Honor Flight Columbus is proud to be flying our 10,000th Veteran to Washington D.C. on October 10, 2024. To commemorate this significant milestone, we will be sharing the inspiring stories of 10 Veterans. Each story we share will represent 1,000 of the 10,000 Veterans we have had the honor of flying. Follow along as we honor, share, and celebrate the heroes of our country.
W. Osborne (Os) Livisay was born November 26, 1933, in Princeton, West Virginia. He was the second child of four, two boys and two girls. Livisay, a bright young man who grew into a kind and caring adult, has been forced to live with the reality that the color of his skin has impacted the opportunities available to him. This unjust treatment was revealed to him, even as a child. He attended Park Central High School and recalls riding on the school bus, forced to drive past schools closer to his home because segregation dictated what schools' people of color were permitted to attend.
Once he graduated high school, he attended college in North Carolina but chose to return home to Princeton and finished his degree at the historically Black college, Bluefield State. Because of his status as a student, he was deferred from the draft. During the summer of his junior year, Livisay worked at the Ford Motor Company in Detroit, Michigan. His father advised him to keep just enough money that he needed to live and send the rest home. He listened and was able to pay for his senior year of schooling. This lesson, living modestly and saving for the future, stayed with him for the rest of his life.
Despite his earlier deferment from the draft, Livisay enlisted in the Air Force on September 2, 1955. He chose to serve because he felt it was his responsibility to his country. He went through basic training at Sampson Air Force base in New York. The experience of basic training bonded him together with people he was serving with, as they were all new and forced to work together. While he spoke fondly of basic training, he also shared that it was freezing and made him realize he “would never be a camper.”
He was stationed at Chanute Air Force Base for weather observation school, a branch of meteorology. This was a totally new experience as he looked at the weather, reported what he saw, and plotted it on maps. His record keeping and analysis of the data predicted weather patterns, prepared forecasts and communicated weather information to commanders and pilots. Technical school lasted for 9 months and then he was given a permanent duty station: Pope Air Force Base, Fort Brag in Fayetteville, NC. He remained here for 38 months until he was discharged.
Livisay joined the Air Force in the hopes of traveling and seeing the world. He volunteered for every opportunity and was never selected. Instead, he remained stationed at Pope AFB working in his office located inside a hanger where aircraft was repaired. While Livisay does not know why the military never provided an opportunity to travel, it very well could have been related to the color of his skin.
Under President Truman, the military was desegregated in 1948. But it wasn’t until the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that segregation and discrimination was prohibited in public facilities. Being stationed in the still segregated south posed many challenges for Livisay, a man determined to serve his country. He shared that during those early days of the desegregation of the military, “You could still feel those… issues that no one would notice but me and other people may not be aware of.” One of the things that always bothered him was riding the bus home from base to West Virginia. He was forced to go to the back of the bus until they crossed into West Virginia. The restaurants and restrooms at the bus stations forced him to enter from the side or back entrances. He often thought, “I am a military man trying to defend this country and this is what I have to live with?”
When Livisay would go into town off base in Fayetteville, he had to go to the Black owned and operated restaurants. The movie theatres forced him to sit separately from the general public. Segregation in the military was over, but that did not mean Black servicemen and women were treated equally with their white counterparts. The culture of segregation could be felt both on and off base. Livisay served in a 28-man unit that in his words, “was congenial more or less.” The servicemen in his unit lived and were educated in the American culture of segregation. This had a drastic impact on the way they viewed people of color. While the military was not segregating living or working quarters, some servicemen chose to exclude their fellow servicemen because of their skin color. Livisay shared that, “every once and awhile someone would come in [to the unit] and you could tell they were not comfortable and at the same time they had very little association with somebody of another race.”
Livisay served in the same unit for several months with a man named Jimmy who told him, “I don’t mean to be offensive, but you are not like my parents told me you would be. You are like all the rest of us.” Livisay’s response to this memory was, “believe it or not, I am.” The heart-breaking truth of America’s past and present is that people are treated differently based on their race. Livisay’s polite and kind demeanor likely would have kept the ill-treatment he received to himself. However, he courageously consented for these details of his experience to be included in this story.
After four years in the Air Force, Livisay was honorably discharged on September 1, 1959. He returned to West Virginia and started substitute teaching and then took a job with the state. After 6-7 months working for the state, he received a call from the Superintendent of a school in Sydney, Ohio. Two days after his initial interview, he left with the guarantee of a position. Livisay began employment with the Russia Local School District the following week. The local pastor in Piqua helped find a home for him and his family to live and eventually, his wife, and three children joined him in Piqua, Ohio. He taught industrial arts and drove a school bus in the school district for 17 years.
While reflecting on his time living in Piqua, Livisay shared that, “another harsh reminder of not being accepted because of the color of my skin was discovering a cross burning in our yard the weekend following my wife being hired as the first person of color in the Piqua Catholic School System.” This traumatizing event, though it occurred many years ago, plays itself in the minds of Livisay and his family to this day. They lived and worked in the Piqua area for 17 years, dedicating their efforts to educating the next generation.
He then moved to Toledo, Ohio for a new job. He taught industrial arts to junior high and high schoolers for almost 10 years there when he was transferred to special education. He was sent to Cummins School for high schoolers with severe behavioral disorders. Livisay reflects fondly on the coworkers at Cummins, as they bonded together and supported one another. The children came from broken homes and every teacher cared about every student. To Livisay, the community of his coworkers made this the most memorable work experience of his life. After only one year, he was transferred to an elementary school. He chose to go back to school at the University of Toledo for his certification in special education. He finally retired from teaching in 1995.
Today, Livisay’s legacy lives on in his four children, 11 grandchildren, and 14 great-grandchildren. He has lived in Columbus for two years now with his sister to be closer to family. Not long after his move to Columbus, Livisay applied for his Honor Flight. He flew on September 7, 2023 on Mission 124. He remembers landing in DC, exiting the plane, and being greeted by so many grateful Americans. At the Korean War Memorial, the images of those who served etched into the granite wall left Livisay with quite the impression, “All the images… when you stop and look you see somebody looking at you, their eyes are on you. It just brings tears to your eyes.” He summed up his experience saying, “It was an outstanding experience. One I will always remember… it will never leave me.”
Livisay’s story is full of triumph, hard work, unjust treatment, resilience, family, and heroic service to our country. It leaves us to reflect on our own lives and the world we live in and hopefully challenges us to love all people and uphold all of our Veterans.
