“I dreamed the future for myself,” one of the last surviving Tuskegee Airmen said in a recent interview with BNG before his death at age 100.
Lt. Col. Harry Stewart died Feb. 2, at the beginning of Black History Month, a celebration for which his life story is aptly fitted. He was one of only four living Tuskegee Airmen; now there are three.
Stewart flew 43 combat missions as a Tuskegee Airman and flew with the famed fighter group the Red Tails. He wrote about his experiences in a book titled Soaring to Glory: A Tuskegee Airman’s Firsthand Account of World War II.
Harry Stewart (Getty Images)
After returning home from World War II, Stewart worked as a baggage man for a train depot. He applied to become a pilot in the commercial airline industry but was denied employment because of his race. Much later, Delta Air Lines and American Airlines granted Stewart honorary captain status in 2015 and 2018.
Stewart completed his high school diploma and enrolled at New York University, graduating with a degree in mechanical engineering in 1963. He eventually retired as vice president of the ANR Pipeline Company in Detroit.
Raised in Norfolk, Va., near Langley Air Force Base, Stewart watched planes fly over his house. That gave him the dream and plans for his life.
Even though Black pilots were not allowed to fly combat missions in the U.S. military, he enlisted anyway at age 18. “I had faith that things would work out,” he said.
His parents were people of faith and were praying for him and supporting him, he said. He believes his faith and their prayers helped things fall into place. “I am grateful that my parents raised me in a religious family where going to church was a part of our family,” he said.
Although his life is marked by incredible stories, the one that stands out to him from his military career is about Walt Manning, a fellow Tuskegee Airman who flew with Stewart. On April 1, 1945, Manning was shot down and captured flying over Austria. Stewart believes because Manning was an American and Black, he was dragged out by enemy soldiers and hung on Easter Sunday morning.
On Easter Sunday 2018, the Austrian government hosted Stewart at a national parade honoring Manning’s memory. Before his own recent death, Stewart worked to create a memorial honoring Manning in his hometown of Philadelphia.
Despite his grief over the cruel loss of his friend, Stewart said he had to keep going: “I kept my eye on the prize.”
That kind of stamina describes his entire life. He kept flying until he was 90 and only gave up commercial flying at 80 years of age because he was required to.
One of the gifts he left future generations was teaching kids and young adults to fly. He was thrilled when any of his former students became pilots.
He also had fun with them. “I loved scaring kids into thinking I had fallen asleep at the wheel, and they were in charge of flying the plane,” he confessed.
Related articles:
I cannot stay silent about erasing the Tuskegee Airmen| Opinion by Edmond Davis
This Veterans’ Day, meet America’s first two Black generals, who are father and son