington
You know, hot mess or not, lying on your taxes is still a crime.
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Nick Eicher
The case is Thompson versus us. At issue are three loans former Alderman Thompson took out totaling up to more than $200,000. He used the money to buy into his law firm to pay off a tax bill and to settle another debt. But when the bank collapsed and the feds came calling, Thompson told them only about the hundred thousand that he owed. He left out the detail of two other loans that accounted for the rest of what he owed.
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Mary Reichard
So the government charged him with fraud. Thompson defended himself, saying he never outright lied. He really did take out a loan for $110,000. Still, the jury convicted Thompson on all seven counts of tax fraud, and he appealed all the way to the U.S. supreme Court. Now the Justices must decide whether misleading but true is enough to convict. Chief Justice John Roberts posed a hypothetical. You know, a police officer pulls a person over, thinks he's drunk, says, you know, have.
- [09:31]
Nick Eicher
Have you been drinking?
- [09:32]
Mary Reichard
And the person says, I've had one cocktail, when in fact he had one.
- [09:36]
Justice Sonia Sotomayor
Cocktail and four glasses of wine.
- [09:38]
Mary Reichard
I mean, is that treated differently under the statute that says false and misleading? I can see that being misleading, but.
- [09:44]
Justice Sonia Sotomayor
I'm not sure it would qualify as.
- [09:46]
Nick Eicher
False under the literal meaning of the word.
- [09:50]
Mary Reichard
Thompson's attorney, Chris Gayer, argued that Congress only criminalized outright falsehoods under the relevant law, not misleading half truths.
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Nick Eicher
At the outset. At its most basic, the word false means not true.
- [10:03]
Mary Reichard
It is therefore implausible to suggest that.
- [10:07]
Caroline Flynn
The statute that punishes all false statements.
- [10:10]
Nick Eicher
Include some types of true statements.
- [10:13]
Mary Reichard
False and true, but misleading are different concepts. When Congress means to prohibit both, it does so explicitly using both terms, as.
- [10:23]
Nick Eicher
It has in over 100 places in.
- [10:25]
Caroline Flynn
The United States Code.
- [10:27]
Nick Eicher
Arguing for the government, Assistant Solicitor General Caroline Flynn, she argued that Thompson's omissions were functionally false. After all, leaving out that hundred thousand dollar detail, that's more than an oops.
- [10:40]
Mary Reichard
A statement is false if it conveys an untrue message to the listener in context, even if the precise words used, considered in a vacuum, could possibly carry another meaning. So here, when, in response to receiving an invoice telling petitioner that he owed the FDIC $269,000, petitioner then told the FDIC's agents that he was shocked by the letter, had no Idea where the 269 number comes from, and had borrowed $110,000, he made a false statement because he clearly conveyed the message that he did not owe the higher amount. And 12 members of the jury in this case who were not given a specialized definition of what false means, and therefore must have applied the concept as.
- [11:20]
Nick Eicher
Ordinarily understood, agreed Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan posed vivid hypotheticals of their own council.
- [11:30]
Mary Reichard
If you say a packet of toxic mushrooms is 100% natural toxic. Mushrooms are 100% toxic. But it may be misleading if you're selling it because people may believe that it's safe, that you can actually eat it. So that's misleading, but not false.
- [11:49]
Nick Eicher
Doctors trying to convince a patient to have a particular surgery, and he says, I've done a hundred of these surgeries. Turns out that 99 of the patients have died. 100 of these surgeries. True statement, correct?
- [12:06]
Mary Reichard
Yeah. In the context I'm aware of, yes.
- [12:08]
Nick Eicher
But he doesn't say 99 people have died. He's now misled the patient, correct?
- [12:13]
Mary Reichard
Correct.
- [12:14]
Nick Eicher
But he hasn't said anything that's false.
- [12:17]
Mary Reichard
Correct.
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Nick Eicher
So that's the kind of thing where there really is a gap between a false statement and the misleading statement, right?
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Caroline Flynn
Yes.
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Mary Reichard
Kagan suggested sending the case back to lower court to figure out whether Thompson's statement was false and misleading or just plain old false. Meanwhile, Justice Neil Gorsuch wondered whether this case is even suitable to alter the scope of laws on fraud. In this clip, you'll Hear him say, QP. That means question presented.
