One of two surviving pilots from the famed World War II-era Tuskegee Airmen has been invited to Omaha for the city’s downtown Memorial Day parade and festivities on Saturday.
Retired Lt. Col. George Hardy, 97, of Sarasota, Florida, served 28 years in the Air Force and flew 136 combat missions during World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. He twice was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross.
Hardy grew up in Philadelphia and enlisted in the Army Air Corps in 1943, at age 17. He was commissioned a year later following pilot training with the Tuskegee Airmen, a group of African American pilots who trained and served together in the segregated U.S. military of the era.
Hardy will be given a place of honor near the end of the parade route on Farnam Street, said Evonne Williams, co-founder with her husband, Bill, of Patriotic Productions, the nonprofit that is putting on the …