EXPLORATION OF FLIGHT 

Centennial Airport 

News: Retired Lt. Col. James Harvey III, who became a U.S. Army Air Force Top Gun in 1949 and is one of the few surviving Tuskegee Airmen, turned 100 on July 13. On July 15, family, friends and military brass from across the nation helped him celebrate his milestone birthday at a reception held at Exploration of Flight. 

Exploration of Flight, located at Centennial Airport, is a division of Wings Over the Rockies Air & Space Museum. 

“It’s an honor for us to host this celebration,” said Maj. Gen. John Barry, USAF-Ret., the president and chief executive officer of Wings Over the Rockies. Barry went on to hail Harvey as a man who is “Bold, decisive and courageous and an example for others to behold.” 

Barry also said that from this point on, one of the scholarships that the museum gives to students pursuing a career in aviation will carry Harvey’s name. 

Tributes to Harvey included remarks from General Mark Kelly, commander of Air Combat Command at Joint Base Langley-Eustis in Virginia. As such, Kelly is responsible for organizing, training, equipping and maintaining combat-ready air, space, cyber and intelligence forces for rapid deployment and employment while ensuring strategic air defense forces are ready to meet the challenges of peacetime air sovereignty and wartime defense. 

“Lt. Col. Harvey is a patriot, a warrior with unmatched skill and valor,” Kelly said. “He’s a national treasure and I’d walk over broken glass for him.” 

Kelly pointed out that Harvey, who had a Lakewood Police Department escort to the party, made his mark despite race-based discriminatory efforts to discredit the pilots known as the Tuskegee Airmen. Their skill and bravery proved critics wrong and eventually “Military leaders could no longer consider them unfit to serve or lead,” Kelly noted. 

Kelly recalled how, in January, 1943, Harvey had attempted to enlist in the U.S. Army Air Corps but was turned down because he was Black. Three months later he was drafted by the U.S. Army and assigned to train as an air corps engineer. 

Harvey was the first Black jet fighter pilot to engage in combat during the Korean war, eventually completing 140 missions there. 

During his 22-year career with the U.S. Army Air Force, Harvey flew 12 different aircraft, including the Curtiss P-40 Warhawk, Republic P-47 Thunderbolt, Lockheed P-80 Shooting Star and the Convair F-102 Delta Dagger. He also received medals that included the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Air Medal with 10 Oak Leaf Clusters and the Korean Service Medal with two Bronze Stars. On March 29, 2007, Harvey and his fellow Tuskegee Airmen were awarded the Congressional Gold Medal. 

Kelly also pointed out that Harvey’s response to the racism he had experienced was “Well, I just had to be better than anyone else. I’m a perfectionist and a perfectionist can do anything.  

Harvey’s grandson, Qashr (cq) Middleton, served as the celebration’s master of ceremonies and stood by as Harvey acknowledged those who’d gathered in his honor. “I didn’t know I had so many friends,” he said, adding that one of his secrets to longevity is laughter. “I try to have a good life every day.” He also said he plans to stick around a bit longer. “I figure maybe 150 years. We’ll see what the calendar has to say.” 

About the organization: Located on the former Lowry Air Force Base in Denver, Wings Over the Rockies Air & Space Museum opened in 1994 with the purpose of preserving the history of Lowry Air Force Base. Exploration of Flight opened several years later at the south entrance to Centennial Airport in Englewood and its dozens of interactive exhibits expands on the museum’s mission of educating and exciting the public about aviation. 

Website: wingsmuseum.org 

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