Tuskegee Airman Floyd Carter Sr. dies

Although he retired from the police force in 1980, National Public Radio reported that the flag outside the Bronx precinct house flew at half mast as news spread of the airman’s death.

The New York Daily News reported that Carter met his wife Artherine while he learned to fly aircraft as part of the all-black U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II. She worked on an all-female repair crew at the airfield where he trained and the two went out on dates, sometimes in an airplane with Carter at the controls.

The newspaper noted that Carter “led the first squadron of supply-laden planes into Berlin during the famed Cold War airlift of 1948-49.” He also piloted aircraft during the Korean and Vietnam wars and served in the U.S. Air Force Reserve, where he attained the rank of lieutenant colonel.

In March 2007 President George W. Bush bestowed Congressional Gold Medals on Carter and other Tuskegee Airmen for their efforts to help break the color barrier.

A 2009 Flying magazine article noted that Carter’s early flight training was filled with discrimination and insults. He told the magazine there were times when he wanted to “reach out and grab his instructor by the throat” but instead practiced restraint.

The magazine article added that Carter was recognized as "the first African American commander of a heavy jet transport squadron” during the final years of his aviation career.

His police department duties included protecting dignitaries when they visited New York. Carter guarded the Soviet Union’s Nikita Khrushchev and Cuba’s Fidel Castro, according to son Floyd Carter Jr. in an interview with the Daily News. He told the newspaper his father was awarded six citations that recognized his police work and that he also survived several shootouts.

“He’s got a little history,” Carter Jr. recalled. “We were blessed, we sure were.”