Harry Stewart, a Tuskegee Airman who earned the Distinguished Flying Cross for three kills in a single mission during World War II, died Sunday at the age of 100. Stewart was one of the few remaining veterans who flew with the all-Black Tuskegee Airmen during the war, a time when troops were segregated by race. He died peacefully in his home, according to the Tuskegee Airmen National Historical Museum.
Harry Stewart , a Tuskegee Airman who earned the Distinguished Flying Cross for three kills in a single mission during World War II, died Sunday in Bloomfield Hills, Mich. He was 100. Stewart was one of the few remaining veterans who flew with the all-Black Tuskegee Airmen during the war, a time when troops were segregated by race. He died “peacefully” in his home, the Tuskegee Airmen National Historical Museum said in a Facebook post Monday announcing his death.
“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,” Brian Smith, the museum’s president and CEO, said in the Facebook post. The first Black airmen completed flight training at their namesake Tuskegee Army Air Field in Tuskegee in March 1942. The Tuskegee Airmen joined the military to fight the Axis powers of Germany and Japan “at a time when there were many people who thought that (Black) men lacked intelligence, skill, courage, and patriotism,” the museum states on its website. Stewart was born July 4, 1924, in Newport News, Va., and his family moved to New York state when he was young, Stewart said in a Jan. 14, 2019, interview with the American Veterans Center. He was fascinated with flying as he grew up, following the exploits of famed aviators such as Charles Lindberg and Amelia Earhart. “I vowed at a very early age that I’d try my best to become a pilot and maybe fly in the airlines when I had grown up,” he said in the interview. “The war came along, and it so happened I was lucky enough to pass the exam for the Aviation Cadet Corps and went to Tuskegee Army flying school.” “As a youngster of 18-years-old I was wide-eyed and awestruck by all of the things I saw,” he said of flight school. He was later stationed in South Carolina to train in a fighter plane, and in November 1944 he was sent to Italy to escort bombing missions. There he flew 43 combat missions with the 332nd Fighter Group, dubbed the Tuskegee Airmen. He flew evolving versions of the P-51, he said. He was credited with three “kills” during a single mission, a feat matched by only three other Tuskegee Airmen during the war. “I shot down two aircraft, and a third one I was given credit for,” Stewart said in the interview, seeming almost embarrassed about bring credited for the third kill. “I surprised the two that I shot down there, but then I saw these tracers from the one behind me,” he said. “I thought for sure I was going to get hit and knocked down by that one. But fortunately, he either over-controlled or had some sort of problem because he went into the ground. I was home free at that time.” Steward was among the three-man Tuskegee Airmen team that took the top award at the Air Force’s Top Gun competition in 1949. Teams were chosen from 12 U.S. fighter groups. The groups were divided into those who flew jets and those who piloted piston-engine fighters.“It was quite a feather in our cap as far as the 332nd was concerned,” he said. “I think it put an end to any doubt in people’s minds as far as the ability of the Tuskegee Airmen were concerned.” He left active duty in 1950 but continued to serve in the U.S. Air Force Reserves, where he retired with the rank of lieutenant colonel. He went on to earn a degree in mechanical engineering and became vice president at ANR Pipeline Company in Detroit.
Tuskegee Airmen Harry Stewart WWII Black Aviators Distinguished Flying Cross Aviation History
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