[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 162 (2016), Part 2]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 2666]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




 TRIBUTE TO AIR FORCE 2ND LIEUTENANT ESTEBAN HOTESSE, TUSKEGEE AIRMAN, 
                           DOMINICAN-AMERICAN

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. CHARLES B. RANGEL

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, March 2, 2016

  Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Speaker, as Dominican-Americans across our great 
nation celebrated their heritage and their compatriots commemorated 
Dominican Independence Day over the weekend, on February 27th, today I 
rise to posthumously honor and pay tribute to Tuskegee Airman Second 
Lieutenant Esteban (Stephen) Hotesse (Service Number 32218759).
  Esteban Hotesse, a Dominican native who immigrated to the country as 
a child, enlisted during World War II, and served in the lauded 
Tuskegee Airmen brigade. Though his team was scheduled to go into 
battle, they never saw combat abroad. As a member of the all-black 
unit, Hotesse was among a group of 101 Tuskegee Airmen officers 
arrested for refusing to follow Jim Crow orders from a white commanding 
officer at a base near Seymour, Indiana, where the KKK had a strong 
presence.
  In March 1945, the last of the Tuskegee groups, the 477th Medium 
Bombardment Group, was moved from Godman Field, adjacent to Fort Knox, 
to Freeman Field because of the latter's better flight facilities. 
Tensions between the 477th and the white command structure on the base 
were tense as soon as the 477th arrived, and shortly thereafter, an 
incident occurred unparalleled in Air Corps history.
  Upon their arrival at Freeman, the commanding officer of the base, 
Colonel Robert R. Selway, moved quickly to set up and enforce a 
segregated system. The group was housed in a dilapidated building. Col. 
Selway also created a novel system to deny the Airmen entry into the 
officers' club. He classified the Black airmen as ``trainees,'' even 
though they had all finished flight school, and therefore were all 
commissioned officers. As trainees, they were forced to use a rundown, 
former noncommissioned officers club nicknamed ``Uncle Tom's Cabin.'' 
This all occurred despite an order issued in 1940 issued by President 
Roosevelt himself that no officer should be denied access to any 
officer's club. On April 5, 1945 a group of the Airmen peacefully 
entered the officers' club in protest. Sixty-one were arrested within 
24 hours. This act of disobedience later became known as the Freeman 
Field Mutiny. Hotesse perished later that year in an accidental plane 
crash. His obituary in a Dominican newspaper lists his cause of death 
as a B-25 crash in the Ohio River in Indiana.
  Esteban (Stephen) Hotesse was born on February 2, 1919 in Moca, 
Dominican Republic, and he came to the U.S. at the age of 4 with his 
mother, Clara Pacheco, who at the time was 25 years old. Hotesse was 
also accompanied by his sister Irma Hotesse, age 2. They came through 
the famous port of Ellis Island and, like many Dominicans at the time, 
went to live in my Congressional District within Upper Manhattan. At 
the time of his enlistment, he was living with his wife, Iristella 
Lind, who was Puerto Rican. They applied for U.S. citizenship in April 
1943 after he'd served almost a year. The couple had two daughters 
before he enlisted. Today, one of his daughters, Mary Lou Hotesse, 
resides in New York City and two granddaughters, one named Iris Rivera, 
live in the South.
  Mr. Speaker, I ask that you and our distinguished colleagues join me 
in paying tribute to one of our nation's heroes. In life, he immigrated 
to our shores to join ranks with our military force in the advancement 
of peace, justice, and freedom here and abroad.

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