cbs news correspondent david martin on race in the ranks every single african-american
we've interviewed said they had to moderate their behavior so they weren't intimidated
had a very candid conversation with one of the individuals who passed me this information
he broke it down you're big you're black with a deep voice you're intimidating and if you want
to move on you have to do something about it this week on 60 minutes we reported on racial
bias in the military from the rank and file to officers african americans in the air force
say they are treated differently than their white counterparts major daniel walker is an f-22 pilot
on an air force program called real talk hosted by lieutenant general brad webb he read comments
made by other black pilots i have a couple of quotes i want to read off my fighter experience
was the most demoralizing experience in my life and i've been homeless the second is
to be yourself and thrive in a fighter squadron as a black man is an oxymoron
either conform or fail these are my friends these are my brothers
and my sisters actually walker sat down with us to share his story this story is not uncommon
i could very easily attribute this interaction to that action on my part but when you compare
stories from people you've never met and they're almost identical down to the individual and down
to the comment you start to realize these are not singular events in one person's life
walker grew up in dallas his family told stories of his great uncle norman scales
a tuskegee airman who earned a distinguished flying cross for combat missions during world war
ii at six years old to have your dad's uncle be a tuskegee airman and see the movies and hear about
uncle scales he's got street named after him and austin your family can't help but talk about them
and when i was born and they saw things in me i felt at a very early age those hopes start to
transition to my shoulders he flew fighters and he changed the trajectory of my family's history
so that's what i'm going to do determined to follow in those footsteps walker went to the
air force academy and from there to pilot training had you been told what to expect at flight school
unfortunately yes we've had alumni come back black pilots who'd gone through pilot training the story
was you're going to go they're going to treat you poorly when you wash out when you wash out they're
probably not going to keep you in the air force so if you go don't go trying to fly fighters but in
the grand scheme of things probably don't go how did that play in your decision about whether to go
well in my mind i have to prove it can be done and then prove it can be repeatable walker excelled at
flight school and earned a coveted assignment to fly the air force's top of the line f-22 stealth
fighter so you go to f-22 school yes sir what was that like it was a blast it was the most fun
i'd ever had in my entire life seeing things and doing things with so much power underneath you and
behind you and around you that it's surreal did you feel your race going through the f-22 training
not initially i got feedback at the end of this course however that it was very evident that i was
having a good time and maybe i shouldn't have been or i talked too much i started to realize that
maybe there was something more to this things like if you don't assimilate we will weed you out or i
have to ask myself is this a me thing or is this something else and that takes a lot of energy
to carry that that question mark around with you after his training walker joined an f-22 squadron
in langley virginia did you feel like you belonged i did initially i did initially you start to hear
feedback like he's too quiet it seems like he thinks he's too good to be here or
too good for this place they try to be a different form of quiet or the way he walks is intimidating
after 11 years as an air force officer walker decided it was time to move on
i had to really start taking seriously my happiness my well-being ask myself
am i willing to continue fighting uphill and chance going back to a
squadron where i have to manage myself this way and sacrifice these things personally
will i get anywhere walker's departure leaves the air force with fewer than 50 black fighter pilots
lieutenant general brad webb it's a loss for the air force he was an incredible pilot an
incredible officer outstanding officer for us but he served our nation well walker has been
accepted at harvard law school that flag still means a ton to me i have something unique to add
to my country in a different plane my decision to go to law school which is what i have planned
next for myself centers around that how can i take everything i've experienced here to include these
interviews in this moment in time and channel it this energy toward affecting change if i'm
going to do anything with the rest of my life i think it's going to be that it has to be that