Tuskegee Airman dies

6/17/2010 - SAN ANTONIO (AFNS) -- Retired Lt. Col. William H. Holloman III, 85, one of the famed "Tuskegee Airmen" who broke the military's color barrier by becoming a World War II fighter pilot, died June 11 in Kent, Wash.

Colonel Holloman continued to serve during the Korean War and became the Air Force's first African-American helicopter pilot. He went to war again in Vietnam.

A St. Louis native, he volunteered for and graduated from an all-black aviation training program at Tuskegee Army Air Field in Tuskegee, Ala.

Colonel Holloman flew a single-seat P-51 Mustang fighter-bomber as part of the 99th Fighter Squadron, 332nd Fighter Group from a base in Italy to targets in Germany, Austria and Eastern European countries in 1944 and 1945. He flew 19 combat missions, including escorting bombers and hitting enemy targets.

After World War II, Colonel Holloman worked in South America and flew small commercial planes in Canada. Later as an Air Force reservist, he was called back to active duty for tours during the Korean War and in Vietnam. It was during that time he switched services and joined the Army.

After he retired in 1972 from the Army, he continued to serve his country by teaching younger generations about how the war and aviation intersected in a way that helped end racial separation.