Edward Toppins
*Edward Toppins was born on this date in 1915. He was a Black U.S. Army Air Force pilot and commanding officer.
Edward Lucien Toppins was born in Mississippi to Martha E. Toppins Davis, a dressmaker. He was the only brother of three sisters: Henrietta, Delphine, and Naomi. After living in Louisiana in the 1930s, Toppins moved with his mother and sisters to Los Angeles, California, where Martha worked as a maid for a wealthy family.
After graduating from Los Angeles Junior College, Toppins enrolled at the University of San Francisco while working as a Greyhound Bus Company porter. At the University of San Francisco, Toppins took five courses in civilian pilot training and obtained both his commercial pilot's license and instructor's rating. Though it was difficult for an African American to get into the course, Toppins considered his pre-war pilot training a feather in his cap. "Once in," he remarked, "there was no trouble at all."
Interested in a career as a pilot, he joined the military on October 16, 1940. He applied and was admitted into the Tuskegee Army Airfield Training Program. Despite having incurred injuries during a training crash, Toppins recovered. On September 6, 1942, he graduated as a member of the Tuskegee Airmen Class 42-H. Toppins was considered one of the best pilots to have completed the Tuskegee program. Known among his peers as a "pilot's pilot" and "almost a daredevil," Toppins completed 141 missions, shooting down four enemy aircraft with one probable victory. He was one of 1,007 documented Tuskegee Airmen Pilots.
Toppins is considered one of the best pilots from the Tuskegee program. He earned the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Air Medal with 5 clusters, a Victory Medal, an Eastern Theater Offensive Ribbon with seven battle stars, and an American Defense recognition. Known among his peers as a "pilot's pilot" and "almost a daredevil," Toppins completed 141 missions, destroying four enemy aircraft with one probable. Toppins, Lee Archer, and Joseph Elsberry each destroyed four enemy aircraft during World War II aerial missions in Europe.
His tours included Germany, Czechoslovakia, Romania, Pantelleria, Sicily, Italy, Bulgaria, Southern France, Austria, Greece, Poland, and Yugoslavia. Toppins and fellow Red Tail Leonard M. Jackson earned the Distinguished Flying Cross for heroic actions on June 4, 1944. On July 26, 1944, Toppins, then a Captain, destroyed an enemy Messerschmitt Bf 109 aircraft while his squadron escorted the 47th Bombardment Wing on a bombing mission in Austria. After returning from the United States and Europe, Toppins became the commanding officer of the 602nd Air Engineering Squadron or the 580th Air Services Group at Ohio's Lockbourne Army Air Base. Toppins was one of only nine 332nd Fighter Group pilots with at least three confirmed kills during World War II.
After World War II, Toppins married Lucille Brooks, the widow of fellow Tuskegee Airman Sidney Brooks. Toppins died in an aircraft crash in Ohio six months after marrying Lucille. During a routine instrument training exercise on December 10, 1946, Toppins and four men died in a Mid-flight bomber that crashed and exploded over 25 acres of land near Lockbourne Army Air Base. Toppins is interred in Section G Site 2191-B at the Golden Gate National Cemetery, San Bruno, California.
