Floyd Carter Sr., one of the last Tuskegee Airmen, decorated veteran of three wars and NYPD officer, died Thursday, March 8, 2018. He was 95. Carter was given the Congressional Gold Medal by President Bush for breaking the color barrier in Tuskegee. Carter rose to the rank of Air Force lieutenant colonel years after joining the group of African-American pilots at Tuskegee University.
Carter served during World War II and in both the Korean and Vietnam wars. He also participated in the famed Cold War airlift of 1948-49.
He joined the Army Air Corps in 1944 and was commissioned a year later as a 2nd lt. bombardier navigator. He received his pilot wings in 1946. He later transferred to the Air Force Reserves. He rose to the rank of commander of the 732nd Military Airlift Squadron at McGuire Air Force Base in New Jersey in 1974.
He later joined the NYPD and retired from there in 1980.
Carter is survived by his wife Atherine of more than seven decades and their two children, Floyd Jr. and Rozalind.
