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Milton Pitts Crenchaw, one of the last Tuskegee Airmen instructors, dies at 96
Source: The Guardian
Milton Pitts Crenchaw, one of the last Tuskegee Airmen instructors, dies at 96
Wednesday 18 November 2015 19.56 GMT Last modified on Wednesday 18 November 2015 20.13 GMT
Milton Pitts Crenchaw, a flight instructor who trained hundreds of the US military’s revered Tuskegee Airmen, has died in Georgia. He was 96.
Crenchaw died Tuesday at Piedmont Henry hospital near Atlanta after battling cardiovascular disease and pneumonia, said his daughter, Dolores Singleton.
Crenchaw, a native of Little Rock, Arkansas, was among the last surviving instructors of the Tuskegee Airmen, Singleton said. They were the first African Americans to fly combat airplanes in the second world war.
He was among the original flight instructors in the program that President Franklin Delano Roosevelt wanted to train black pilots for war, Singleton said.
“He began that whole flying experiment – I really think that’s what it was because they didn’t think it was going to work,” Singleton said Wednesday. “For a black man to be able to fly, that’s just like an astronaut now,” she said.
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Wednesday 18 November 2015 19.56 GMT Last modified on Wednesday 18 November 2015 20.13 GMT
Milton Pitts Crenchaw, a flight instructor who trained hundreds of the US military’s revered Tuskegee Airmen, has died in Georgia. He was 96.
Crenchaw died Tuesday at Piedmont Henry hospital near Atlanta after battling cardiovascular disease and pneumonia, said his daughter, Dolores Singleton.
Crenchaw, a native of Little Rock, Arkansas, was among the last surviving instructors of the Tuskegee Airmen, Singleton said. They were the first African Americans to fly combat airplanes in the second world war.
He was among the original flight instructors in the program that President Franklin Delano Roosevelt wanted to train black pilots for war, Singleton said.
“He began that whole flying experiment – I really think that’s what it was because they didn’t think it was going to work,” Singleton said Wednesday. “For a black man to be able to fly, that’s just like an astronaut now,” she said.
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Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/nov/18/milton-pitts-crenchaw-tuskegee-airmen-dies-at-96
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