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Deepak Gupta
Ms. Flynn.
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Nick Eicher
The question presented is whether the statute prohibits making a statement that is misleading but not false. That's the qp, not what qualifies as falsity. How much context? Who shot John? None of that's in the qp.
- [13:01]
Mary Reichard
Thompson's lawyers say a ruling against him could criminalize vague or incomplete statements in financial dealings. On the other hand, a ruling for Thompson could open up a creative new loophole for fraud.
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Nick Eicher
Well, now onto a case about firefighting disability and retirement benefits. The Supreme Court is hearing Stanley v. City of Sanford. It's a showdown over disability rights under the ada, the Americans with Disabilities Act. Karen Stanley spent almost two decades fighting fires in Sanford, Florida. But when Parkinson's forced her to retire early, she got an unwelcome surprise. Her health benefits ran out after just two years. That's because of a policy change made 15 years earlier.
- [13:48]
Mary Reichard
Stanley argues that's discrimination. She says retirees like her were promised coverage until age 65, but because she left due to a disability, she lost that safety net. The city, meanwhile, says the rules were in place long before she retired. Now the justices will decide, can retirees sue for disability discrimination over lost benefits? The ruling could have big implications for workers forced out by illness.
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Nick Eicher
The city's argument at the Supreme Court is that the ADA doesn't cover retirees. Stanley says she was qualified at the time the City put its policy in place. But in 2003, the city limited health subsidies for disabled retirees to just 24 months. Stanley says she didn't find out about that until her own subsidy expired.
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Mary Reichard
The issue The ADA says it protects qualified individuals, but does the definition of qualified depend on whether a person is employed? Her lawyer, Deepak Gupta. I do want to urge the court in its opinion to be careful not.
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Nick Eicher
To foreclose other scenarios that the City's reading would permit, particularly given the City's.
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Mary Reichard
Failure to identify any plausible reason why.
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Nick Eicher
Congress would have wanted to draw this arbitrary line.
- [15:06]
Mary Reichard
A firefighter who becomes disabled saving people from from a burning building could be discriminated against the next month. A retired firefighter who develops a respiratory.
- [15:16]
Nick Eicher
Condition from years of smoke exposure could lose health coverage.
- [15:20]
Mary Reichard
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson pressed the City on its argument that you first have to retire and then sue to make retirement benefits take effect. Listen to her exchange with Christopher Connor for the City. She says, at the time that I held the job, I became disabled and that policy applied to me. I was subject to it in that period of time. So why would we pretend as though that is not a fact in the case? Not here. And decide this on a broader question that relates to people who did not hold the job during the time that they were qualified? Because the policy that she describes that she claims is discriminatory and she does describes in her complaint on its face only applies to a person who becomes completely unable to perform their job and is therefore unqualified.
- [16:13]
Nick Eicher
The City argues that its policy is compassionate because disabled retirees get at least 24 months of benefits. But Stanley's lawyer points out that non disabled retirees keep their subsidies until Medicare kicks in at age 65. Justice Alito is seeking a guiding principle.
- [16:32]
Mary Reichard
Your client says let's just take the ongoing status. Your client says that I'm a victim of discrimination based on disability because I should be treated the same way as somebody who worked 25 years. How is the Court supposed to determine whether this distinction between somebody who works 25 years and somebody who works a shorter period and retires based on disability is unlawful? What is the test for determining that? Yeah, I mean, I think it will.
- [17:01]
Nick Eicher
It will turn a lot on the claim.
- [17:02]
Mary Reichard
Let me try to describe what I think is going on here. The City says it must cut benefits to control costs. Justice Kagan suggested that the Court could decide this case narrowly just for Stanley rather than the broader issue of post employment ADA claims for Stanley, though the stakes amount to $1,000 a month. That's not trivial for a career firefighter now fighting Parkinson's disease. And that's this week's legal docket.
- [17:37]
Kent Covington
Additional support comes from Ambassadors Impact Network, where entrepreneurs can discover faith aligned funding opportunities. More at Ambassadors Impact.
- [18:03]
Mary Reichard
Coming up next on THE WORLD and everything in it, the Monday Money beat.
