On September 23, 1942, he was sworn into the
United States Army Reserve, volunteering but not accepted for flight training. Taking a job as an
analytical chemist for three months, he entered the graduate school of
Howard University, applying again to the
US Army Air Force. Called up for flight training in April 1943, Jefferson received orders to report to
Tuskegee Army Air Field to begin flight training. Receiving his pilots wings and officer's commission at Tuskegee, he was assigned to the 332nd "Red Tail" Fighter group at the
Ramitelli Airfield near
Foggia,
Italy, flying the
P-51 Mustang. Assigned to a fighter escort wing protecting bombing missions of the
US 15th Air Force, his job was to attack key ground targets and guard the bombing mission against enemy
Nazi Luftwaffe fighters. Parachuting to safety and landing within a forest, he was immediately captured by Nazi ground troops. He was sent to
prisoner of war camp
Stalag Luft III in Poland, a specialist Luftwaffe-run camp for captured Allied Air Force personnel. During his period of internment, Jefferson comments that he was treated like any other Air Force officer by his German captors. He was then moved to
Stalag VII-A, just outside
Dachau. After the
Russian Army entered Poland, the prisoners were marched to
Munich by the Germans, where they were freed by
General George Patton's
US Third Army. Jefferson returned to the United States on board the
Cunard liner , arriving in
New York City in mid-1945: ==Postwar career==