by Todd DePastino
The Veterans Breakfast Club lost a member, and the world lost a hero with the passing of Tuskegee Airman, Harry Stewart at age 100.
Harry shared his story and insights with us on a program back in May and, before that, back in 2021. You can listen to and watch Harry talking about his life and military service below.
Streamed live on May 23, 2024
Streamed live on May 25, 2021
Harry Thaddeus Stewart Jr., was one of the last surviving members of the Tuskegee Airmen. Stewart’s life was marked by extraordinary bravery, resilience, and perseverance in the face of racial barriers that sought to limit his aspirations.
Born on July 4, 1924, in Newport News, Virginia, Stewart was raised in the working-class neighborhood of Corona, Queens, New York. His father, a postal worker, and his mother, Florence Bright Stewart, nurtured his ambition, though the world around him often dismissed his dreams. From a young age, Stewart was captivated by aviation. He built model airplanes, devoured issues of Flying Aces, and even witnessed the 1939 dedication of New York Municipal Airport (now LaGuardia). When he expressed his desire to become a pilot, a teacher regretfully told him that African Americans were not accepted as airline pilots. That reality, however, did not deter him.
Stewart’s opportunity to fly came with the formation of the Tuskegee Airmen, an all-Black unit in the still-segregated U.S. Army Air Forces. At 18, after initially being denied due to his age, he passed the entrance exam and was sent to Tuskegee, Alabama, for training. In June 1944, he graduated as one of 992 African American pilots to complete the rigorous program.
As a fighter pilot in World War II, Stewart flew 43 combat missions over Europe. His most notable engagement came during a mission to attack a Luftwaffe base in Germany. Stewart and six fellow pilots found themselves outnumbered against at least 16 German fighter planes. Displaying remarkable skill and courage, he downed three enemy aircraft in succession, turning the tide of the battle. For his valor, he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, an honor recognizing his gallantry and disregard for personal safety in combat.
Despite his wartime heroics, Stewart’s struggles did not end with the war. In 1949, he and three fellow Tuskegee Airmen competed in the first-ever aerial gunnery competition at Frenchman Flat, Nevada. Against both jet and propeller-driven aircraft, Stewart and his team secured the top prize in the propeller category, with Stewart himself achieving a perfect score in “skip bombing.” However, this significant achievement was largely ignored by military records, and the official Air Force almanac later listed the winners as “unknown.”
Months after this victory, Stewart was discharged as part of the postwar military downsizing. When he sought to continue his aviation career in the civilian sector, he faced the very racial discrimination he had encountered as a child. Airlines refused to consider Black pilots, regardless of their combat experience. A personnel manager at Pan American Airlines bluntly told him that white passengers would not accept a Black pilot. With his aspirations in commercial aviation blocked, Stewart turned to engineering.
Determined to succeed in a new field, Stewart took night classes while working in New York City’s engineering department. In 1963, he earned a bachelor’s degree in engineering from New York University. Over the years, he worked for several major corporations, including a natural gas supplier in Detroit, eventually settling in the city that became home to many other Tuskegee Airmen.
In the 1990s, he learned that the Air Force had erased records of the Tuskegee Airmen’s 1949 aerial gunnery victory. Determined to correct this oversight, Stewart and his fellow airmen worked to have their achievement officially recognized. With help from researcher Zellie Rainey Orr, the original trophy was found in storage at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force in Dayton, Ohio. In 2004, it was finally put on display, ensuring that the history of the Tuskegee Airmen’s triumph would not be lost.
We will miss you, Harry, and trust your legacy will live on in our memories and efforts to remove barriers so everyone can have the opportunity to soar as you did.