- [18:10]
Nick Eicher
It's time now to talk business markets and the economy with financial analyst and advisor David Bonson. David heads up the wealth management firm the Bonson Group, and he's here now, though with a little bit of market volatility in the respiratory system. David, good morning. And obviously a diminished supply of voice but no shortage of insight. So special thanks for joining me today.
- [18:33]
Caroline Flynn
Well, thanks for having me, Nick.
- [18:35]
Nick Eicher
All right. Well, let's talk tariffs. David, when we discuss the threats the president uses to place tariffs on various countries, I guess the big question is whether these moves are actually delivering results or only adding to market volatility. Given how broad these negotiations can be, how do we assess the effectiveness? How do we separate real policy wins from just headlines?
- [19:03]
Caroline Flynn
Well, I think, Nick, the answer to that is going to be different case by case with different countries around different policy agendas. And that's part of the confusion of the whole topic is that sometimes we're told we're trying to get more support for border control. And so the way to see if it worked or not is if we get more support from border control. Right. The promise of more support or some kind of headline around it is not quite the same thing. But if in the end you end up with certain resources that yield fruit, around fentanyl coming across the border, around staving off the illegal immigration of people coming in, you know, those things are pretty measurable in the end. But that's not the only policy objectives we're talking about. You know, with that situation a few weeks ago with Columbia, it was that we wanted to land a plane that had some Colombian migrants on it and we ended up landing the plane. But that's pretty small ball stuff in the grand scheme of things. And once you bring China in the mix, it becomes very different because then you're talking about trade or currency or terms of trade. You're talking about intellectual property with European Union, we're talking about things with automotive. So there's so many different report cards that we're going to be running here, it gets pretty confusing.
- [20:27]
Nick Eicher
Well, David, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has been controversial, of course, since day one, critics, including yourself, making the argument it doesn't really protect consumers. Instead it hurts consumers. It also hurts small businesses instead of the bigger ones that have the ability to cope with all of the regulatory costs. But now we see that White House Budget Director Russ Vogt has put himself in as the head of the cfpb. And with that, it appears the agency is now on the chopping block. It'll either get its wings clipped or be dismantled completely. And so with Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency on the move, I wonder whether you see the developments of the past week or so as major policy victory, or might this be the beginning of something even bigger?
- [21:21]
Caroline Flynn
Well, look, I've been a very big critic of the CFPB since the day Obama and Elizabeth Warren enacted it. I do not believe it was constitutional. I do not believe it was prudent, and I do not believe it was ever done the right way and that it set out to solve a problem we didn't have with solutions that didn't do any such thing. So it can't go away soon enough as far as I'm concerned. But it's primarily because I think it invites more problems. I think by putting random regulations on certain aspect of financial products and services, they will come at a cost to other users of financial products and services. And I think regulation is a subsidy, meaning it hurts the little guy more than it hurts the big guy. And I have a big problem with that. When it comes to public policy, the CFPB is likely going to be one of the success stories of Doge and omb and Trump 2.0, because it was already constitutionally vulnerable. And they have ways the way that Obama fallaciously put it together, they have ways they can fallaciously take it down, and that's what they're doing.
- [22:35]
Nick Eicher
Okay, well, speaking of government agencies under the microscope, USAID has been one of the biggest early targets of Doge. But a lot of noise around that, both from defenders and those eager to see it go away. Honestly, I think the reporting on what's actually happening has been at best inconsistent. So with that in mind, David, how do you assess what's been done so far? Or do you think it's just too early to say?
- [23:02]
Caroline Flynn
I don't think listeners are going to be totally satisfied with my answer because it's a little bit of on one hand this and on the other hand that I don't believe that there's been a lot of honest reporting about what they've done. I don't believe there's been a lot of honest reporting about what USAID was doing. I think Last week, there was a chance for a lot of people on both sides of the aisle to pounce on things that weren't fully understood. But I think USAID is a disaster. And so though I tend to be more conservative and methodical and deliberative in the way I want to take things down, there is a very fair argument to be made that they have to go blow things up and put them back together later. I'm not a revolutionary, so that spirit is uncomfortable for me. But I understand in this case it may be the only way they can get started is to start with a kind of blunt instrument and work backwards. So USAID deserves to have a scalpel taken to it deserves to be really thoroughly looked at. It's hard to analyze how well they've done because the reporting on it has not been very accurate. So we're going to need a few months to do a sort of assessment of how not only effective the cuts were, but what accurately was cut. You know, what's the accurate assessment of what was cut? I think it's going to take several months.
