AURORA, Colo. (AP) — As members of a pioneering Black Air Force unit pass away at advanced ages, efforts to honor their legacy continue despite sometimes contradictory directives from President Donald Trump, who is eliminating federal diversity, equity, and inclusion programs.
Col. James H. Harvey III, now 101, is one of the few remaining airmen and support staff who demonstrated that a Black unit — the 332nd Fighter Group of the Tuskegee Airmen — could perform as effectively as any other group during World War II and beyond.
He made history as the first Black jet fighter pilot in Korean airspace during the Korean War, completing 126 missions and earning numerous decorations. He was one of four Tuskegee Airmen to triumph at the inaugural U.S. Air Force Gunnery Meet in 1949, which laid the groundwork for today’s U.S. Navy “Top Gun” training.
“They claimed we lacked the ability to operate aircraft or handle heavy machinery. They considered us inferior to white individuals — we were seen as nothing,” Harvey stated. “So we proved them wrong.”
Shortly after Trump’s inauguration in January, the Air Force eliminated new recruit training courses that featured videos highlighting the Tuskegee Airmen.
This action prompted bipartisan backlash and frustration from the White House over what Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth labeled as the “malicious implementation” of Trump’s executive order.
The Air Force quickly reinstated the courses.
During the announcement of the reinstatement, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Allvin explained that the initial removal was due to the service needing to rapidly comply with Trump’s executive order with “no equivocation, no slow-rolling, no foot-dragging.”
The videos had been part of DEI training for new recruits during their basic training. Additionally, some photos of the Tuskegee Airmen were included among tens of thousands of images in a Pentagon database flagged for deletion.
“I believed there had been progress in this area, but clearly, there hasn’t,” remarked Harvey, who accused Trump of exacerbating what he perceives as increased discrimination in the U.S.
“I would tell him directly. No hesitation,” he asserted. “I’d say, ‘You’re a racist,’ and see how he would respond. What can they do to me? Just kill me, that’s all.”
The Tuskegee Airmen unit was formed in 1941 as the 99th Pursuit Squadron at the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. The 99th evolved into the 332nd Fighter Group, which by the end of the war had destroyed or damaged more than 400 enemy aircraft in North Africa and Europe and sunk a German destroyer in combat.
Of the 992 Tuskegee Airmen trained as pilots starting in 1942, 335 were deployed; 66 lost their lives in action, and 32 who were shot down were taken as prisoners of war.
In 1949, just two months after the airmen’s victory in the gunnery meet for the propeller-driven class, the U.S. Air Force integrated Black and white troops, leading to the absorption of the Tuskegee Airmen into other units.
It took almost fifty years for the Air Force to acknowledge the final achievement of the 332nd: its excellence in aerial bombing and marksmanship during the gunnery meet at what is now Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada.
For decades, the winners were referred to as “unknown,” and the trophy was missing.
“We won all of them,” Harvey emphasized. “We weren’t expected to win anything because of our skin color.”
Harvey underwent training during World War II but was not sent into combat before the war concluded. In Korea, he piloted the F-80 Shooting Star jet and earned several medals, including the Distinguished Flying Cross.
He retired as a lieutenant colonel in 1965 and received an honorary promotion to colonel in 2023.
In 2020, Trump promoted another of the last surviving Tuskegee Airmen, Charles McGee, to brigadier general. McGee passed away in 2022 at the age of 102.
Harvey continues to regard the Air Force Gunnery Meet as his most significant achievement, one that the Air Force finally recognized in 1993.
The long-missing trophy was discovered in a museum storeroom shortly thereafter.
“We had talent, and they couldn’t take that away from us,” Harvey stated. “We had talent. And I’ll keep saying it until I die.”
