One of the last surviving Tuskegee Airmen remembers struggle for recognition amid Trump’s DEI purge

With members of a trailblazing Black Air Force unit passing away at advanced ages, efforts to remain true to their memory carry on despite sometimes confusing orders from President Donald Trump as he purges federal diversity, equity, and inclusion programs.

- Mead Gruver and Thomas Peipert

Col. James H. Harvey III, 101, is among the last few airmen and support crew who proved that a Black unit — the 332nd Fighter Group of the Tuskegee Airmen — could fight as well as any other in World War II and the years after.

He went on to become the first Black jet fighter pilot in Korean airspace during the Korean War and a decorated one after 126 missions. He was one of four Tuskegee Airmen who won the first U.S. Air Force Gunnery Meet in 1949, a forerunner of today’s U.S. Navy “Top Gun” school.

"They said we didn’t have any ability to operate aircraft or operate heavy machinery. We were inferior to the white man. We were nothing,” Harvey said. “So we showed them.”

Shortly after Trump’s January inauguration, the Air Force removed new recruit training courses that included videos of the Tuskegee Airmen.

The removal drew bipartisan outrage and the White House’s ire over what Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth described as “malicious implementation” of Trump’s executive order.

The Air Force quickly reversed course.