(AP) – Retired Lieutenant Colonel Harry Stewart Jr., a Pilot of World War II, who broke ethnic obstacles as a Tuske’s airman and received honor for his bravery. He was 100 years old.
Stuart was one of the last survivor pilots of the famous 332nd fighter group, also known as Tusky Airman. The group was the country’s first black military pilot.
Tusky’s Airman National Historical Museum said it passed peacefully at his home in Bloom Field Hills, Michigan, on Sunday.
Stewart received a prominent flying cross to download three German aircraft during the Dog Fight on April 1, 1945. He was also part of a team of four Tusky Airmen who won the US Air Force’s top gun flying competition in 1949, though they would not be successful. Recognize for decades later.
“Harry Stewart was a very deep character and a special man of success with a prominent career of service, after a long time after he fought for our country in World War II,” said Brian Stewart, CEO, CEO of the museum. Continue. ”
Born on July 4, 1924 in Virginia, Stewart and his family were young when he moved to New York. He dreamed of flying since he was in childhood when he was watching the plane at Lagardia Airport, according to a book about his life, “First statement of a Tuscali Airman about World War II” – In the context of Pearl Harbor, an 18 -year -old Stewart joined it, which was considered an experience for the training of black military pilots. The unit was sometimes known as Tuskyzi Airman, where he was trained in Alabama or red tail due to the red indications of his P-51 mastings.
“I did not recognize the gravity that we are facing at that time. I just felt as if it was my duty at that time. Stewart said about World War II. Interviewed with 2024 CNN.
After growing up in a multi -class neighborhood, Stewart was surprised by the separation and prejudice of the south of Jim Crowe, but he was pledging to finish and earn his wings according to the book about his life. After finishing training, the pilots were assigned to detect American bombers in Europe. Tuscali airmen are given the help of losing significantly less carved bombers than other fighter groups.
“I really had to enjoy the idea of ​​Panorama, I would say, about the scene I would see with hundreds of bombers and hundreds of fighter jets in front of me, and all of them were pulling the trail of thickness, and it’s just In a 2020 interview with the WMC, Stewart said, “Belle in the sky and a sense of something that was really big.
Stewart sometimes used to say in an impressive manner that he was very busy to enjoy flying, according to his book.
He hoped to become a business airline pilot after leaving the army, but was rejected because of his race. He proceeded to get a mechanical engineering degree from New York University. He moved to the detriment and retired as the Vice President of the Natural Gas Pipeline Company.
Stuart told Michigan Public Radio in 2019 that it was shifted to tears in a recent commercial flight when it saw who was the pilot of the aircraft.
When I entered the plane, I looked there in the cockpit and there were two African American pilots. There was a co -pilot, and a pilot. But not only that, the thing that began to tear into my eyes is that they were both women.
The Air Force briefly removed training courses with videos of its floor Tuskyzi Airman and Women Air Force Service Pilots, or trying to comply with the Trump administration’s diversity, equity and involvement measures on a crackdown on What The material was restored quickly after a two -way response.
