Tom Simmons is in Ethiopia, yes Africa, right now at the request of the President of Ethiopia, His Excellence Girma Wolde-Giorgis to honor John Robinson, The Man Called Brown Condor.
Tom Simmons
John Robinson training the Ethiopian Air Force
Robinson, who grew up in Mississippi during the 1910s and 20s. He had an impossible dream of flying, a field that was closed to African Americans at the time. Robinson tricked his way into acceptance by the Curtis Wright School of Aviation in Chicago in 1928. He was so good they kept him as an instructor and he went on to open his own school of aviation in Chicago.
When Ethiopia was threatened with invasion by Italy, he answered a call to duty and became the commander of the small Ethiopian Air Corps during the brutal Italo-Ethiopian War of 1935-36. He may have been the first American to face fascism in combat.
Robinson was the man who planted the seeds for a school of aviation at his alma mater, Tuskegee Institute (Class of 1923), when he landed a plane on the campus. Without him, there would have been no Tuskegee Airman.
His story was overshadowed and lost at the start of the Spanish Civil War in 1936, followed by the chaos of World War II. After thirty years of research this biography reveals the exciting, adventurous life of a remarkable American Hero.
Simmons will be speaking at the U.S. Embassy in Addis Ababa, the capital city of Ethiopia, Wednesday March 26, 2014. He will then be speaking at a luncheon hosted by His Excellency the former President of Ethiopia Girma Wolde Giorgis Thursday March 27th. Then on Friday March 28th he will be speaking at St. Joseph Academy. www.thomasesimmons.net
Published by Sky Horse Publishing
Represented by Loiacono Literary Agency