[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 162 (2016), Part 10]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 13526]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




       CELEBRATING THE LIFE OF BROTHER DABNEY NAPOLEON MONTGOMERY

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. CHARLES B. RANGEL

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, September 22, 2016

  Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Speaker, I rise in honor to join our Nation, New York 
State and The Village of Harlem as we celebrate the life of and pay 
tribute to our beloved American Hero, Brother Dabney N. Montgomery, who 
made his transition to his Lord and Savior on Saturday, September 3, 
2016. A fellow member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. and patriarch 
of Harlem's historic Mother African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, 
Dabney N. Montgomery was a member of the ground crew of the famed 
Tuskegee Airmen and served as a bodyguard for Reverend Dr. Martin 
Luther King, Jr. during the historic 1965 March from Selma to 
Montgomery, Alabama.
  Dabney N. Montgomery was born in Selma, Alabama on April 18, 1923 to 
Dred and Lula Anderson Montgomery. Brother Montgomery was drafted into 
the Army Air Corps during World War II and served in the 1051st 
Quartermaster Trucking Company of the 96th Air Service Group, attached 
to the 332nd Air Fighter Group, as a ground crewman with the Tuskegee 
Airmen in southern Italy from 1943 to 1945. During his heroic service, 
Brother Montgomery was awarded a Good Conduct Medal, the WWII Victory 
Medal, the European African Middle Eastern Service Medal with two 
Bronze Stars, a Service Award, the Honorable Service Medal, and a Basic 
Driver and Mechanic Medal.
  After the War, he enrolled into Livingstone College, Salisbury, North 
Carolina, and received a B.A. degree in Religious Education. He served 
as a Charter Member of the Sphinx Club and was one of the first to be 
admitted into the Gamma Mu Chapter of the Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity. 
In 1955, Brother Montgomery joined Mother African Methodist Episcopal 
Zion Church--the oldest Black Church in the State of New York, 
organized in 1796 in Harlem, New York, and immediately began to serve 
as Sunday School Teacher.
  To give you some content and background, Tuskegee University was 
awarded the U.S. Army Air Corps contract to help train America's first 
Black military aviators because it had already invested in the 
development of an airfield, had a proven civilian pilot training 
program and its graduates performed highest on flight aptitude exams. 
What makes the story of prominent New Yorkers such as Captain Roscoe C. 
Brown, Jr., Intelligence Officer Percy Sutton, Lieutenant Colonel Lee 
Archer, Jr., Armorer Joseph Herman Spooner and Grounds Crewman Dabney 
N. Montgomery remarkable, is their selflessness and devotion to a 
country, despite the segregation and barriers they faced. They were 
willing to put their lives on the line for American values and freedoms 
even when discrimination compromised their own rights and liberties. 
Through their patriotism, the walls of segregation were finally removed 
from our Armed Forces on July 26, 1948.
  The great exploits and historic successful missions carried out by 
Grounds Crewman Dabney N. Montgomery and the Tuskegee Airman fighting 
group, who never lost a bomber on their watch, was never properly 
recognized by this United States government until I introduced and 
proudly sponsored Bill H.R.-1259. This bill, passed by Congress in 
2006, awarded the Congressional Gold Medal, our highest civilian honor, 
to the Tuskegee Airmen. On March 29, 2007, my good friend attended the 
ceremony in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda, where he and the other Tuskegee 
Airmen, collectively, not individually, were awarded the Congressional 
Gold Medal in recognition of their service.
  Brother Dabney Napoleon Montgomery left his indelible mark on this 
earth as a war hero, Veteran, moral leader, educator, husband and 
godfather to many devoting his life to the betterment of all humankind, 
community, and country. In honor of Brother Montgomery's Civil Rights 
legacy, ``The Heels'' from the shoes he wore in the 1965 historic march 
from Selma to Montgomery will hang in the National Museum of African 
American History and Culture in Washington, DC, which opens September 
24, 2016.
  I join my colleagues and the rest of the nation as we say goodbye and 
pay tribute to our beloved brother, Dabney Napoleon Montgomery, a true 
American hero.

                          ____________________