Only Ace Among the Tuskeegee Airmen Passes

[SSG Snuggle Bunny]

Retired Air Force Lt. Colonel Lee A. Archer, a Tuskegee Airman considered to be the only black ace pilot who also broke racial barriers as an executive at a major U.S. company and founder of a venture capital firm, died Wednesday in New York City. He was 90.

His son, Roy Archer, said his father died at Cornell University Medical Center in Manhattan. A cause of death was not immediately determined, The Associated Press reported.

The Tuskegee Airmen were America’s first black fighter pilot group in World War II.

”It is generally conceded that Lee Archer was the first and only black ace pilot,” credited with shooting down five enemy planes, Dr. Roscoe Brown Jr., a fellow Tuskegee Airman and friend, told the news service in a telephone interview Thursday.

Mr. Archer was acknowledged to have shot down four planes, and he and another pilot both claimed victory for shooting down a fifth plane. An investigation revealed Mr. Archer had inflicted the damage that destroyed the plane, said Mr. Brown, and the Air Force eventually proclaimed him an ace pilot.

Mr. Archer, a resident of New Rochelle, N.Y., ”lived a full life,” said his son. ”His last two or three years were amazing for him.”

Mr. Archer was among the group of Tuskegee Airmen invited to attend President Barack Obama’s inauguration in 2009. The airmen, who escorted bomber planes during the war fought with distinction, only to face bigotry and segregation when they returned home, were also awarded the Congressional Gold Medal for their service in 2007 by President George W. Bush.

Mr. Archer was ”extremely competent, aggressive about asserting his position and sometimes stubborn,” Mr. Brown said. ”He had a heart of gold and treated people with respect. He demanded respect by the way he carried himself.”

http://dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/01/29/lee-a-archer-ace-tuskegee-airman-and-vc-dies/

Thank-you LTC Archer for busting both Nazis and barriers.

 

[IassaFTots]

RIP.  And thank you for your service.

[The Village Idiot]

 

 

[The Village Idiot]

http://dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/01/29/lee-a-archer-ace-tuskegee-airman-and-vc-dies/

Thank-you LTC Archer for busting both Nazis and barriers.

 

I put AF flag... they were Army in those days

[BlueStateSaint]

  

Rest in Peace, LTC Archer.  You did well.

[Tucker]

I hate when a true warrior goes down. But to quote Gen. George S. Patton, "It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God that such men lived."

[Aaron Burr]

What Tucker said, plus 11.

[Wineslob]

We need more men like him and Patton.



 

[YupItsMe]

  As much as I despise Obama, I'm sort of happy these guys got to see a "light-skinned African American with almost no Negro dialect" become President.  Chances are that these airmen despised him also, I suppose.

[skipuno]

High Flight
Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds, — and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of — wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there,
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air. . . .

Up, up the long, delirious burning blue
I've topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or ever eagle flew —
And, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.

— John Gillespie Magee, Jr

Rest in peace and thank you Lt Colonel Archer.

[Aaron Burr]

Nice. Mr. Uno.

Here's the man himself (starting at :59). Class act..and he still has command presence.

[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXu3KQ2kj3Y[/youtube]

[Airwolf]

Thank Yo uSir for your long hard service. RIP.