- [24:28]
Nick Eicher
All right, so before we go, I do want to touch on the January jobs report. It came in last week. How do you read it?
- [24:35]
Caroline Flynn
You know, it was a little bit softer than expected. There were 143,000 jobs created in January. I think consensus was that it was going to be about 175. So it came a little bit light. But the unemployment rate ticked lower, down to 4%. So it wasn't a meaningfully significant jobs report either way. But if it had come in really strong again, 250,000 like the December report, then that might get people, you know, worried about the Fed, because everyone does that game of saying that good news is bad news. But this kind of came in somewhere in the middle there. But really, I think we need a few months into the new year to get a feel for how the business optimism that we've seen tick up since the new administration, as well as some of the deregulatory efforts and whatnot, what kind of impact it has to the jobs market. So overall, Nick, it's been this way for a long time. 4%, give or take, unemployment. And on a weekly basis, the initial jobless claims have stayed right around 220,000. That's a very low and manageable number.
- [25:45]
Nick Eicher
All right, David Bonson, founder, managing partner and chief investment officer of the Bonson Group, David Wrights@dividendcafe.com and regularly for World Opinions. David, again, thanks for battling through this nasty cold. I hope you keep getting better and have a great week.
- [26:03]
Caroline Flynn
Thanks so much, Nick. Appreciate it.
- [26:24]
Nick Eicher
Today is Monday, February 10th. Good morning. This is the world and everything in it from listener supported World Radio. I'm Nick Iger.
- [26:32]
Mary Reichard
And I'm Mary Reichard. Up next, the world history book. Last week, one of the last surviving Tuskegee Airmen died at his home in Michigan. Lt. Col. Harry T. Stewart, Jr. He was 100 years old. The Tuskegee Airmen were a group of all black pilots during World War II, when American schools, churches and the military were still segregated.
- [26:57]
Nick Eicher
Stewart was just a teenager, 17 years old, when he volunteered for the US Army Air Forces. Here now is world correspondent Caleb Weldy.
- [27:15]
Mary Reichard
We must and we will marshal our.
- [27:20]
Justice Sonia Sotomayor
Great potential strength, defend off war from oh sure.
- [27:26]
Deepak Gupta
On September 16, 1940, Franklin Delano Roosevelt signs the Selective Service Act. The act requires all men from age 21 to 36 to register with local draft boards. It also prohibits the armed service from discrimination against any person on account of race or color. The same day, the War Department announces that the Civil Aeronautics Authority will be working with the US army to develop, in its words, colored personnel to serve as airmen. The army settles on Tuskegee, Alabama as the place to train these men.
- [27:57]
Nick Eicher
We interrupt this program to bring you a special news bulletin. The Japanese have attacked Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. By air, President Roosevelt has just announced.
- [28:05]
Deepak Gupta
The attack on Pearl harbor only intensifies the Army's resolve to develop a strong air force. And an Air Force needs pilots.
- [28:13]
Kent Covington
What was it like when you got to Tuskegee?
- [28:15]
Deepak Gupta
In 2019, the American Veterans center recorded this interview with Harry Stewart, Jr. Well.
- [28:21]
Justice Sonia Sotomayor
Of course, at a youngster of 18 years old, I was wide eyed and awestruck by all of the things I saw I had done.
- [28:30]
Deepak Gupta
Stuart had volunteered to join the military. He passed the pilot cadet exam even though at the time he didn't even know how to drive a car.
- [28:37]
Justice Sonia Sotomayor
I had never met a group like this before with so much talent within the group itself. And the talent was broad ranged.
- [28:47]
Deepak Gupta
The Tuskegee base is 99% African American.
- [28:50]
Justice Sonia Sotomayor
We trained from the same playbook as the rest of the Army Air Corps. There. There was no difference as far as the training was concerned for the Negro soldiers versus the white cadets.
