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Shambrey and Huntley, Tuskegee Airmen, RIP

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NutmegCT

NutmegCT

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Friends since airman training in WW2, they both died yesterday at age 91.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...ee-airmen-died-on-the-same-day-in-california/

Clarence Huntley:

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Joseph Chambrey:

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We thank you for your service, gentlemen.
 
Another lost from the Greatest Generation.
 
**** straight, a shame, time marches on, can't believe WWII vets are a vanishing breed, they were the guys that saved the country before I was born, and built the country when I was growing up. Glad their story at least has had a chance to be told in movies and the news in the last decade or so.
 
The word "hero" seems to get used a lot these days.....but these guys were *real* heros!

My father-in-law is a WW II vet. He's 91. Went through the Battle of the Bulge, participated in freeing people from the camps in Germany, etc. He doesn't really talk about it a lot to others but he likes to chat with me about those times. I'm always glad to listen (and I have recorded some of it).

My wife's uncle was a well known P-51 squadron leader. He mostly flew The Hump. Gone about 5 years ago.
My secretary's step-Dad was ~Charley Fox~, a very famous Canadian Spitfire Pilot in WW II. Also gone a few years ago (sadly, in a car accident on the way to a Harvard Society meeting).

It's hard to imagine what the world would be like if these guys hadn't stepped up.
 
Bertram Wilson, also a Tuskegee airman, lived down the road from me here in eastern Connecticut. He was deployed in Europe as a member of the 100th Fighter Squadron of the all-black 332nd Fighter Group known as the Tuskegee Airmen. Wilson flew 62 missions, primarily in Italy, and shot down four German fighter planes. He later served as a reserve officer in Korea and Vietnam, retiring from the service in 1968.

He achieved the rank of Lieutenant Colonel and received a number of medals for his World War II service, including the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Air Medal with two oak leaf clusters, and the Bronze Star. He earned more medals as a combat pilot in Vietnam.

He told the story of his return to the USA after WW2. He was in uniform, flying in a DC-3. They landed, and passengers waited outside the aircraft for their luggage to be unloaded.

As they were waiting, a woman walked up to him and said "Boy, please carry my bag".

He thought for a split second, then picked up her suitcase, tossed his duffel bag over his shoulder, and followed the woman into the terminal building.

Her husband came up and gave Captain Wilson a nickel.

Wilson kept that nickel for the rest of his life. He framed it and put it on the wall of his office when he became Personnel Director of the University of Connecticut.

"I look to a day when people will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character." MLK

Bertram Wilson, 1922-2002.

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I met them some years ago at Santa Monica airport ---Keoke--:cool:
 
It is sad and remarkably coincidental that both passed on the same day.

I volunteer about once a month with a group that restores aircraft, they are mostly World War II vets still going at it in their mid-80s to early 90s, although there are now a couple of Korea-era guys as well as Vietnam-era guys. They are the most remarkable group of gentlemen that I have ever associated with. Conventional wisdom says that these guys should be in old age homes playing shuffleboard. Instead, they are restoring World War II era aircraft like Grumman Avengers (they've restored two of them) and the Cessna Bobcat (their current project), and doing a remarkable job on them. It's an honor to turn wrenches alongside them. However, some of my best experiences are when I don't have anything to do and just sit their and listen to their stories.

I brought my '69 Sprite up there last summer. It brought a lot of smiles to their faces.
 
One of the Tuskegee Airman was a teacher at my high school, "Mr. Adams" when I was there, I was too young and stupid to understand it at the time, and he didn't make a big deal out of it, nor was there all the History Channel stuff and movies out about them back then (70s). https://journalstar.com/news/local/...cle_5d966861-54b2-50cf-ae87-ca65f3be4e3e.html He passed away a couple years ago, wish I would have been smart enough to try to get him to tell some stories or at least thank him for his service.
 
I grew up with a WW-II vet for a father. He went thru the Ardennes, got as far as crossing the Ruhr. Blown out of an anti-aircraft mount (got disqualified from flight school, colorblind. Decided to shoot 'em down from the ground if they wouldn't let him shoot 'em down from an aircraft) by shrapnel from an 88 round. He told me tales of the Tuskegee Airmen and the job they did. Always hoped to have an opportunity to meet some of them. That hasn't happened. True heroes, indeed.
 
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