NYPD vet and one of the last Tuskegee Airmen dies at 95
SUMMARY
Few have served their country and community at the level of Floyd Carter, Sr. His service began in 1944 when he joined the U.S. Army Air Corps as a 2nd Lt. Bombardier. He was among the first African-Americans to complete pilot training. At the time, the 1,000 black pilots of the Tuskegee Airmen were just a drop in the bucket of those fighting World War II.
His service didn't end there. It ended on Mar. 8, 2018, when he died at age 95, the New York Daily News reports.
After the war and after the creation of the United States Air Force in 1947, Carter joined the Air Force Reserve. He was a part of the massive flow of moral and material support for West Berlin that would come to be called the Berlin Airlift.
He continued his service through the Korean War and into the Vietnam War, where he moved troops and supplies into the country during the infamous 1968 Tet Offensive.
If you're doing the math, that's already 24 years of service.
As an Air Force Reservist, he needed a civilian job. In that, he continued to serve, joining the New York Police Department in 1953. Within three years, he was promoted to detective and spent 27 years serving the people of New York in some of the most trying, crime-ridden times in the city's history.
He retired from the Air Force in 1974 and the NYPD in 1980.
Carter was presented with a Congressional Gold Medal from then-President George W. Bush in 2007. He and other Tuskegee Airmen were also invited to President Barack Obama's 2009 Inauguration ceremony as well as the premiere of George Lucas' 2012 film about the Tuskegee Airmen, Red Tails.
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