One of the remaining heroic Tuskegee Airmen, Harry S. Stewart, Jr., joined the ancestral fleet on Feb. 2, 2025, at age 100.
Stewart was a masterful and fearless pilot who shot down three German planes on one mission, earning him the Distinguished Flying Cross. He died peacefully at his home in Bloomfield Hills, Mich., according to the Tuskegee Airmen National Historical Museum.
“Harry Stewart was a kind man of profound character and accomplishments with a distinguished career of service he continued long after fighting for our country in World War ll,” said Brian Smith, museum president and CEO, in a Facebook post.
Stewart was born July 4, 1914, in Newport News, Va. His family moved to New York State when he was young. As a youth, he was fascinated with planes and flying, and followed the exploits of aviators such as Charles Lindbergh and Amelia Earhart. During an interview with the American Veterans Center in Arlington, Va., Stewart said he vowed “at a very early age that I’d try my best to become a pilot and maybe fly in the airlines when I had grown up. The war came along, and it so happened I was lucky enough to pass the exam for the Aviation Cadet Corps and went to the Tuskegee Army flying school.”
He further recounted his arrival at flight school: “As a youngster of 18, I was wide-eyed and awestruck by all of the things I saw.” In South Carolina, where he was later stationed, Stewart was trained on a fighter plane. By November 1944, he was in Italy, escorting bombing missions as a Tuskegee Airman.
Stewart flew 43 combat missions with the 332nd Fighter Group, which was part of the airmen. It was during this stint that he was credited with the feat of downing three enemy warplanes on one mission, something matched by only three other airmen during the war, including Lee Archer, who shot down a record five enemy planes during the war. “I was surprised by the two that I shot down there, but then I saw these tracers from the one behind me,” he said. “I thought for sure I was going to get hit and knocked down by that one, but fortunately, he either over-controlled or had some sort of problem because he went into the ground. I was home-free at that time.”
His aerial conquests came as no surprise to those who knew of his skills in combat and later as a member of a team of Tuskegee Airmen who were awarded the Air Force’s Top Gun title in 1949. A year later, he left active duty but continued to serve in the U.S. Air Force Reserves. He retired with the rank of lieutenant colonel. Later, resuming his educational dreams, he earned a degree in mechanical engineering and became vice president at ANR Pipeline Company in Detroit.
A month before Stewart’s death, Trump, in his move to stifle DEI had the Air Force briefly removed all information about the Tuskegee Airmen from its basic training curriculum, but on Jan. 27, the service reinstated the lessons, including videos, that demonstrated bravery and escorting, never losing one of the bombers. The reinstatement came after Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala., objected to the action.
See more about Stewart’s life and legacy here.
Heavenly Rest!
Airmen, Harry S. Stewart,Jr.