Brigadier General Charles McGee, the oldest and one of the last surviving Tuskegee Airmen, died in early January at the age of 102. He had recently been hospitalized. No cause of death was announced. Brigadier General McGee was a combat pilot in three wars and later commanded air bases in the integrated Air Force after World War Ⅱ. He received Legion of Merit, Distinguished Flying Cross, Bronze Star Medal and Air Medal recognition. In 2020, then-President Trump awarded McGee, who retired as a colonel from the Air Force, a promotion to Brigadier General. In announcing his death, Vice President Kamala Harris and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin each called McGee "an American hero."At a time when the United States Armed Forces were still segregated, McGee joined the Tuskegee Airmen, a segregated arm of the Air Force. Its pilot corps-the term applies to all the personnel who served in the 99th Fighter Squadron (later spun off to several different fighter and bomber groups) -were composed entirely of Black men and women. The unit was nicknamed the Red Tail Squadron for the planes' distinctive paint schemes. At the time, many Americans believed that Black Americans were not fit to serve in battle, although more than a million of them did just that, always serving in segregated units commanded by white officers.Writing for the History Channel online about segregation during World War Ⅱ, Alexis Clark noted, "FDR decided that Black men could register for the draft, but they would remain segregated, and the military would determine the proportion of Blacks inducted into the service," summing up the situation by writing, "The compromise represented the paradoxical experience that befell the 1.2 million African American men who served in World War Ⅱ: They fought for democracy overseas while being treated like second-class citizens by their own country."
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