Forgotten Souls

NPR investigative journalist and the daughter of a Tuskegee Airman, Cheryl W. Thompson explores the stories of the 27 Tuskegee Airmen – the Black pilots who fought for America in WWII – who went missing in combat, the lives they lived, the reasons their planes went down, why the remains of all but two were never found, and the impact their disappearances had on their families and communities.
In 1945, World War II ended one of the deadliest conflicts in history. Geared for battle were nearly 1,000 trailblazing Black pilots trained at the Tuskegee Army Air Field, an unrepentantly segregated facility in Alabama. Hailing from the Iowa cornfields to the Texas Gulf Coast to the tobacco plantations of North Carolina, the Tuskegee Airmen already proved, under the toughest circumstances, to be among the most resilient and defiantly patriotic men of the Army Air Corps.
27 of them disappeared during the final critical missions in Europe. So, too, would the government’s efforts to find them or help to bring closure to the loved ones that the valiant 332nd Fighter Group left behind.
In Forgotten Souls, award-winning investigative journalist Cheryl W. Thompson delves into the true stories of the Black combat pilots who faced unimaginable racism—before, during and after the war—from a military that told them they were less than, even as their courage and aviation prowess saved scores of White brothers-in-arms from the enemy and possibly death.
As cruel as war itself could be, the friends, family, communities and fellow Tuskegee Airmen who mourned the lost pilots never imagined how unforgivable it could get. After 80 years, Forgotten Souls honors the impact they made, and the sacrifices they endured on America’s behalf.

Cheryl W. Thompson is an award-winning investigative reporter at National Public Radio, professor of journalism at George Washington University, and author of Forgotten Souls: The Lost Tuskegee Airmen. She is the recipient of more than 45 journalism awards, including an Emmy, 4 Salute to Excellence Awards from the National Association of Black Journalists, 3 National Headliner Awards, and 3 Investigative Reporters and Editors Awards. She served as reporting coach for the Pulitzer Prize-winning NPR podcast “No Compromise,” and during more than two decades as a reporter at The Washington Post, her team won two Pulitzer Prizes for National Reporting. Elected the first Black president of Investigative Reporters and Editors, she went on to become the first president to serve three terms and was unanimously voted board chairman in 2021. She also is a founding and current board member of the Center for Collaborative Investigative Journalism, a Spotlight DC board member, and a member of the advisory board for the Fund for Investigative Journalism, where she previously served as vice-president. Before joining the faculty at George Washington University, she taught journalism at the University of Florida, Georgetown University, and Howard University, and it the recipient of multiple teaching excellence awards, including the National Association of Black Journalists’ Educator of the Year. The daughter of a Tuskegee Airman, she is a Chicago native, a graduate of the University of Illinois, and a member of the National Association of Black Journalists, IRE and Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. She lives with her husband outside Washington, DC and can be found online at CherylWThompson.com.