The Man called Brown Condor by Author Mr. Thomas E Simmons

December 23, 2022

Transcript:
0:00 interview
0:02 with the book Auther of the man called
0:04 Brown Condor the Forgotten history of an
0:07 African-American fighter pilot by
0:10 Mr. Thomas E Simmons
0:12 it was a dream come true for Gulfport
0:15 author Tom Simmons when he traveled to
0:17 Addis Ababa Ethiopia this month Simmons
0:19 had spent years working on his book The
0:22 Man called Brown Condor the Forgotten
0:24 true story of an American war hero
0:27 John C Robinson but he had never visited the
0:29 country in Africa where most of this
0:31 story took place until now and
0:33 Tom Simmons joins us now with more and Tom
0:35 this is so exciting I know this must
0:37 have been a dream come true for you when
0:39 you were actually approached by some of
0:42 the people in Addis Abba about coming
0:43 over and sharing your story it was uh
0:46 right out of the blue it was very
0:49 surprised to me you know John Robinson grew
0:51 up here in Gulfport but those people his
0:54 story have been forgotten here and
0:56 somewhat there and they were celebrating
0:58 a memorial for him
1:01 and asked me if I would come to Ethiopia
1:04 and speak to the and that’s great and of
1:06 course John Robinson the commander of
1:08 the Imperial Ethiopian Air Corps and
1:10 that was during a time when there 1:11 weren’t
1:12 were there weren’t black Pilots
1:14 there weren’t many and and he had that
1:17 dream it was impossible for him to
1:19 accomplish that but with hard work
1:23 and the ability that he had
1:25 and his determination he was so good
1:28 when he finally got into Curtis Wright
1:30 School they kept him as an instructor
1:32 and then Haile Selassie heard about him
1:35 in Italy was going to invade Ethiopia
1:38 and the Emperor asked John if he would
1:40 come help them it hadn’t have been a
1:43 tough decision but it was exciting for
1:47 me to to go there the ex-president and
1:50 the CEO of Ethiopian Airlines let’s take
1:54 a look at some of these pictures too
1:55 John Robinson started Ethiopian Airlines
1:58 in 1945 and you can see they’re flying
2:01 the latest equipment now beautiful
2:03 Boeing 787 I’ll put their Airline
2:07 against up any in the country and of
2:10 course the people invited you they paid
2:12 for your trip this is the gentleman that
2:14 you spent a lot of time with there
2:15 that’s the former president of Ethiopia
2:19 and his name is Girmaw Welde Giorgis
2:24 the Ethiopian language is very difficult
2:27 to have 135 letters where we have 20.
2:30 yes it is and you know I lived in
2:31 Ethiopia in Addis Ababa as a child so
2:33 this is really fascinating to me now
2:35 here’s the party this looks like quite a
2:37 quite a party for you that was at his
2:39 retirement home and there were a hundred
2:41 people there and that’s what the Maine
2:44 talk they asked me to come meet those
2:45 people your father who had been there
2:48 asked me while I was there could I look
2:50 up an old friend of his and I gave them
2:52 the name and I said you know Colonel
2:54 Abernathy would really like to reconnect
2:56 with this man and they said well he’s
2:58 standing right over there small world
3:00 that was an amazing story and my dad has
3:03 since contacted him and they had a great
3:04 conversation and they reconnected after
3:06 you know part of you growing up was in
3:09 Ethiopia wonderful country wonderful
3:12 people they’re polite they’re
3:14 hospitable they’re polite to the point
3:17 of being shy
3:19 and but their language is Amharic
3:22 that’s the language of Ethiopia and they
3:25 say that’s it’s close to the language
3:27 that Jesus spoke
3:30 glad you had this opportunity and I’m
3:32 sorry we don’t have more time because we
3:34 have more pictures we’re gonna have to
3:35 do this again Tom any time and talk more
3:39 let me know when you have a book signing
3:40 for this too and people can find your
3:42 book where
3:42 Amazon or on my website or or uh it’s a
3:47 great Barnes and Noble any bookstore
3:49 it’s carried all over and it’s doing
3:51 well and thank you for having me thank
3:52 you so much Tom