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Lt. Col. Robert Friend, one of the last surviving members of the Tuskegee Airmen — a famed group of African-American military pilots who fought the Axis Powers in World War II — has died at the age of 99.
“We called the chaplain and we did a prayer,” Karen Crumlich, Friend’s daughter, told the outlet. “And during the prayer, right when we said amen, he took his last breath.”
The former military pilot flew 142 combat missions during World War II, after he was denied from learning to fly when he tried to enlist in the Army, according to a bio page of Friend on theCAF Red Tail Squadronwebsite. Friend — who was born in Columbia, South Carolina, on February 29, 1920 — then enrolled in aviation lessons at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania and was ready to join when the Army lifted a ban on African-American pilots in 1941.
The Army would then form an all African-American squadron based in Tuskegee, Alabama, who would later be known as the Tuskegee Airmen. The squad was highly regarded during the war and “proved conclusively that African-Americans could fly and maintain sophisticated combat aircraft,” a description of on theTuskegee Airmenpage reads.
Throughout the war, Friend flew in P-47 and P-51 planes while providing support for heavy bombers, according toThe Desert Sun.
After WWII, Friend would go on to serve in the Korean and Vietnam wars and graduated from the Air Force Institution of Technology. In all, he spent 28 years in the military.
“My dad was my hero. He was always there for me and at the end I wanted to be there for him,” Crumlich toldThe Desert Sun.
In a 2017 interview withTheDesert Sun, Friend reflected back on his time in World War II.
“I never felt that I was anything but an American doing a job,” he explained.
“Do I believe that we have been visited? No, I don’t believe that,” he told the outlet. “And the reason I don’t believe it is because I can’t conceive of any of the ways in which we could overcome some of these things: How much food would you have to take with you on a trip for 22 years through space? How much fuel would you need? How much oxygen or other things to sustain life do you have to have?”
But Friend didn’t exactly throw out the possibility that humanity isn’t alone in the universe.
“Yes, there were some people who had those opinions. I, for one, also believe that the probability of there being life elsewhere in this big cosmos is just absolutely out of this world — I think the probability is there,” he added.
source: people.com
