One of the few remaining Tuskegee Airmen was 100 years old when he died peacefully at his home Sunday in Michigan. Retired Lt. Col. Harry Stewart, Jr., was one of the legendary flying corps’ most decorated pilot during World War II, and was on a four-man team that won the first-ever ‘Top Gun’ contest in the years after.
He was also one of four Tuskegee airman to record three air-to-air kills on a single mission day — two of which he finished with his planes’ machine guns while recording the third through sheer flying skill.
Born on July 4, 1924, in Newport News, Virginia, Stewart’s eyes were on the sky from a young age. After moving to Queens, New York, Stewart would watch the fast-moving P-39 Airacobras flying in and out of North Beach Airport, today’s La Guardia airport in New York City.
“I used to walk over to the airport as a kid and hand out near the fence there and watch the planes take off and land and fantasize about my being the pilot of that aircraft flying people to different places,” Stewart said during a Veterans Breakfast Club podcast. “Then later when WWII was about to start, there was a squadron or company of P-39s Airacobras that was stationed there, and I took a big interest in that.”
At 18, Stewart enlisted in the Army Air Corps in 1943 and began his training at Tuskegee, Alabama, where the legendary Tuskegee Airmen trained. Stewart received his wings in June 1944 and was assigned to the 301st Fighter Squadron, as part of the 332nd Fighter Group — known as “The Red Tails.” He would go on to fly 43 missions during WWII, earning a Distinguished Flying Cross and an Air Medal.
One of Stewart’s most memorable missions came the day he recorded three victories on a single day.
On April 1, 1945 — Easter Sunday — Stewart was escorting a B-24 formation near Linz, Germany on a mission to attack the marshaling yards in St. Pölten, Austria. During the flight home, they were attacked by a flight of German Focke-Wulf Fw-190s.
During the extended dog fight, Stewart shot down two of the German fighters, but then found himself directly in the sites of a third that had maneuvered behind him.
“I sneaked up on the two guys and I hit them both. It was just at that time I looked around and, my God, there was this 190 on my tail. You could see it right behind my head,” Stewart recalled during the podcast. “I just couldn’t shake him and I had dove down to the ground as close as I could get, and into a tight turn and the guy was following me.”
Stewart pulled out of the dive but the German did not, and crashed. Stewart was credited with a kill.
After the war, Stewart was one of four pilots who formed a team from the 332nd Fighter Group to compete in the first ever “Top Gun” Weapons contest trophy in Nellis Air Force Base near Las Vegas, Nevada in May 1949. The 332nd team, flying P-47s, took first, defeating teams of all-white pilots in modern jets.
But Stewart’s ties to his 3-kill mission never left him, particularly after learning the fate of one of his wingmen that day, 2nd Lt. Walter Manning.
Though Stewart got three victories, three of the eight planes in his unit were shot down on the mission. One belonged to Manning, who successfully bailed out of his P-51 and was captured. However, while downed flyers could generally count on becoming prisoners of war, Manning was lynched from a lamp post in Linz-Hörsching, Austria by troops inspired by local SS units
In 2017, Stewart returned to Austria for a ceremony that dedicated a memorial in Linz-Hörsching to Manning.
“It was near this date 73 years ago that we were on a fighter sweep in this area of the country here and that’s when Walter was shot down. Later on, about three days later met his demise being captured by a mob and being executed at the time. […],” Stewart recalled during the ceremony. “I think that he would be very forgiving of the demise that he had. I think that he would be very pleased with the memorial that had been named in his honor.”