JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
Lt. Col. Harry Stewart Jr., one of the last surviving members of the Tuskegee Airmen, died this week. He was 100 years old. The Tuskegee Airmen were a predominantly Black unit of Army pilots that fought during World War II.
AILSA CHANG, HOST:
Stewart says he had a love of planes from when he was young, when his parents lived near an Army airfield.
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HARRY STEWART JR: My parents used to put me out in the crib in the daytime to sun me. And they told me that when the planes would fly over, I would look up and google at the planes and coo along, that type of thing.
CHANG: That's from an interview with Michigan Public back in 2019.
SUMMERS: But Stewart, who grew up in New York, says he confronted the realities of Jim Crow as he was taking the train to Mississippi for basic training.
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STEWART: When we got to Washington, the conductor came into the car that I was in, and I happened to be with some kids from my neighborhood at the time. They were white. And the conductor pointed to me and he said, you go up to the Jim Crow car in the front.
SUMMERS: Stewart flew more than 40 combat missions during World War II.
CHANG: Despite the experience, Stewart says when he got back to the U.S., no commercial airline would hire him to be a pilot. So he switched careers, eventually becoming an engineer.
SUMMERS: But he and other Tuskegee Airmen eventually got recognition for their achievement. President George W. Bush honored them with a Congressional Gold Medal in 2007.
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STEWART: And he says, I even understand that, you know, even you as officers had terrible events where you were not even saluted at times by the white soldiers there. And he says, but I want to make amends as far as that's concerned. And he stood back and drew himself up to full attention and threw up his right arm and saluted the group.
SUMMERS: Lt. Col. Stewart told Michigan Public that the name of his aircraft was Little Coquette, named after one of his favorite songs.
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STEWART: I didn't have a girlfriend at the time, so when it came to putting the nose art on my aircraft there, I decided to go ahead and have them put Little Coquette.
CHANG: That was Lt. Col. Harry Stewart Jr. He died this week at the age of 100.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "LITTLE COQUETTE")
GUY LOMBARDO AND HIS ROYAL CANADIANS: (Singing) Tell me why you keep fooling, Little Coquette... Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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