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Elaine Thompson / AP file
George Hickman holds a photo of himself in the cockpit of an AT6 trainer airplane on Jan. 16, 2009. Hickman, one of the original Tuskegee Airmen, died Aug. 19, 2012.
George Hickman, a Tuskegee airman decorated as among the first black pilots to fly for the U.S. military during World War II, died over the weekend.
His wife, Doris, confirmed to the Associated Press that he died on Sunday morning in Seattle. He was 88.
Hickman had a long association with the sports community in Seattle, working as an usher at University of Washington sporting events as well as NFL football games with the Seattle Seahawks.
"Things will be a little different right before we go out on the court not being able to shake the hand of George Hickman," UW men's basketball coach Lorenzo Romar tweeted. "He was one of the most inspirational men that I have ever met."
"George Hickman will be missed. He represented the UW and the Tuskegee airmen with class. I will always appreciate how he treated my family," added UW football coach Steve Sarkisian.
Hickman raised the "12th Man Flag" at a Seahawks game in November.
"He was always quick with a handshake and a smile to those entering the press box and when asked how he was doing, Hickman would answer, 'Blessed to be here,'" the Seahawks' Clare Farnsworth wrote.
In 2007, Hickman traveled with other Tuskegee airmen to Washington, D.C., to receive the Congressional Gold Medal. He also attended President Obama’s inauguration in 2009.
The critically-acclaimed movie, "Red Tails," which is produced by George Lucas and tells the story of the Tuskegee airman – the first African-American aviators to serve in the armed forces, is being released on DVD and Blu-Ray Tuesday. Tuskegee airman Roscoe Brown and actor Elijah Kelley join NewsNation to discuss.
The grandson of slaves, Hickman grew up in St. Louis, and joined the segregated pilot training program in Tuskegee, Ala. in 1943, serving until 1945, according to his Army profile.
theGrio: Oldest living Tuskegee Airman is finally honored
"There was nothing better in the world. In that biplane, the guy wires between the wings were like musical instruments," he told The News Tribune of Tacoma, Wash., in 2011.
But Hickman also recalled in a 2009 Associated Press interview the humiliation of being pushed off sidewalks in the South and spit at while in uniform.
As a cadet captain, he was effectively blocked from flying when he called out white superior officers for the mistreatment of a fellow black cadet. "I felt like I had really been mistreated," he told the AP.
New York City students react after seeing the film "Red Tails" and meeting former Tuskegee Airman Rosco Brown.
In 1955, he met and married his wife in Amarillo, Texas, while volunteering with her mother at a local library that supplied multi-cultural books to public schools, according to an Army article profiling the Hickmans.
"He was just a wonderful man," Doris Hickman told The Associated Press on Monday.
He moved to Seattle in 1955 to work for Boeing. He retired in 1984.
Famed Tuskegee Airman, Lt. Col. Luke Weathers, Jr., decorated with multiple medals in World War II, was laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery on the same day that Red Tails, a film dramatizing the pilots' heroics was released.
NBC station KING-TV and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Leave a Comment:
RIP George! A great American hero.
"Off we go into the wild blue yonder, Climbing high into the sun"
"Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
of sun-split clouds, — and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of — wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov’ring there,
I’ve chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air....
Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue
I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace.
Where never lark, or even eagle flew —
And, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
- Put out my hand, and touched the face of God."
High Flight, written by fellow American Aviator, John Gillespie Magee, Jr.
We shall look to the heavens Mr. Hikeman - it is there, we shall see you, dancing among the clouds on silver wings. Godspeed Sir! Godspeed!
poor fellow was only 2o years-old when the war ended in 1945. RIP
He was a great man.
PJ, thank you, what a fitting tribute to this great man.
Good luck and God's speed to you sir. I am humbled by you.
You're an absolute inspiration for generations of Americans. Thank you for your service to this country. God Bless.
I am also humbled by you & the other Muskegee airmen. Living just north of George, in Vancouver, Canada, I'd like to express my gratitude for your service to the free world. It would have been an honor to meet you. The world was blessed with your presence for 88 years.
May you rest in peace Sir..Thank you for your service to our country!
A great man has passed on. He had to fight the enemy and ignorance at the same time. I am glad the Tuskegee Airman are getting the honor and respect that was kept from them in WWII.
Thank you for your service. Forever in your debt.
Thank you for your honorable service and paving the way for other people of color in the military...
They fought for this country overseas and suffered indignation and ridicule here at home.
God Bless you Sir on your final flight.
Great American, what a proud life and heritage ! Wish I could have met him !
Thank you MR. George Hickman, and bless you.
I Concur, for him, there weren't barriers just challenges. Every one of them he passed with flying colors. RIP and thank you sir for your service and a wonderful life. Godbless!
