Veteran pilot Charles McGee, a Tuskegee Airman who served the nation during World War II and later went on to fly missions in the Korean and Vietnam wars, passed away on Sunday at the age of 102-years-old.
McGee flew 409 fighter combat missions over his three decades of military service, according to Tuskegee Airmen Inc.
According to the organization, McGee had said that the Tuskegee Airmen "proved wrong those that believed Blacks were not able to master sophisticated equipment, that Blacks lacked courage, or that Blacks did not have the wherewithal to fight a determined enemy. It was the Tuskegee Airmen that ended up with a stellar WWII aviation war record and thereby edged the military toward integration and America away from segregation."While McGee retired from the Air Force as a colonel in 1973, according to the Associated Press, more than four decades later he was given "an honorary commission promoting him to the one-star rank of brigadier general," the outlet note
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