纪念阵亡将士日：西点军校飞行上尉

毕业于西点军校的安德鲁·麦考伊(Andrew A. McCoy)上尉，是一位领先于同时代的杰出的人才，也是翰佛先生(Mr. Hafer)的父亲的同班同学及好友。

他于1946年从西点军校毕业不久后，加入新成立的美国空军。却在一次执行任务中神秘失踪，天妒英才，生命休止在30岁的大好年华。事故原因也成了未解之谜。

大半个世纪过去，为了发掘真相，翰佛先生花了近2年的时间，包括联系西点军校历史管理员、国会议员办公室和国防部等机构。那么，他发现了哪些线索，是否找到了麦考伊上尉失踪的真正原因？

也请扫二维码支持油管视频

https://youtu.be/O759QhhH604

翰佛先生的回忆和讲诉，把我们带回到了70年前的那段历史。一位黑人，需要惊人的毅力和雄心壮志，才能突破族裔因素的局限取得超越同龄人的成就。

翰佛先生还提到一个细节，很可能的是，当年推荐麦考伊去西点军校的议员，其实并不知道他是黑人，他才得以顺利拿到去西点军校必须的国会议员推荐信。

视频也说到一段往事，麦考伊上尉毕业后不久，去南方旅行，开着自己的新车，警察却不认为黑人买得起车子，更不相信有黑人军官。怀疑是麦考伊偷窃所得，从而把他抓了起来。结果，他需要向西点军校的主管打电话，证明自己的军官身份，证实那确实是他自己的车子，才得以获释。

美国确实有着自己的历史伤疤和不堪回首的过去，但是，经过过去几十年的自我反思和革新，其实这个充满创造力和生命力的国家，已经在进入本世纪不久之后，取得了空前的反种族歧视的胜利。当时，各族裔融合进入了史无前例的新篇章，否则也不会选举产生第一位非裔美国总统。这也是整个欧美民主世界里，首位的非裔最高领导者。

可惜，如此明显的宽容和进步，却被一些极端的势力加以利用，曲解美国的历史进程，不断挑拨民族矛盾，煽动人群的嫌怨和对立。在美国已经客观上到了族裔繁荣友好的新阶段的时期，却各种开倒车，捣毁社会本有的祥和和宁静。

5月29日是纪念阵亡将士日(Memorial Day)，在这个时候，我们真诚地怀念麦考伊上尉这样跨越时代的杰出的非裔精英。同时，同样是少数族裔的我们在美华人，也清晰地看到，培养受害者心态绝对不是美国少数族裔政策的出路。

相反，只有像麦考伊上尉这样，自强不息，与命运搏击，并且有着崇高的服务国家情怀和牺牲精神的人，才是社会的脊梁。也才是美国这个多民族社会，需要推崇的指导未来发展的方向。

#BilingualPosts #人物历史 

In 2020 we had a family discussion of a West Point classmate of my father’s who was his friend. He was considerably older and more urbane, having already completed four years of college in Pittsburgh, and helped out the young village boy. He was also the only Black member of the West Point class of June 1946. And he also became a pilot and transferred to the Air Force when that was created.

My Mother told of some problems he had encountered driving through the South in the 1940s, and she said that he had died in the early 1950s in a crash of the fighter airplane he was piloting and speculated that it might have been a crash on takeoff caused by some mechanic with a racial grudge. A family member said that we should check this out.

I thought it unlikely that we could find anything at this late date, but it being during Covid we had some time on our hands and decided to try. We had nothing to work with except a blurry online version of the class of 1946 yearbook, The Howitzer. We searched all the pictures and could not find any Black person. However, we asked the West Point Historian and she said that yes, there was one Black cadet, named Andrew Alexander McCoy Jr. He was in The Howitzer all along but was hard to spot for reasons that will become obvious.

At first it seemed like that was all we could get. However, after about a year pestering a number of Air Force personnel and doing quite a bit of internet digging, we were finally able to get further details of the crash.

I made these findings into a presentation which my friend Lydia Liu posted on Youtube last Memorial Day. So I hope that this Memorial Day you will all join me in remembering a fallen warrior and a friend of my Father’s, Captain Andrew Alexander McCoy Jr.

请花1分钟帮助填写这个民调。要争取有500人以上参与，作为法庭证据。

（有朋友不太清楚怎么查到每篇文章有多少好朋友阅读，方法是，点击文章标题下面的蓝色陌上美国（其他公号也一样），就可以看到这个公号的发文列表，以及每篇文章有多少好朋友阅读了）。