Though Haiti commissioned officers to fly these observation planes, all lacked formal flight training, leading to unnecessary aircraft accidents and wreckage.
[1] The ad resulted in pandemonium in Port-Au-Prince, Haiti on official selection day, attracting 800 frenzied airmen candidates and their families.
[1][7] After returning home briefly to pack, Cassagnol left for Bowen Field for a three-week recruit boot camp as a new enlistee in the Haitian Army.
[1] By 1943, Cassagnol became an sergeant and an aircraft mechanic within the maintenance department of the newly formed Haitian Air Force or Corps d’Aviation, created by then-Haitian President Elie Lescot in 1942.
Considered a high performer, Cassagnol began to attract the attention of pilot Dean Eshelman, provisional chief of Haiti's air squadron.
[1] Unaccustomed to Jim Crow segregation as a member of a privilege Haitian citizen, Cassagnol made every effort to avoid leaving Tuskegee Army Training Field and Tuskegee Institute's campus, for fear of exposing himself to the humiliation of racial segregation and white southern hostilities.
[11][3][8] Nonetheless, Cassagnol became fast friends and roommates with fellow aviation classmate Daniel James Jr., who would become the United States' first African American four-star General.
[1] On July 28, 1943, Cassagnol graduated as a member of the Single Engine Section Cadet Class SE-43-G, earning his silver wings and subsequent promotion as a second lieutenant in the Haitian Air Force.
[12][3] A Tuskegee newspaper published an article describing Cassagnol and his two fellow Haitian pilots as a "Triple threat to the Axis.
[1][3] Flying North American AT-6 Texans, Cassagnol logged over 100 hours of flight time patrolling the island of Hispaniola encompassing both Haiti and the Dominican Republic, defending against Nazi Germany's frequent, at-will submarine incursions in the area.
After receiving military clearances from the Cerca-La-Source center, he built an airstrip to quickly travel between worksites and his home in Port-au-Prince, typically a half-hour flight versus a 2-3 day trip by car.
When Haiti held its presidential election in 1957, a non-partisan Cassagnol objected to president candidate Clement Jumelle, viewing him as a continuation of Paul Magloire’s corrupt politics.
[3] Fearing for his life, Cassagnol and his family fled Haiti on October 8, 1962, entering the Dominican Republic as political asylees.