Ayesha Roscoe

But as the book shows, there is often just a lack of clarity about what happened when these pilots went missing.

Was that just a feature or just the nature of war at that time?

Were these type of crashes common?

I mean, and so do you attribute that lack of urgency to the fact that this was a segregated military at that time and that these were black men and that they were not valued as much at that moment?

When we come back, Cheryl W. Thompson will tell us about her conversations with the family members of missing airmen.

Stay with us.

We're back with the Sunday story.

I've been talking with my NPR colleague Cheryl W. Thompson about her new book, Forgotten Souls, The Search for the Lost Tuskegee Airmen.

Talk to me about the impact on the families because it sounds like

You know, they would get the telegram that their loved ones were MIA, and a year later they would be declared dead.

And how did the families move forward, and how did they deal with just the not knowing?

Is the government looking?

Like, did you find any evidence of that?

Are they looking?

Are these families getting any type of support?

Why do you think this hasn't been talked about more?

I mean, I feel like we hear, not saying that we could ever hear enough about the Tuskegee Airmen, but we hear about the honors.

You know, in the State of the Union, they're getting an honor at the White House.

But why haven't we talked more about those that were lost and their remains were not found?

Why have we not talked about that?