Couldn’t hold out 3 more years?
Rest in Peace, good man...
Yet another hero of the greatest generation gone. May he rest in peace.
RIP, Lt. Col. Eldridge Williams....and thank you for your brave service.
RIP.
RIP, Lt. Col., and thanks.
As I understand it, the Tuskegee airmen as a unit will live on. They made a decision to admit new members, consequently there are many of them (I’m friends with one) but alas, the number of original members is dwindling. I’ll have to ask my buddy if he wants to get together after work tomorrow and raise a glass to the lost airman.
These guys had incredible fortitude.
R.I.P.
Thank you for posting this about the last of the Tuskegee Pilots
The article notes that there are only 26 surviving memebers, but the Tuskegee Airmen Inc. says there is no way to know how many are still living.
The note below is from thier website. It is not dated but was written after March 2015.
How many Tuskegee Airmen are currently living?
Currently there is no way to definitively answer your question of how many members of the historical Tuskegee Experience are living since our organization can only track members that have joined Tuskegee Airmen, Inc. (TAI).
Many of the members of the Tuskegee Experience that separated from the military once their service commitment was completed returned to civilian life to become private citizens. For that reason, we’ll never know exactly how many are living, nor will we know exactly where they live or what they are currently doing.
At best, we can only try to address our current reported membership submitted by the individual chapters, and I would like to add that number changes almost daily as we continue to receive news of original Tuskegee Airmen joining the Lonely Eagles Chapter more frequently.
At our last Western Region Conference, your question was discussed because it is frequently asked by the media when they are covering events sponsored by various chapters of TAI. I was informed that based on the current roster, and even then it was tentative, we have approximately 209 original Tuskegee Airmen that are documented members of our chapters across the United States. Again, don’t quote me because I have seen news of at least 2 members joining the Lonely Eagles since our conference which occurred late March 2015. Others may have followed that I am not aware of.
So as to your original question; “How many are known to be alive today?” There is no factual way of answering that question.
Respectfully submitted,
Ron E. Lacey
Western Region Public Relations Officer
Tuskegee Airmen Inc.