The two men, who were lifelong friends and born within six weeks of one another, were 91.
“They were friends before they joined the Army,” said Huntly. (The different spelling is deliberate, he said, a product of family tinkering.) “They didn’t go to school together, but in the black community in Los Angeles, mostly everybody knew everybody.”
There are no concise numbers for the total number of Tuskegee Airmen, the first African-American military aviators in the U.S. service corps. The group is generally said to consist of anybody who went through the “Tuskegee Experience,” the Army Air Corps program established to train African-Americans for the war effort, according to Tuskegee Airmen Inc., a group devoted to the history of the Airmen.
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“They made it easier for me, and I’m trying to make it easier for others,” he said.
“The passing of the Airmen makes our mission all the more important to carry on so their story is not lost but continues to serve as a legacy of inspiration,” said CAF Red Tail administrator LaVone Kay.
In 2012: Former Tuskegee airman dies
