Message from Deputy Mayor Elizabeth Stamler | November 5, 2021

On this Veterans Day, Scotch Plains has a unique opportunity to honor a Tuskegee Airman who lived his entire life in our town, other than his service to fight for America’s freedom and democracy.

Township leaders will join with the Board of Education for a very special moment on Thursday – Veterans Day – when Park Middle School will be renamed in honor of the late Malcolm E. Nettingham, who graduated from that school (when it was a high school) in 1936.

Like other GIs in World War II, Mr. Nettingham was fighting in Europe against fascism and a regime that wanted to dominate the world with an iron fist. But unlike many others, he was also facing racism embedded within the ranks of the U.S. armed forces.

When Mr. Nettingham entered the U.S. Army in 1944, the troops were racially segregated.

After completing basic training in Mississippi, Mr. Nettingham was assigned to the Army Air Corps Flight Radio Operator division and later became a member of a five-man crew of Black soldiers chosen as part of the first racially integrated flight radio communications class in our Army’s Air Corps. 

Mr. Nettingham excelled in Morse Code, and served as a radio operator and gunner in the 617th Squadron, 477th Composite Group on a B-52 Bomber, serving with tremendous bravery, before being honorably discharged and returning to Scotch Plains.

His military service – and the service of all Tuskegee Airmen – tells a story of immense bravery, as part of the ongoing quest for full equality for African Americans in this country. The Tuskegee Airmen laid the foundation for the civil rights movement that continues to change the fabric of this country.

But for Mr. Nettingham and others, his military service was about fighting for his country and his community. 

The renaming of Park Middle School is another well-deserved honor for Mr. Nettingham, who was given the Congressional Gold Medal by President Barack Obama among many other accolades over his well-lived life.

I hope that future generations are inspired as much as we are by Mr. Nettingham and his legacy to Scotch Plains. He was truly a local American hero – now and forever remembered at Malcolm E. Nettingham Middle School.