- [29:07]
Deepak Gupta
As far as the Army Air Corps is concerned, Tuskegee is an experiment. The Corps is still relying heavily on a 1925 army war college report. The report claimed African Americans were unfit for combat duty. The document was titled the Use of Negro Manpower in War. But the need for soldiers and airmen won out.
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Justice Sonia Sotomayor
The training itself, though Was arduous. It was quite demanding. The actual flight training itself took place over a period of 10 months and was involved with three phases of flying.
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Deepak Gupta
First, a fabric 95 horsepower plane, then onto an all metal 450 horsepower plane. Phase three, an actual fighter. Stewart got to train on a P51 Mustang. He got orders to Italy in November of 1944.
- [30:06]
Mary Reichard
The last 18 hours has brought the greatest of all time.
- [30:09]
Justice Sonia Sotomayor
Against Germany, we flew escorts for the B24 Liberator bombers and the B17 Flying Fortress.
- [30:20]
Deepak Gupta
Stewart's first mission was helping to escort several hundred of these bombers. They were headed for targets near Vienna, Austria.
- [30:27]
Justice Sonia Sotomayor
Each one of those bombers had a crew of 10, which meant if that bomber were lost, it was shot down. That would be 10 men that were lost. So for those that we didn't lose, and we felt as though this was a feeling that we had done a great deal in saving the balance of those men who were flying.
- [30:53]
Deepak Gupta
The Tuskegee men eventually earned a reputation.
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Justice Sonia Sotomayor
Out of the seven fighter groups that were bomber escorts in the 15th Air Force, which we were in, our group, or the 332nd or better known at the time as the Tuskegee Airmen, had the best record as far as the loss of bombers were concerned.
- [31:17]
Deepak Gupta
Of the 900 Tuskegee pilots, only about 300 were deployed. During World War II, these men completed more than 1500 combat missions. They destroyed or damaged around 400 enemy planes. They even sank a destroyer.
- [31:31]
Kent Covington
General Eisenhower informs me that the forces.
- [31:34]
Nick Eicher
Of Germany have surrendered to the United Nations.
- [31:37]
Mary Reichard
The flags of freedom fly all over Europe.
- [31:41]
Deepak Gupta
Stewart moved to Columbus, Ohio, after the war. He stayed in the service through 1949. The same year, President Truman signed an executive order to end racial discrimination in the military. Stuart was skeptical.
- [31:53]
Justice Sonia Sotomayor
Then it turned out to be they. They did a very, very good job as far as integrating the service was concerned. There was, you know, no discrimination as far as the job requirements and the job offers and the job performances were concerned there.
- [32:10]
Deepak Gupta
Outside the military, it was a different story.
- [32:13]
Justice Sonia Sotomayor
I tried and I applied for the. A couple of airlines at the time there, but I was not hired. And the reason was that they were not hiring any African American pilots or crew members at the time within any airlines in the states.
- [32:31]
Deepak Gupta
According to his biography, a personnel manager at Pan Am told him, just imagine what passengers would think if during a flight they saw a Negro step out of the cockpit and walk down the aisle in a pilot's uniform. Stewart eventually did find a job working for the city of New York. He started going to night classes in 1963. He graduated with a bachelor's in engineering. He went on to work for several corporations and eventually settled with his wife outside Detroit. He's survived by his daughter Lori.
- [33:00]
Kent Covington
Anything else you'd like to add, sir?
- [33:01]
Justice Sonia Sotomayor
No, that's about it, as you know. I can say that, you know, it's been a blessing for me as far as my life is concerned. I wouldn't change any of it for anything.
- [33:15]
Deepak Gupta
That's this week's world history book. I'm Caleb Wilde.
- [33:31]
Nick Eicher
Tomorrow, Gaza under new management. President Trump last week proposed the US Rebuild the Gaza Strip. We'll have analysis, that and more tomorrow. I'm Nick Eichert.
- [33:42]
Mary Reichard
And I'm Mary Reichardt. The world and everything in it comes to you from World Radio. World's mission is biblically objective journalism that informs, educates and inspires. The Bible records that Mary entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. And she exclaimed with a loud cry, blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. Verses 40 through 42 of Luke, chapter 1. Go now in grace and peace.