In 1940, in response to pressure from prominent African-American leaders such as A. Philip Randolph and Walter White, President Franklin D. Roosevelt opened the United States Army Air Corps (after 1941, the United States Army Air Forces) to black men who volunteered to train as fighter pilots. The first of the black units, the 99th Fighter Squadron, trained at an airfield in Tuskegee, Alabama, which gave rise to the name "Tuskegee Airmen" as a blanket term for the Army's black aviators. Under the command of Colonel Benjamin O. Davis, Jr., the first African American to fly solo as an officer, the 99th saw action in North Africa and Italy in 1943. In 1944, the 99th was merged with three other black squadrons to form the 332d Fighter Group.