Frederick Henry was born in January 1923 in Chattanooga, Tennessee and raised in Detroit [Annotator's Note: Detroit, Michigan]. His brother was a pilot for the Strategic Air Command [Annotator's Note: part of the US Army Air Forces from 1946 to 1947 and then of the US Air Force from 1947 to 1992]. When Henry was young, segregation was prevalent in Detroit just as it was in the South, so when he arrived in Alabama, it was not new to him. He was one of the first people to go to Tuskegee [Annotator's Note: now Tuskegee University, site of Tuskegee Institute National Historic Site in Tuskegee, Alabama]. There was nothing there when he arrived, so he slept in tents for a year. It was segregated as well, whites ran everything. They never had a Black commander. The commander was a white man from the South, who was fair and treated the Black men as if they were white, which hurt his career. Hap Arnold [Annotator's Note: General of the Army and General of the Air Force Henry Harley Arnold] said that as long as he was in charge, Blacks would never fly an airplane. This was a fight they faced on top of the war. Henry started out as an MP [Annotator's Note: military police], but due to problems with his feet he could not handle the training, and was sent to Saint Louis, Missouri to train as a cook. He was preparing to be shipped overseas but was sent to a hospital in Pennsylvania. He was honorably discharged for medical reasons. When he got to Tuskegee, he nearly passed out from the heat. He recently went back, and everything has changed, there are Black police officers and a Black mayor. Two nurses went to New Orleans [Annotator's Note: New Orleans, Louisiana] and when they returned, the bus driver would not let them off at Tuskegee. He took them all the way to Montgomery [Annotator's Note: Montgomery, Alabama]. The men were so upset that some of them, including Henry, went to the armory and prepared to go tear up Tuskegee, but were stopped at the gates. A local sheriff, Pat Evans [Annotator's Note: phonetic spelling], hated Black people but he and Henry became good friends. He is surprised now that white people now shake his hand and thank him for his service, since it was not that way when he was in the service. Many hated Black people. They were seen as a hindrance, not an asset.

Frederick Henry [Annotator's Note: a Military Police officer in the US Army, stationed in Tuskegee, Alabama] was born flat-footed, so the marching and excessive exercise was hard on him. He was an MP [Annotator's Note: Military Police] for about a year and a half before being sent to Saint Louis [Annotator's Note: Saint Louis, Missouri] for cooking and baking school. When he arrived there, he was wearing his gabardine uniform and officer's clothes, but was told to change into regular soldier uniforms. They learned how to cook breakfast, bacon, eggs, and SOS [Annotator's Note: short for "Shit on a Shingle," a dish of a cream sauce with meat in it poured over toast]. They served about 500 people every day. The menu was created by dietitians. Officers would sometimes come in and make special orders for steaks and other nicer meals, which was illegal, but the cooks would get perks like passes [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time] out of it. Training lasted six months. Once completed, he was sent to Tyndall Field [Annotator's Note: now Tyndall Air Force Base] in Panama City, Florida and then back to Tuskegee [Annotator's Note: Tuskegee, Alabama], and finally to Indiantown Gap, Pennsylvania [Annotator's Note: Fort Indiantown Gap in Lebanon County, Pennsylvania]. Finally he was put in the hospital. He received a medical discharge in 1945. He got a job at Ford Motor Company [Annotator's Note: American automobile manufacturer] where he worked for 30 years.

Frederick Henry's [Annotator's Note: a Military Police officer in the US Army, stationed at Tuskegee, Alabama] job including going after men who went AWOL [Annotator's Note: absent without leave], and doing traffic control. Men going AWOL was pretty common. They would trace them using letters they had written and checking with their family members. If caught, they were sent to Leavenworth [Annotator's Note: Fort Leavenworth, Kansas], some of them were sentenced to life. The white people in Tuskegee did not want the base there, nor Blacks in the service or flying airplanes. When Henry was a kid, his parents told him that there were certain things he could not do because he was colored. He wanted to be a pilot, but his dad told him he would not be accepted or hired no matter how smart he was. White soldiers would not take orders from Black officers. Henry credits liberal white people with progress. Black men were seen as a threat.

Frederick Henry imagines he would enjoy military life today, as it is less restrictive than it was when he served. The military makes a better person out of you. Everyone of age should have to serve. College is paid for. You can learn a lot from museums and libraries, if you want to. He would do his service all over again. He had volunteered. He wanted to be a pilot, but he did not have the college education required.