One of the last surviving Tuskegee Airmen, decorated World War II combat pilot, retired Lt. Col. Harry Stewart Jr., passed away peacefully at home last Sunday at 100 years old.
He broke racial barriers and earned honors for his heroism as a member of the the famed 332nd Fighter Group, who were the nation’s first Black military pilots.
Stewart earned the Distinguished Flying Cross for downing three German aircraft during a dogfight on April 1, 1945. He was also part of a team of four Tuskegee Airmen who won the US Air Force Top Gun flying competition in 1949, which was not recognized until decades later.
He was born on July 4th, 1924 in Virginia and his family moved to New York when he was young. He dreamed of flying as a child when he would watch planes at LaGuardia airport, according to a book about his life, Soaring to Glory: A Tuskegee Airmen’s Firsthand Account of World War II.
After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Stewart joined what was then considered an experiment to train Black military pilots at 18 years old. The unit became named for the location where they trained in Alabama and were also called Red Tails because of the red tips of their P-51 Mustangs.
The National World War II Museum said, “Harry Stewart was a kind man of profound character and accomplishment with a distinguished career of service he continued long after fighting for our country in World War II.”
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