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U.S.|Harry Stewart Jr. Dies at 100; One of Last Tuskegee Airmen to See Combat
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/05/us/harry-stewart-jr-dead.html
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His boyhood dream to be an adventurous pilot was fulfilled thanks to World War II. But, as a civilian, racial prejudice kept him out of the cockpit.
Feb. 5, 2025, 12:01 p.m. ET
Harry Stewart Jr., a decorated former combat pilot who was among the last surviving Tuskegee Airmen, the all-Black unit of the Army Air Forces in World War II, and who, after being denied a civilian career in aviation, made a late-life return to the skies, died on Sunday at his home in Bloomfield Hills, Mich. He was 100.
The death was confirmed by Philip Handleman, who collaborated with Mr. Stewart in writing his biography, “Soaring to Glory: A Tuskegee Airman’s Firsthand Account of World War II” (2019).
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Mr. Stewart was one of a tiny handful of still-living Tuskegee pilots who saw combat in the war. He flew 43 missions — almost one every other day — from late winter 1944 into the spring of 1945.
On one mission, to attack a Luftwaffe base in Germany, Lieutenant Stewart and six other American pilots were baited into a dogfight with at least 16 German fighter planes. Firing his machine guns and performing risky aerial maneuvers, he downed three enemy aircraft in succession, fending off a potential rout.
He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, cited for having “gallantly engaged, fought and defeated the enemy” with no regard for his personal safety.
