Lt. Col. George Hardy, last remaining Tuskegee combat pilot, dies at 100

When NBC News Reports, Hardy was the youngest member of the Tuskegee Airmen and completed the Army Air Corps Pilot Training Program in 1942 at only 19 years old, giving a committee as a second pilot. Hardy, one of the few black military pilots at the time, flew 21 missions during the Second World War and also served during the Korean and Vietnam wars.

At the time of Hardy’s original services, the army of the United States was separated and the government of the United States created the Tuskegee -experimentNot to be confused with the Tuskegee Syphilis study, sometimes informally referred to as the Tuskegee -experiment, to determine whether or not black Americans were able to order and maintain their own units in battle.

According to the Malmstrom Air Force Base refers to a wide range of people involved in the Army Air Corps program, pilots, navigators, bombardiers, maintenance and support staff, instructors and others who were responsible for helping those planes by keeping Hardy and others in the air.

In 1940, the initial training program of the civil pilot that eventually became the center of Black Aviation was completed during the Second World War.

Somewhat ironically, because there were initially no black pilot instructors, 11 white officers were assigned to teach the 429 men who were employed in addition to 47 officers, creating one of the first integrated units in the army of the United States.

According to the National Park Service, it was Army Air Corps program made to test a racist assumption Outlined in a study by the war department from 1925 (now the Ministry of Defense), which explains that “the Negro is fundamental inferior” on whites. It also used the arguments of today’s invalid racing science that claimed that black people missed the required intelligence, courage and physical ability to operate complicated military equipment.

Despite the intention of refuting these racist assumptions, the United States still tried to sabotage the pilots by sending them to North Africa where they would not deal with the enemy.

Because of this regulation, the United States army did not effectively declared the state and sent the state back, but thanks to the testimony of Benjamin O. Davis before the congress, the pilots were allowed to guide white bomber teams to and from their goals. They were so effective in this task that they were asked by white bomber pilots to be their designated escorts.

And of course, apart from combating fascism of asmers such as Nazi Germany and Italy, they were confronted with an American version of the same battle at home, according to the National Park Service.

Since the program was established in Tuskegee, Alabama was confronted with the indignation of the laws of Jim Crow who was designed to “hold them in their place”, as well as the white citizens of the intense opposition of the city against their presence, which often threatens to be arrested because they only walk through the street.

Nevertheless, Hardy and others Never staggered their mission.

“Colonel Hardy was a great man. He was a patriot. He loved his family. He loved his community. He loved our organization,” said Butler NPR. “He worked very hard. He worked tirelessly to keep the inheritance, not for himself, but for those with whom he served, and he cared for the families of other original Tuskegee Airmen.”

According to NPR, Hardy received countless awards for his military service while he was still alive. These include the distinguished flying cross with courage, a praise medal with one oak leaf cluster and an air medal with 11 oak leaf clusters. In addition, in 2007 he and other Tuskegee Airmen received the gold medal from the congress, the highest civilian price of the United States Congress for the distinctive service to the country.

Hardy and the Tuskegee Airmen were in 2024 Eigen by the National WWII MuseumHe recognized them with the American Spirit Award, the highest honor of that institution, given to recognize their performance and patriotism in the light of discrimination.

At that time Hardy noticed: “If I think of the boys who flew in Tuskegee for me and with me, and the fact that we have proven that we could do everything that someone else could do and it is paid off today … It is hard to believe that I receive this prize here – with them.”

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