NEW YORK, Aug. 14 (UPI) -- A spokesman for a New York congressman said design revisions are behind delays in giving Congress' highest honor to the surviving World War II Tuskegee airmen.
U.S. Rep. Charles B. Rangel, D-N.Y., co-sponsor of the legislation to award the Congressional Gold Medal to the black aviators who trained at the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, wanted the medals to be ready in early September, aide Emile Milne told Newsday.
Unfortunately, Milne said revisions to the design submitted by the aviators group have delayed the issuance of the medal. The original will be cast in gold and displayed at the Smithsonian while bronze duplicates will be awarded to each veteran.
Of the original 944 Tuskegee aviators, 388 are still alive.
"Every time you pick up a newspaper, one or two more are gone," retired Lt. Col. Spann Watson of Westbury, N.Y. , told the newspaper. "We'd like people who are still living to be able to receive them. I want to get my medal in my hand."
A spokesman for Tuskegee Airmen, Inc., told Newsday the medals are not expected to be ready before next year.
