Retired Lt. Col. Harry Stewart Jr, a decorated World War II pilot who was a member of Tuskegee Airmen and earned honors for his combat heroism, has died. He was 100.
Stewart was one of the last surviving combat pilots of the famed 332nd Fighter Group also known as the Tuskegee Airmen. The group were the nation’s first black military pilots.
The Tuskegee Airmen National Historical Museum confirmed his passing. The organization said he passed peacefully at his home in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, on Sunday.
Stewart earned the Distinguished Flying Cross for downing three German aircraft during a dogfight on April 1, 1945. He was also part of a team of four Tuskegee Airmen who won the U.S. Air Force Top Gun flying competition in 1949, although their accomplishment would not be recognized until decades later….