A special course arrived at the end of Monday (29.09.2025): George Edward Hardy, retired Colonel of the US Air Force and last alive pilot of the famous “Tuskegee Airmen” World War IIdied at the age of 100 in Florida, USA.
His death was announced by the Tuskegee World War IIs Association, paying tribute to the pilot for his “courage, durability and legacy of racism and prejudice”.
Born in 1925 in Philadelphia in a family with seven children, Hardy initially intended to study engineer. But the war changed its fate: in 1943, just 17 years old, it was ranked in the US Army Air Force, at a time when the Armed Forces remained deeply segregated, as he writes in an article in the New York Times.
The last surviving member to have flown combat missions for the legendary Tuskegee Airmen, George Hardy has passed away. Hardy completed 21 missions across Europe and later flew dozens more missions in both Korea and Vietnam. @LinseyDavis reports. https://t.co/QzCTi776bC pic.twitter.com/BMCOXnAnUo
— World News Tonight (@ABCWorldNews) September 29, 2025
In Tasquiggi, Alabama, he was trained in flight and graduated in 1944 as a lieutenant, in his 19 years. The following year, he joined the famous 332nd Flock of the Red Tails (red tails), with the legendary P-51 Mustangs that stood out for their red tails. Hardy took part in 21 war missions over Nazi Germany and occupied Yugoslavia, accompanying the B-17 and B-24 bombers.
He would later remember the constant dangers: once, enemy fire pierced the floor of his cockpit. “When I saw the light going through a hole, I knew I was hit,” he said the New York Times.
More strongly than the bullets, Hardy remembered the contrast between companionship on the forehead and the ongoing racial distinction in the country: “In Europe we all have together, white and black. But when we landed in the US, a sign awaited us: whites to the right, colored to the left (white on the right, colored on the left, ed.). After what we had lived, it was in pain. “
After World War II, he returned to active action in 1948 and later participated in the Korean War. A victim of his superior racism was ruled out by a mission – the plane flying was shot down over North Korea. In the Vietnam War later, he flew with AC-119K into dangerous night businesses. In total, he carried out 136 war missions in three different wars, a rare achievement.
African -American pilots in World War II
Since 1940, with his re -election, US President Franklin Roosevelt had pledged to open the training of pursuit pilots to African Americans. A year later, the attack on Pearl Harbor made this urgent promise: The US urgently needed pilots. But the Air Force was not yet an independent industry, and the Navy continued to exclude blacks from the ranks of the pilots, limiting them to inferior services. Their only opportunity was the Army Air Force.
Alabama’s Tasquiggi became the focus. Favorable weather and existing infrastructure for the training of African -American pilots made the city an ideal choice. In July 1941 the first series of students began; nine months later, the first degrees were issued, inaugurating a new era.
From this generation he was born in the 332nd Red Tails. This flock has proved to be one of the most successful US Air Force: 111 air crashes, about 150 aircraft destroyed on the ground, nearly 950 vehicles neutralized and over 15,000 war missions. The price was heavy: 66 pilots were killed in a mission and 32 captured.
“Taskigi’s aviators faced two enemies: the Nazis abroad and racism in the homeland. They really fought for the others to be free, “USAF’s historian Daniel Holman emphasized in 2015. A legacy of courage and dignity, of which George Hardy was the most iconic person.