Photo courtesy of NBC News.
Charles McGee, one of the Tuskegee Airmen, has passed away at 102 years old. Mr. McGee died in his sleep on Jan. 16 at his home in Bethesda, Md., according to NBC News.
His daughter, Yvonne McGee, was with her father when he passed away and said he died peacefully. The Tuskegee Airman died with “his right hand over his heart, and was smiling serenely,” she said.
The Tuskegee Airmen National Historic Site announced the sad news on Instagram.
“Brig. Gen. Charles Edward McGee, one of the Tuskegee Airmen, has died. He was 102 years old. Tuskegee Airmen NHS thanks him for his service to his country both at Home and Abroad. Image description- Charles McGee wearing medals.”
McGee spoke about the racism he and his fellow pilots endured during the 1940s and beyond from both the fascists in Europe and their own government. McGee wrote about the discrimination in an essay for the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in 1973.
McGee noted that the idea of an all-Black unit of fighter pilots was radical and even offensive to most white folks in the military. The former pilot said that Black people were deemed intellectually inferior to white people in the U.S. military.
“The prevailing opinion was that blacks did not possess the intelligence or courage to be military pilots. One general even wrote, ‘The Negro type has not the proper reflexes to make a first-rate fighter pilot.’ The Tuskegee Airmen certainly proved men like him wrong,” said McGee.
Brig. Gen. McGee and the Tuskegee Airmen flew more than 400 missions during WWII, the Korean War and the Vietnam War as members of the 332nd Fighter Group. McGee’s squadron accompanied bomber planes during WWII and was also referred to as the “Red Tails.”
The story of the Tuskegee Airmen was made into a movie with Andre Braugher and Laurence Fishburn in 1995. Our condolences go out to his family.