Tuskegee Airman James Harvey III celebrated in

by Bob Kerlik

Blue Sky News

Lt. Col. James Harvey III smiled as he scanned the names and images of his fellow aviators at a memorial honoring the famed Tuskegee Airmen at Pittsburgh International Airport.

Harvey, who turns 100 on July 13, is one of the few remaining pilots from the famed combat aviation unit. He was honored at the airport before flying home to Denver, touring the exhibit and looking for faces he recognized.

“There’s still a lot of people who don’t know about us,” said Harvey, who was in Pittsburgh to serve as the grand marshal of the city’s Juneteenth parade. “This is a very nice display. I’ve never seen one this complete.”

Clad in a burgundy blazer adorned with patches and honors, Harvey told stories to local media, visited the airport’s USO lounge and took a window tour of the new terminal program. He didn’t mince words when asked what younger generations should know about the Tuskegee Airmen and their role in breaking racial barriers in the U.S. military. He cited a 1925 report from the Army War College that concluded Black military members were inferior to their White counterparts and that units should be strictly segregated.

That report concluded that “we didn’t have the ability to do anything, so we proved them wrong,”

• JULY 5