I had a thirty-minute telephone interview with one of the last of the Tuskegee Airmen, Lt. Colonel Harry Stewart.

This is a story about prejudice, changing times, and succeeding anyway.

During WW II, it was decided that there should be Negro pilots in the military, but that they should be segregated. Col. Stewart lived in New York, was selected, and then sent by the train to the Deep South. When they stopped in Washington, DC, all “coloreds” as they were called, were moved to a separate train car.

It is hard to imagine the racism of the Deep South during that time period.

But Harry Stewart survived and succeeded. He was trained to fly, was made a second lieutenant and given the wonderful silver wings and a scroll to prove it. He was, at that time, only 19 years old and not yet licensed to drive a car!

He was sent by ship to Europe where he flew P-51 Mustangs and waged war with the German Luftwaffe. He flew 43 missions and on one mission he shot down three German aircraft. 

He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross.

He and other Tuskegee pilots were heroes—until they returned to the states after the war.

Stewart assumed that with his qualifications he could get a job flying with the airlines. It was not to be. Again, “coloreds” were not welcome in airline cockpits.

Stewart stayed in the military, reached the rank of Lieutenant Colonel, then retired from the military and enrolled at New York University. He earned a degree in mechanical engineering. He went to work with a large company, ANR Pipeline. When he retired from there he was VP of the company.

Obviously, this is a man who can compete in any arena!

Col. Stewart will be 95 on July 4—a patriotic birthday, to say the least—yet he still moves on.

He has a book coming out, Soaring to Glory: A Tuskegee Airman’s Firsthand Account of WW II, by Lt. Col. Harry T. Stewart, Jr. and Philip Handleman.

Some of you can meet Col. Stewart. He will promote—and sign—the book at Palm Springs Air Museum, Palm Springs, CA, June 9, at 1:00 p.m., at Richard Nixon Presidential Library, Yorba Linda, CA, June 10 at 7:00 p.m., and at , MI, June 15 at 1:00 p.m.

I wonder—will any of the fellow passengers on the airline flights back and forth be aware that there is a hero riding with them?

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