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A28 u.s. news
Diamars 18 Januari 2022

Jill Biden: I didn’t expect ‘healing role’ as first lady

Jill Biden spoke sitting in the helping people through the Biden is the first first lady to
sunshine near a swimming tough times.” continue her career — she’s a
pool at a Las Vegas hotel a lifelong teacher — and hold a
day after she and the presi- Biden, 70, has experienced paying job outside the White
dent comforted families in her share of tough times. House.
Louisville, Colorado, where a
huge swath of homes burned She and Joe Biden wed less The New Jersey-born, Penn-
to the ground in a late De- than five years after his first sylvania-raised first lady
cember wildfire. She hugged wife and infant daughter spent the past year dropping
people as they stood in front were killed in a 1972 auto- in at schools, COVID-19
of the charred ruins of their mobile crash, and at age 26 vaccination sites, military
lives and later offered pub- she became a mother to his bases, Native American res-
lic condolences for dogs and two surviving young sons. In ervations and other locations
other pets killed in the blaze. 2015, the couple buried one in 35 states. That includes a
of those boys, Beau, after he dozen mostly Southern states
Such trips offer increasingly died of brain cancer at age 46. that did not vote for her hus-
rare opportunities for the band for president. By con-
White House to step out of The first lady has lost several trast, he touched down in 24
the partisan gridlock that close friends to breast can- states, excluding trips home
defines Washington. For the cer, and empathized with the to Delaware.
most part, Jill Biden isn’t people in Colorado because
caught up in the capital’s her own home in Delaware “The pandemic really did
frenzy, giving her the chance once caught fire after a light- not constrain her a great deal
instead to serve as something ning strike. and she was able to move
of an ambassador between forward and do all of these
her husband’s administration “I know the tough things things: teach and advocate
and communities across the that we’ve been through for people to get vaccinated
country, regardless of their in our life and I know the, and make some visits to mili-
political leanings. how much the acts of kind- tary installations and cancer
ness have meant to me and centers,” said Myra Gutin, a
Her visits to Colorado and to Joe,” Biden said. “So I professor at Rider University
to see victims of a deadly just know what a difference who writes about first ladies.
Christmas parade crash in it makes when you show up. “That’s pretty major.”
Waukesha, Wisconsin, and I think showing up is really
a trip last Friday to tornado- important.” At vaccination sites, Jill Biden
ravaged areas of Kentucky encouraged people to get pro-
are a “prime example” of She showed up in a lot of tected and held hands with
the responsibility she feels, places in the year past, trav- both grown-ups and kids get-
(AP) — Her husband Wrapping up a year in which she said. It’s what she would eling in the middle of a pan- ting their jabs. At schools, she
campaigned to help unite she saw herself as a key mem- want as a regular person who demic at a pace that far ex- toured classrooms and spoke
the country, but Jill Biden ber of President Joe Biden’s survived a natural disaster or ceeded the president’s — all with students about writing
says “healing” a nation team, the first lady told The other tragedy. while continuing her other in journals to help them cope
wounded by a deadly pan- Associated Press that she full-time job: as an Eng- during the pandemic. At mil-
demic, natural and other found herself taking on a role “I would want to know that lish and writing professor at itary bases, she thanked mili-
disasters and deep politi- that “I didn’t kind of expect, my president and first lady Northern Virginia Commu- tary spouses and other fam-
cal polarization is among which was like a healing role, cared about me,” Biden said. nity College. She has taught ily members for sacrificing
her chief roles as first lady, because we’ve faced so much “I think that’s an important there since 2009. alongside their loved ones in
too. as a nation.” part of what I do. I mean, just uniform.

Celebrated Tuskegee Airman Charles McGee dies at 102

(AP) — Charles McGee, according to his biography on ial fighter combat missions in honorary commission pro-
a Tuskegee Airman who the website of the National In recent years the Tuskegee three wars remains a record. moting him to the one-star
flew 409 fighter combat Aviation Hall of Fame. Airmen have been the sub- rank of brigadier general
missions over three wars ject of books, movies and He retired as a colonel in as he turned 100. Another
and later helped to bring “You could say that one of documentaries highlight- the Air Force in 1973, then event marked his centennial
attention to the Black pi- the things we were fighting ing their courage in the air earned a college degree in year: He flew a private jet be-
lots who had battled rac- for was equality,” he told The and the doubts they faced on business administration and tween Frederick, Maryland,
ism at home to fight for Associated Press in a 1995 in- the ground because of their worked as a business ex- and Dover Air Force Base in
freedom abroad, died terview. “Equality of oppor- race. In 2007 a Congressional ecutive. He was accorded an Delaware.
Sunday. He was 102. tunity. We knew we had the Gold Medal, the highest ci-
same skills, or better.” vilian award from Congress,
McGee died in his sleep at his was issued to recognize their
home in Bethesda, Maryland, McGee graduated from flight “unique military record that
said his son, Ron McGee. school in June 1943 and in inspired revolutionary re-
early 1944 joined the all- form in the Armed Forces.”
After the U.S. entry into Black 332nd Fighter Group,
World War II, McGee left the known as the “Red Tails.” McGee remained in the
University of Illinois to join He flew 136 missions as the Army Air Corps, later the
an experimental program group accompanied bombers U.S. Air Force, and served
for Black soldiers seeking to over Europe. for 30 years. He flew low-
train as pilots after the Army level bombing and strafing
Air Corps was forced to ad- More than 900 men trained missions during the Korean
mit African Americans. In at Tuskegee from 1940 to War and returned to combat
October 1942 he was sent to 1946. About 450 deployed again during the Vietnam
the Tuskegee Army Air Field overseas and 150 lost their War. The National Aviation
in Alabama for flight training, lives in training or combat. Hall of Fame says his 409 aer-