AP - Retired Lt. He was Stewart was one of the last surviving combat pilots of the famed nd Fighter Group also known as the Tuskegee Airmen. 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, He was also part of a team of four Tuskegee Airmen who won the U.
Air Force Top Gun flying competition in , although their accomplishment would not be recognized until decades later. Born on July 4, , in Virginia, his family moved to New York when he was young. The unit sometimes was also known as the Tuskegee Airmen for where they trained in Alabama or the Red Tails because of the red tips of their P Mustangs. I just felt as though it was a duty of mine at the time. Having grown up in a multicultural neighborhood, the segregation and prejudice of the Jim Crow-era South came as a shock to Stewart, but he was determined to finish and earn his wings according to the book about his life.
After finishing training, the pilots were assigned to escort U. The Tuskegee Airmen are credited with losing significantly fewer escorted bombers than other fighter groups. Stewart would sometimes say in a self-effacing way that he was too busy enjoying flying to realize he was making history, according to his book.
Stewart had hoped to become a commercial airline pilot after he left the military, but was rejected because of his race. He went on to earn a mechanical engineering degree New York University. He relocated to Detroit and retired as vice president of a natural gas pipeline company.
Stewart told Michigan Public Radio in that he was moved to tears on a recent commercial flight when he saw who was piloting the aircraft. One was the co-pilot, and one was the pilot.
