According to Diving With a Purpose, a national non-profit, a memorial is being dedicated to five Tuskegee Airmen who perished in accidents in the Port Huron area in the 1940s. During the middle years of World War II, Michigan served as an advanced training ground for many graduates of the famous all-African-American Tuskegee pilot training program. In recent years, the wreckages from two Tuskegee Airmen’s aircraft were discovered in the Michigan area. One wreck was located in Lake Huron and the other in St. Clair River.
In August 2015, a dive team consisting of volunteers from Diving with a Purpose and maritime archaeologists from NOAA mapped the site and wreckage of one of the pilot’s accidents, identifying his plane from pieces still intact from his instrument panel. Recently, DWP and NOAA recovered artifacts from the site for a memorial exhibition in the National Tuskegee Airmen Museum in Detroit. The group is now raising money through the Tuskegee Airmen Memorial Campaign to fund the design and installation of a memorial in Port Huron, culminating in an unveiling ceremony in the Flag Plaza along the St Clair River in Port Huron during the summer of 2020. Local groups including the Community Foundation of St. Clair County and DTE have contributed to the project. As of July, the fundraising efforts were at a halfway point.
