1 of last living Tuskegee Airmen from Arizona dies at age of 95
One of the last living Tuskegee Airmen from Arizona died on Saturday at the age of 95, a family member confirmed to The Arizona Republic.
George Washington Biggs, a Nogales native, died at a senior-care facility in north Tucson, according to his daughter, Rose Biggs-Dickerson.
Biggs joined the U.S. Army Air Corps — a precursor to the modern U.S. Air
Force — in 1943 after he turned 18, though he had attempted to join in 1941 when he was 16 but was denied, she said.
He requested a position that would allow him to see combat rather than something like a cook, Biggs-Dickerson said, and ended up being placed in the Tuskegee Institute, where Black men trained to fly and maintain combat aircraft and eventually fight in World War
II as the Tuskegee Airmen.
She said that her father never saw himself as a hero, but rather as a soldier who followed the orders he was given.
“He was very humble,” Biggs-Dickerson said. “He did not want to be considered a hero because — in the air — they did what they were supposed to do. So there was no heroism in what they did when they served.”
Facing decades of discrimination
Biggs-Dickerson said her father and other Black men faced discrimination upon their return to the U.S. and said prisoners of war from enemy countries were treated better than them.
“The airmen will tell you that they were made to be in the back of the ship and the soldiers from the — I don’t know if it was the German soldiers or the Japanese soldiers — had more rights than them and were allowed to be in certain parts (of the ship) where they were not allowed because they were African
American,” Biggs-Dickerson said.
Biggs-Dickerson said her father tried searching for work after the war but struggled to find a job. He eventually reenlisted as a noncommissioned officer, she said.
He was stationed at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson around the mid-1950s as one of the base’s first African American officers where he helped integrate minority soldiers, Biggs-Dickerson said.
He was eventually promoted to major and flew B-47 and B-52 bombers in the Korean and Vietnam wars while earning numerous military accolades for his achievements.
Biggs-Dickerson said her father faced discrimination throughout his military career. Pilots would say they didn’t want Biggs as a navigator because he was Black and sometimes ignored his warnings when they entered enemy territory before he guided them out to safety.
She said her dad eventually retired from the U.S. Air Force during the 1970s and became an agent for the U.S. Customs Service in Nogales.
Biggs-Dickerson said her father was quite strict, with many conversations involving responses that necessitated either a “yes sir” or “no sir” from her and her siblings.
But she said that she eventually understood her father was raised to abide by a strict sense of integrity and honor that carried on into his parenting.
Congressional Gold Medal
Though her father didn’t want to be seen or treated as a hero, Biggs-Dickerson said he and the other living Tuskegee Airmen were touched when they were awarded the Congressional Gold Medal — the highest civilian recognition given by Congress — in 2007.
“When they got the Congressional Medal, George Bush saluted them,” Biggs-Dickerson said. “And it was the first time they had been saluted to. And these airmen were just touched. They were touched because they realized that they finally got the respect that they deserved.”
Rep. Ruben Gallego lauded Biggs’ military service while wishing him a happy 95th birthday on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives earlier this year.
“I believe that Mr. Biggs’ character and actions truly embody what it means to serve one’s country,” Gallego said. “Not only did he fly in multiple wars, he rose above expectation and obligation as a navigator and an officer. In addition to his time in the Army Air Corps and Air Force, his integrity, modesty, and principled character are values that we can all learn from and should strive to emulate.”
“When they got the Congressional Medal, George Bush saluted them. And it was the first time they had been saluted to. And these airmen were just touched. They were touched because they realized that they finally got the respect that they deserved.”
Rose Biggs-Dickerson
Daughter of Tuskegee Airman George Biggs