Senate Concurrent Resolution No. 24

Introduced by Senator Wolk

(Coauthors: Senators Anderson, Hall, Hueso, Mitchell, Nielsen, and Roth)

(Coauthors: Assembly Members Alejo, Brown, Burke, Chávez, Cooper, Dodd, Frazier, Gipson, Holden, Irwin, Jones-Sawyer, Mathis, McCarty, Ridley-Thomas, Thurmond, and Weber)

February 27, 2015

Senate Concurrent Resolution No. 24—Relative to the Lieutenant Colonel James C. Warren Memorial Interchange.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL’S DIGEST

SCR 24, as introduced, Wolk. Lieutenant Colonel James C. Warren Memorial Interchange.

This measure would designate the interchange of Interstate Routes 80 and 505 in the County of Solano as the Lieutenant Colonel James C. Warren Memorial Interchange. The measure would request the Department of Transportation to determine the cost for appropriate signs showing this special designation and, upon receiving donations from nonstate sources covering that cost, to erect those signs.

Fiscal committee: yes.

WHEREAS, Born on August 16, 1923, into the racially
segregated community of Gurly, Alabama, James C. Warren left
the region at the age of 15 years, when his mother sent him to
Island Park, Illinois, where he attended high school; and

WHEREAS, Enlisting in 1943 to preflight with the Tuskegee
Airmen, the all black United States Army Air Force unit that
distinguished itself in combat during World War II, Lieutenant
Colonel Warren was assigned to Indiana’s Freeman Field, where,
after being eliminated from pilot training, he completed navigator
training, through which he qualified as both a navigator and a
bombardier; and

WHEREAS, Lieutenant Colonel Warren was one of the 101
black officers at Freeman Field in 1945 who were arrested and
charged with mutiny because they refused to comply with base
regulations excluding black officers from a base officers’ club;
and

WHEREAS, The service records of Lieutenant Colonel Warren
and the other 100 officers were cleared by the Air Force in 1995,
an action that was announced that year during a convention of the
Tuskegee Airmen; and

WHEREAS, After serving with the 477th Bombardment Group
of the Tuskegee Airmen, Lieutenant Colonel Warren spent 35
years with the United States Air Force, for which he flew 173
combat missions in Korea and Vietnam, earning such esteemed
commendations and decorations as the Congressional Gold Medal,
Distinguished Flying Cross with two Oak Leaf Clusters, and Air
Force Commendation Medal, among numerous others; and

WHEREAS, A University of Nebraska graduate who ultimately
became the oldest individual to earn a pilot's license at the age of
87 years, Lieutenant Colonel Warren distinguished himself through
his community leadership and participation in the Nut Tree
Airport’s Young Eagles Program, as well as his membership with
the Jimmy Doolittle Air and Space Museum Foundation, the Kappa
Alpha Psi Fraternity, and Tuskegee Airmen Incorporated; and

WHEREAS, In recognition of Lieutenant Colonel Warren’s
great accomplishments in support of the cause of freedom for all
people, and especially in light of his contributions to his fellow
citizens of California, it would be fitting to designate the
interchange of Interstate Routes 80 and 505 in the County of Solano
in his honor; now, therefore, be it

Resolved by the Senate of the State of California, the Assembly
thereof concurring, That the Legislature hereby designates the
interchange of Interstate Routes 80 and 505 in the County of Solano
as the Lieutenant Colonel James C. Warren Memorial Interchange;
and be it further

Resolved, That the Department of Transportation is requested
to determine the costs of erecting the appropriate signs, consistent
with the signing requirements for the state highway system,
showing this special designation and, upon receiving donations
from nonstate sources covering the cost, to erect those signs; and
be it further

Resolved, That the Secretary of the Senate transmit copies of
this resolution to the Director of Transportation and to the author
for appropriate distribution.