148 Comments

I remember the Dwight family. They lived up the street from me in the north end of KcK. I have gone to a couple of his art exhibits when he has been here in the city. I have never heard him account for what had happened. I can say the neighbors beamed for all he accomplished. That you for posting this.

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Mr. Rather, thanks so much for sharing this piece. I'm a 53 year old college educated African American man and never learned about this unknown hero. How could this be? Thank you for taking me to school this morning. I respect and truly enjoy your work.

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Excellent!!! Thank you so much for this short, but very important video of Captain Edward Dwight, Jr. You sir, are a hidden HERO!!!!🙏

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A 39-year-old white man comes on the screen, joining a “blood cancers” zoom

meeting for Boston Medical Center patients. BMC is equivalent of Bellevue

in New York City.

He first had distress away from Boston, and went to an ER in Burlington Vermont,

where they quickly realized he had a problem with a tumor that had pressed off

90% of the blood flow to his brain. Instead of getting the surgery he expected,

he was rushed to the oncology unit, attended to by a rush of a dozen oncologists,

who began a mediation chemotherapy program, which shrank his tumor approximately 30% in a week. He had been on death’s door, and was only 5% from dying that night. Now here in our meeting, he says he is completely healed, that a resurgence is very unlikely. He’s talking to the group from what looks to be a home office, in an IBM T-shirt. In the prime of his life.

Our attention shifts as a black woman a little bit older, is having difficulty getting her words straight, obviously anxious, in pain, explaining how she had some kind of lymphoma obstruction on her bowels six months ago. She went to the BMC ER, was able to get a CAT scan which immediately revealed the problem, got several treatments which brought her back from the brink. Now six months have passed and she’s obviously distraught, saying she’s having the same symptoms again. Asked “When was your last CT scan?” She responded “Six months ago.” Do you have another one scheduled? “Next month.“ Do you have any doctors appointments scheduled? “Tomorrow.“ But it’s an unrelated appointment with a doctor out of that area of expertise. Some of us chimed in to this meeting, telling her “You need to get to the ER and tell them about this CT and your problems six months ago - and say you’ve got to have another CT right now.“

Another member of our group chimed in, a black woman with a lot of experience with cancer, who one night, years ago, drove behind a line of trucks and pulled into a side road somewhere In Alaska. They parked and were going to spend the night there. She decided to follow suit: she was rewarded with a view of the northern lights that she could only have imagined as a kid back home, thousands of miles in the past.

“I have to say, that not everyone gets the same treatment.” A bit of a retort, to someone probably blindly unaware of his white privilege, and its costs to those who can’t share in it.

Terry Hourigan, RN

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This had all the elements of a great play. Yet it was real. Edward Dwight, Jr. moved me to tears. A brave and articulate man, he should be introduced in this film around the country.

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I was sad to read about Mr Dwight and his life.....and happy to know he did "do better" with the circumstances he was faced with. I shared his story with my 90 year old mom......and she, too, was dismayed and saddened. We continue to wonder about the holes in our education (both hers and mine, I am 65) - - - wondering about those who prevented us from knowing these amazing Americans (there are so many we now know!) In my mind I continue to think that we must call out those who limited our information/education/knowledge- - - -the members of the school boards, the officers in charge, the politicians, the police, the elected officials and anyone else who makes those decisions. Call them out by name. Keeping them nameless is equal to wearing the white robes worn by the KKK members..... safety nets. Chuck Yeager is a perfect example.....yes, I read "there is no direct evidence linking him to preventing Mr Dwight from becoming an astronaut"..... those statements are the real problem......still!

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Before folks get upset with the third-hand hearsay rumor about Chuck Yeager, perhaps they should read a profile of him by a black pilot who actually flew in his squadron, under his command, here: :

http://victoriayeager.com/emmett-hatch/

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The story of Edward Dwight Jr has confirmed why I never liked Chuck Y but didn't know why.It also confirmed why we should realize why our race is so envied which has metastasized to hate.Still we rise.

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Thank you Mr. Rather, for sharing Mr. Dwight’s saga. A difficult one for me to discover and absorb here for the first time. And along with the Tulsa massacre, reasons that we NEED you to pursue and continue with your “Holes in History,” please. It is rewarding that despite his earlier hardships, Dwight was able to return to his love of the art world. I believe the few pieces we saw on the film reflect the path his life has taken.

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He never claimed Chuck Yeager derailed his career. He just detailed his experience with Chuck Yeager directing the ostracizing he experienced. Elevating that to a false claim of Yeager derailing his career is nothing more than an attempted distortion of fact to dismiss the validity of Dwight's actual experience.

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There's some serious historical shakiness in the accusations against Chuck Yeager, which turn out to be unverified single-source third hand hearsay - as Dan Rather can tell us, no serious scholar or journalist or court process would ever even TOUCH such questionable allegations without first-hand-witness verification [which has never been found]. And recently Dwight has clarified his assertions, Edward J. Dwight [March 2, 2020] == “I never accused Chuck Yeager of causing my failure to fly in space. It was the political environment of the day that transcended anything that Chuck Yeager had an impact on.”

source = https://www.facebook.com/NPR/posts/10159027154926756

Meanwhile, the Smithsonian "Black in Space" documentary, on Feb 23, 2020, quoted National Air & Space Museum aviation curator Cathleen Lewis: “We don’t know if Chuck Yeager derailed Dwight’s career. And historians searched for evidence, and haven’t found it.”

source = https://youtu.be/I7jJ8jEh608 at time 10:58

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I love this idea! Please give us more Holes In History! I regreat that I don't know about any holes personally, but look forward to learning more.

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Dwight as an astronaut candidate [never inducted into NASA] earned honor for his inspirational role, as did full-fledged black astronaut Robert Lawrence picked on full merit a few years later. In my analysis as a space program veteran and spaceflight historian, Dwight had too many too heavy loads to struggle with that had nothing to do with bigotry, since the White House required him to take three day weekends DURING the USAF [not NASA] 'aerospace research pilot' training in 1963 for national speaking engagements promoting JFK policies, while the other pilots spent full time on classes, books, and flying [his final class standing was 8th out of 16]. Dwight's expected White House backing failed to persuade NASA to pick him on public relations grounds [he admits he did not rate high enough on technical merit but blames this on the impact of his White-House-demanded publicity campaigns -- a plausible explanation]. The AF put him on their list of nominees for the 1963 selection but after consideration NASA did not even invite him to Houston for final interviews [only the top 2 of his ARPS class were finally selected]. Kennedy's death the following month obviously had nothing to do with the already-made NASA decision. In addition to his middle-of-the-road class standing and massive White-House-imposed public relations distractions, NASA’s decision could also have been based on physical stature: at 5'03" he was three inches shorter than the minimum design spec for pilot height for the Apollo Lunar Module, requiring he carry a footstool onto any moon-landing mission he might have been assigned to. And his confident attitude that flying skill really shouldn’t be a selection factor since he expected the capsules to be fully remote-controlled from Earth anyway [a complete delusion] would have raised eyebrows, if not rang alarm bells, about his concentration on flight skill sharpening.

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Thank you so much for bringing Mr. Dwight’s story to us. I look forward to more Holes in our History essays!

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I had heard of this gentleman, but did not know the details. Thanks for putting the story together.

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Yes, these "holes in our history" deserve to be filled, and I can think of no one more qualified to do it. Thanks for this new feature!

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