James Shipley was 19 when he enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Forces less than a year after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, ready “to do my part if I was eligible.” He would step into history, becoming a member of the 332nd Fighter Group and one of the original Tuskegee Airmen.

Now 94 and one of fewer than 200 surviving members of the famed, all-black World War II unit, Shipley joins author Jeremy Paul Amick in a discussion of a new biography about Shipley, Together As One. Shipley, a resident of Tipton, Missouri, spent 21 months in Italy as a mechanic in the 332nd, keeping P-40 Warhawks, P-47 Thunderbolts, and other fighting aircraft in flying condition.

Amick, the public affairs officer and military historian for the Silver Star Families of America, has published six books on military history and writes for the Jefferson City News Tribune and War History Online.