Colonel (Retired) Melvin ‘Mel’ Bryant was a fighter pilot who served during World War II, Korea, and Vietnam. He was born in Hiawatha, Kansas in 1924 and spent his childhood working on family farms and in his father’s grocery store. Despite his farming roots, Mel...
Donald J. StraitDonald J. Strait enlisted in 1940 in the 119th Observation Squadron of the New Jersey National Guard. He started as an armorer and moved up to become an aerial gunner in the two-seater O-46 and O-47 observation planes. In early 1942, he qualified as an...
Colonel Charles E. McGee is one of three original Tuskegee fighter pilots to have fought during World War II, Korea, and Vietnam. He completed 409 fighter combat missions, the highest three-war fighter mission total of any aviator in the history of the United States...
Alexander Jefferson was born on 15 November 1921 in Detroit, Michigan. He graduated from Clark College in Atlanta, Georgia in June 1942 with a bachelor’s degree in chemistry and biology. While working toward a master’s degree in chemistry from Howard...
Leo Gray is a veteran pilot of the 100th Fighter Squadron, 332nd Fighter Group, 15th Air Force, and first all-black flying group to see combat. Born in Boston, Massachusetts, Gray volunteered for the Army Air Corps shortly after high school and began his aviation...
Violet Thurn Cowden, “Vi”, courageously served her nation during WWII with the Women Airforce Service Pilots (W.A.S.P.). She served from early 1943 until the W.A.S.P. were disbanded in December 1944. As the pilot of nineteen different aircraft including...
