Col. Mark Dickerson of the Tuskegee Airmen Inc. and an original Tuskegee Airman will be a brief part of an online talk on the Tuskegee Airmen hosted by Finger Lakes Community College on February 24. Photo provided by FLCC
Finger Lakes Community College will mark Black History Month by hosting an online talk about the Tuskegee Airmen, the African-American aviation unit that completed 1,578 combat missions during World War II, on Thursday, Feb. 24, from 3 to 4:30 p.m.
The link is posted on the College’s website calendar at events.flcc.edu.
The presenter will be Col. Mark Dickerson of the Tuskegee Airmen Inc. and original Tuskegee airman, Lt. Col. James H. Harvey, who flew P-47 fighters with the 99th Fighter Squadron. He was also the U.S. Air Force’s first black jet fighter pilot to engage in combat during the Korean War.
“This will be a rare occasion indeed. Lt. Col. Harvey is 97 and one of a dwindling band of distinguished servicemen from this celebrated unit,” said Robert Brown, professor of history, who arranged this talk as part of the History, Culture and Diversity Series.
Lt. Col. Harvey will make a brief appearance and field questions from students.
In 1950, he led four F-80s in close support to a bomber mission to attack enemy troops three miles north of Yongsan, Korea. Flying with a low ceiling of 800 feet, then Captain Harvey’s flight found the enemy encampment and inflicted heavy damage. For this engagement, he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross along with multiple Air Medals.
After the Korean War, he served as a flight commander, test pilot, assistant group operations officer, flight safety officer, and battle staff training officer for the commanding general of NORAD (North American Aerospace Defense Command.)
Col. Dickerson served in the Air Force for 25 years as a fighter pilot, test pilot, and deputy commandant of the U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School. After his military service, he spent seven years as a NASA research project manager. He is the only African American to become a research pilot at NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center.
Two more online History, Culture and Diversity events are scheduled for the spring:
Scholar and author Carol Berkin will give a talk called “It Was I Who did it”: Women in the Struggle for American Independence on Tuesday, March 1 from 2 to 3:30 p.m.
Holocaust survivor Lea Malek will speak on Tuesday, April 5 from 1 to 2:30 p.m.
