Lt. Col. James H. Harvey III, a Tuskegee Airman and one of the nation’s first African American fighter pilots, stands by as his wife and daughter pin on his colonel insignia at his honorary promotion on Nov. 4. Trevor Cokley/USAF
Photo Caption & Credits
AFA In Action: 100-Year-Old Tuskegee Airman Promoted to Colonel
Audio of this article is brought to you by the Air & Space Forces Association, honoring and supporting our Airmen, Guardians, and their families. Find out more at afa.org
Storied Tuskegee Airman James Harvey III was honorarily promoted to colonel during halftime of the Air Force vs. Army game on Nov. 4 before tens of thousands of spectators at Empower Field at Mile High in Denver.
Harvey, who turned 100 years of age in July, is among the few World War II Tuskegee Airmen still surviving today.
Wearing a crisp new service dress uniform provided by the Air & Space Forces Association, Harvey stood in the south end zone alongside the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr., Sen. Michael Bennett (D-Colo.), and Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall. His two daughters, Alysyn Green and Kathy Harvey, and his niece, Karen Jackson, pinned colonel on his shoulders.
“Because of his work breaking barriers, I can stand here today as the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff,” Brown said during the ceremony. Brown, the former Chief of Staff of the Air Force, was the first Black service Chief in U.S. history. He is only the second Black Chairman of the Joint Chiefs. “James, I want to thank you for your service. I want to thank you for breaking barriers, and it’s my distinct honor to promote you to colonel today.”
As one of the last living members of the Tuskegee Airmen, Lt. Col. James Harvey III was honorarily promoted to colonel by Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Charles Brown Jr. Joint Chiefs of Staff/@thejointstaff
Following the pinning ceremony, two historic aircraft conducted a stadium flyover: a P-47 Thunderbolt, like those flown by Tuskegee Airmen from Harvey’s 332nd Fighter Wing, which won the propeller-class segment of the first-ever Air Force gunnery meet in 1949, and a P-51 Mustang, flown by the Tuskegee Airmen during World War II.
“It was a magnificent honor to watch thousands of Airmen, Guardians, and Soldiers cheer on Colonel Harvey when our Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Gen. C.Q. Brown, promoted him from being the Air Force’s oldest lieutenant colonel to the newest colonel in the U.S. Air Force,” said AFA’s Executive Vice President Maj. Gen. Doug Raaberg, USAF (Ret.), who took part in the end-zone ceremony as a distinguished guest. “The Air & Space Forces Association is proud to ‘issue’ him a uniform fitting of his senior rank and stature as a Tuskegee Airman, combat fighter pilot, and leader.”
Also present during the ceremony were the Chairman’s wife, Sharene Brown, newly sworn-in Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Allvin, Gen. Mark Kelly, Commander at Air Combat Command, and Lt. Gen. Richard M. Clark, Superintendent of the U.S. Air Force Academy.
To learn more about Harvey’s magnificent career, read Air & Space Forces Magazine’s online July 10, 2023, article, “Attitude is Still Altitude for this Tuskegee Airmen As He Turns 100 Years Old.”
Audio of this article is brought to you by the Air & Space Forces Association, honoring and supporting our Airmen, Guardians, and their families. Find out more at afa.org
A cat living on Al Udeid Air Base, Qatar that won the hearts of thousands of Airmen is safe, according to the base public affairs office, refuting recent rumors that base officials directed her to be put down.
Thousands of Airmen and scores of aircraft have poured into the Indo-Pacific region over the past few weeks for Resolute Force Pacific 2025, the Air Force’s largest-ever contingency-response exercise in the region.
A second B-21 bomber will fly soon, and production increases are a recognition of a changing global environment and the important of long-range strike, according to Gen. Thomas A. Bussiere, head of Air Force Global Strike Command.
The Air Force has launched an investigation into whether the pistol carried by its security forces is safe, after 21-year-old Airman Brayden Lovan died July 20 at F.E. Warren Air Force Base, Wyoming, in an incident involving a discharged firearm, the service said July 24.
A massive U.S. military exercise in the Pacific is exploring how adding new communications equipment to cargo and refueling aircraft can help coordinate large troop movements across thousands of miles of open ocean.
The Senate confirmed Matthew Lohmeier to serve as Air Force undersecretary in a 52-46 vote July 24, elevating the former Space Force officer to the service’s No. 2 civilian job four years after he was fired from command amid an investigation into whether his comments on a conservative podcast amounted…
Russian warplanes conducted a flight off the coast of Alaska on July 22, prompting an intercept from aircraft assigned to North American Aerospace Defense Command.
Lockheed Martin chief executive officer Jim Taiclet renewed his call for a substantial upgrade of the F-35 with technologies his company developed for the Next-Generation Air Dominance program, which it lost out on to Boeing in March. Taiclet said the upgrade would be an important “bridge” to the newly designated…
Congressional lawmakers are pushing for more insight into the disproportionate rate of cancer diagnoses among military aviators as attention to the problem mounts in Washington and beyond.
Subscribe to the Air & Space Forces Daily Report
The latest news from Air & Space Forces Magazine, as well as news from other leading publications, delivered right to your inbox every morning!
We’re sorry, there has been an error. Please review your input or try again later.