LYNCHBURG, Va. — Former Tuskegee Airman Alfred Thomas Farrar died on Thursday in Virginia only days before a ceremony planned to honor his service in the program that famously trained Black military pilots during World War II.
He was 99.
Farrar’s son, Roy, told The Associated Press on Sunday that his father died at his Lynchburg home. Alfred Farrar would have turned 100 years old on Dec. 26.
Farrar left his Lynchburg hometown for Tuskegee, Alabama, after graduating from high school to began his aviation training in 1941.
His son says Farrar learned to be a pilot during his time in the U.S. Army Air Corps program but didn’t fly any combat missions overseas.