Lt. Col. George E. Hardy, the last surviving member of the Tuskegee Airmen who flew combat missions during WWII in Europe, has died. He was 100 years old. 
 
Hardy died on Thursday, September 25, a spokesperson for Tuskegee Airmen, Inc., told NPR on Saturday. The organization remembered his legacy as one of "courage, resilience, tremendous skill and dogged perseverance against racism, prejudice and other evils.” Leon Butler Jr., national president of Tuskegee Airmen, Inc., said "Colonel Hardy was an amazing man. He was a patriot. He loved his family. He loved his community. He loved our organization. He worked very hard. He worked tirelessly to preserve the legacy, not for himself, but for those that he served with, and he cared about the families of other original Tuskegee Airmen." 
 
Born on June 8, 1925 in Philadelphia, he joined the USAAF at age 18 in July 1943 and started pilot training at the Tuskegee Army Air Field in December, graduating from pilot training in September 1944, age 19, and was commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant. He served with the 99th Fighter Squadron of the 332nd Fighter Group at Ramitelli Air Base, Italy, where he completed 21 missions across Europe, and was the youngest Red Tail fighter pilot. 
 
He returned from Italy as a 1st Lieutenant when the war in Europe ended and returned to the Tuskegee Army Air Field base where he was a supervising pilot until 1946 when it closed. He then went back home to Philadelphia before attending New York University and getting married in 1947. 
 
Hardy was assigned to the 19th Bomb Group, where he was the only Black American officer, and sent to Guam in 1949. The following year, the Korean War began and he was transferred to Okinawa. During the Korean War, he flew 45 combat missions, including Black Thursday in October 1951, and flew 70 combat missions in the Vietnam War. 
 
The world is a different place without these guys.

The story of the Tusekgee Airmen is featured in Tom Cleaver’s next work, Bloody Skies: Fifteenth Fighter Command Against all Odds, published by Osprey in February 2026.