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They paved the way : Last known Tuskegee Airmen from Nebraska dies at 96 Share Updated: 10:18 PM CST Feb 14, 2021 Share Updated: 10:18 PM CST Feb 14, 2021
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Show Transcript FREE. ROB: THOUGH SEGREGATION THREATENED TO KEEP HIM ON THE GROUND, ROBERT HOLTS FLEW HIGH DURING WORLD WAR TWO. HE WAS PART OF THE ARMY’S FIRST AFRICAN AMERICAN FIGHTER SQUADRON. NEBRASKA’S LAST SURVIVING MEMBER, HOLTS DIED ON FRIDAY AT 96. KETV NEWSWATCH 7’S DALAUN DILLARD SPOKE WITH THOSE CLOSE TO HIM ABOUT HIS LASTING LEGACY. HOLTS IS AMONG 16 TUSKEGEE AIRMEN FROM NEBRASKA. HIS GUARADIAN CALLS THIS A MAJOR LOSS FOR OUR STATE. BUT HE’S GRATEFUL HOLTS RECEIVED THE RECONITION HE DESERVED WHILE HE WAS STILL LIVING. ROBERT HOLTS SERVED HIS COUNTRY WITH PRIDE AND DIGNITY. WE SPOKE TO HIM ABOUT THAT EXPERIENCE BACK IN 2018. ONE OF THE THINGS THAT I DO MOST APPRECIATE IS BEING PART OF THE ARMY. HE IS AMONG THE COUNTRY’S FIRST BLACK MILITARY PILOTS,
Robert Holts, who served America as a Tuskegee Airman in WWII, has died
Holts was Nebraska s last living member of the segregated air unit Share Updated: 9:31 PM CST Feb 12, 2021
Holts was Nebraska s last living member of the segregated air unit Share Updated: 9:31 PM CST Feb 12, 2021 Nebraska lost its last living member of the celebrated Tuskegee Airmen.Robert Holts, 96, died Friday.Tuskegee Airmen Inc. s Alfonza W. Davis Chapter President Robert Rose confirmed his death to KETV NewsWatch 7.Holts joined the military in 1942, enlisting after he graduated from Central High School. If it had to do with planes and flying and things like that, I was interested in it, Holts said during a 2018 interview.The Tuskegee Airmen were a celebrated group of Black pilots and support staff that fought in a dedicated unit during World War II because of the nation s segregation laws.Holts helped build maps and charts for the group s missions. One of the things that I do
On April 4, 1968, Air Force 2nd Lt. Lloyd âFigâ Newton was enjoying the afternoon in San Francisco with friends before deploying from Travis Force Base for Vietnam. Hours before his scheduled departure, he got the news.
Martin Luther King Jr. had been assassinated in Memphis. As a young black officer, Newton felt he had to decide whether to go ahead and fight a war outside this country during a time of racial turmoil in the United States.
âMy whole day, my whole life, changed at that point,â Newton said. His Air Force friends stayed with him for a short time until he went off by himself to think about his decision.
Tuskegee Airmen
Former Lt. Col. Theodore Lumpkin Jr., a member of the Tuskegee Airmen who helped pave the way for desegregation in the military after World War II, died Dec. 26, following complications tied to COVID-19. He was 100.
Although known for its pilots, Lumpkin’s eyesight kept him out of the cockpit. Instead, he served as an intelligence officer who briefed pilots on their missions.
History remembers the all-Black unit for their pilots, however, the name also applies to the navigators, bombardiers, mechanics, instructors, crew chiefs, nurses, cooks and other support personnel, like Lumpkin.
Born in 1919, Lumpkin, a lifelong Californian, was the oldest of six. He received an associate’s degree in mathematics from the Los Angeles City College in 1940, then continued his education at the University of California, Los Angeles, according to his bio.