Summary: 75 years after the end of World War II, the ranks of the so-called Greatest Generation are dwindling. Among those still able to tell their stories, is Lieutenant Colonel Harry Stewart Jr. Turning 96 on the Fourth of July, Stewart was a member of the famed Tuskegee Airmen and is featured in National Geographic’s coverage of the 75th Anniversary of the end of World War II in the June 2020 issue, which is available at newsstands May 26. WAMC’s Jim Levulis, the producer of A New York Minute In History, spoke with Stewart, who began by describing December 7th, 1941. Stewart: I remember when I was coming from Sunday school, I guess it was on that fateful day, or infamous day, and I was living near LaGuardia Airport, New York at the time and these aircrafts, fighter aircrafts are taking off. They were P-39 Airacobras, taking off from the LaGuardia Airport. There were 30 of them. They got into formation and they were flying very, very low over the city of New York there. And I was curious as to what was going on. But when I did get from Sunday school, I went upstairs. And of course, the news was on at the time then that the Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor. I immediately felt that it wouldn't be long before I would be called into the service because the draft had started. Even though I was only 16 or 17. At the time, it wouldn't be long before the draft would call me up. Levulis: And you were eventually drafted. Is that correct? Stewart: That's correct. Of course. I I tried to determine where I would be assigned in going into the service because if you were just drafted, you could be placed anywhere by any part of the services that there was. The Army, Navy, or the Marines. So I wanted to be a pilot, and I wanted to take pilot training. So I took an examination for pilot training, I passed the examination and as a result, when I was called into the service, I was called in specifically to take training as an aviation cadet. Levulis: And why was it that you wanted to fly, wanted to be a pilot? Stewart: You know, I think it was something that was built in my system from early childhood. My folks used to tell me that when I was two years old, we lived in Virginia at the time near Langley Field. And when my parents who would put me out in the crib, they told me that when the Army planes were flying over, I’d crane my neck looking at them and sort of coo at the planes there. And then later on, we moved to New York City near LaGuardia Airport. And there was at that time that I used to go over to the airport and stand by the fence on the periphery there and watch the planes take off and fantasize about my being the pilot flying that plane there. So I think it was just an acquired I guess you would call it desire that I grew up with as a child. Levulis: Could you take us through your training as a Tuskegee Airman? Stewart: Well, the training was out of the same playbook as the as the Air Corps throughout the United States, even though I went into the service into a segregated group down at Tuskegee, Alabama. We operated from the same Air Corps playbook. It started out with my going through the college training detachment and I spent six months in college getting attuned to subject matter that would be appropriate for the future studies that I would be taking on the airbase that I was going to. Then I started the actual cadet training, which was four phases. It was preflight for two and a half months, primary flying for two and a half months, based flying for two and a half months, and then the final phase was advanced flying, which was another two and a half months, at which time I graduated and I received my wings as a certified military pilot and also my gold bars as a second lieutenant. Levulis: Is it correct that you learn to fly a plane before you knew how to drive a car? Stewart: Yes, that is correct. You know, and in New York with the rapid transit system that they have there, there was really no need