Thank you for your service to our country Mr. Hickman.
You have "loosed the surly bonds of Earth" one final time.
Godspeed.
Thank you for your service, for proving that we are all the same family and helping free us all from the bounds of prejudice. May god keep you and grant peace to all that hold you dear.
When my father, who went in on Omaha Beach died, noone gave a damn; so, why do I care about this guy.
So fool, here's a question for your answer, Do two wrongs make a right? Don't look now but I think a little of your bigotry is showing! America still has a long way too go.
Maybe it's because many of us realize no bombs would've been successfully dropped if it were not for these guys. This was the true turning point of the war. All veterans who gave their lives should be recognized. With that being said, if you share the same views as your father, we all understand why there wasn't much support.
Apparently, you cared enough for him to open your trap and say something stupid...
Could it be because unlike your father, this man volunteered to serve his country in a segregated military that discriminated against him? That, unlike some who avoided that segregation, he kept the faith.
@cunieal- Sorry for your loose God bless your father my he march in heaven with the rest of the best.
And thank you MR George Hickman and may you sore with the best of the rest.
When you think about all that Mr. Hickman and all of the brave black men who joined to fight for FREEDOM IN WW2. These men knowingly fought for a country that didn't give a damn about them, but they set out to prove the world wrong by example. I am 40 years old and I cry when I think about men like Mr. Hickman, because not only did he fight for his country for freedom he also fought his country for freedom.
I can only imagine what they had to go through, I've heard first hand stories from my grandmother about life in the south in those days. I will forever be grateful to men like Mr. Hickman and the men who were brave enough to give them a chance.
God bless RIP.
You're wrong. Your father may not have gotten a news story but WE ALL GIVE A DAMN about him and all of the men and women who have served with honor.
It's too bad you are nothing like your father, I have met hundreds of WW2 vets who stormed the beach and each one of them have said. "I'm not a hero, I was just doing my part" Your father sir was a great American. You should follow in his footsteps.
When you say NO ONE gave a damn!
I'm sorry that someone did not specifically thank you.
Some slip through the cracks and other times they gave us hell when we returned.
Take life one day at a time. Thank You very much for your father.
I am one of those that made it home over and over.
Sometimes thanked and sometimes condemned.
God Bless You and Your Father
I'm sorry your dad died on Omaha. Many gave a damn then and many still do. It must be tough feeling so rotten about it for so many years. My dad survived. He wasn't a great dad but still, I can't imagine life without him. So I guess there but for the grace of god go I.
If you think your father is not remembered and nobody gives a dam your wrong. Maybe not by name, but none of those men will ever be forgotten for what they did during that battle. Your father fought in a battle that helped change this world for the better and I thank your father and every one of those men for what they did.
I would like to honor the memory of your father God Bless him and keep him.
Name ten other guys who fell with General Custer. Name the forty-fifth guy who fell under George Washington. Who was the thirty-first black soldier who got killed in Iraq.
I don't know, but I do care they all died fighting for the United States, like your father.
Just that certain people stand out for various reasons, like Jessica Lynch or Pat Tillman.
"Straighten up and fly right"! "Blue skies and a tail wind"!
Thank you goes out to ALL our VETERANS and ALL our SOLDIERS who give so we can have freedom here! GOD BLESS THE USA!
Yes!
Rest in Peace Mr. Hickman. Thank you for your service to our country.
Blue skies and tailwinds, sir.
Aim for the stars as you pass into the heavens
Thank you for your service... May you RIP
This white former artilleryman salutes you sir. We desperately need more men like you today.
Mr Hickman, has earned his final and eternal set of wings ... A life embodied by dignity and heroism has ended... but it has not been silenced. Rest in peace sir, and thank you for your service to the country and to your fellow man. You will be missed, but not forgotten.
We thank you, your fellow Airmen and your families for the service to our country.
I was a volunteer (Restoration) at the Palm Springs air Museum and now at the Hiller Air Museum in San Carlos, and will always remember when the Museum Honored the Tuskegee and meet several of the surviving airman.
Thank You for services RIP
Thank you Sir For What you Did For me and all the People of this USA, God Bless you and Rest In Peace !
I was there in Palm Spring and Have a Photo Of that
Another pioneer leading the way through hate and bigotry. Many young Americans do not understand that many of the discriminations faced by people like Mr. Hickman such as poll taxes to prevent voting, segrated schools and restaurants and housing opportunities were in this lifetime of many of us. And many cannot understand the courage it took to pursue opportunities that were basically reserved for one race only, fighting the conception that blacks were "incapable" of doing work of this complexity. These people were the ones that allow all of us, of any race, to pursue our dreams.