Lieutenant Colonel Robert Friend, the 12th surviving Tuskegee Airmen has died. He passed away surrounded by family, due to Sepsis at 99 years old. However, his ties go beyond World War II. In fact, he was honored at the Date Festival here in the Coachella Valley back in 2017 and frequented the Palm Springs Air Museum.

Friend was also a part of that elite group of World War II pilots, who fought the Nazis abroad, only to face racism when they came home. Fred Ball, a friend of the Lieutenant, says he learned a lot from him.

“He said to me there are no Italian Americans, Spanish African Americans, there are only Americans.”

A conversation he remembers having with Bob, as if it were yesterday.

“The Germans were trying to shoot them down. Right? To kill them. And the army air force was trying to kick them out of the service, so they didn’t really have a lot of options,” Bell added.

This was the life of a Tuskegee Airman during a time when the Jim Crow Laws and discrimination were ever-present.

“Once they went in the deep south, they would have to change train cars and the conductor would come and say, okay you;re now in the segregated car. So, for some of them, segregation was very hard. They had never experienced it.”

Friend flew 142 combat missions in World War II, in P-47 and P-51 fighter aircraft.

“We could have lost that war, and we were fighting against people who were brutal. The regimes on the other side with the axis powers were brutal. Concentration camps. Killing prisoners. Full scale warfare on civilians. Things we haven’t seen since World War II.”

In his 28 year career, he also flew in the Korean and Vietnam wars; amounting to decades of service that made him a hero to so many.

“Part of the Tuskegee legacy is one staring down that terrible threat that we had to free our society from. The other one is making our society better. He was teaching us that we shouldn’t look at people with predisposition.”

In fact, the legacy of these airmen lives on in a remake of the P-51 Mustang he flew and that he named “Bunny” after his first wife. The Palm Springs Air Museum restored it in her honor and now this plane is a testament to their love and his bravery.

“It’s pretty tough. It’s finally sinking in that we are never going to see him again.”

Lieutenant Colonel Robert Friend will forever be remembered through his lessons…

“You got to really…the cup is…the cup is half full and we all have to look at life like that. If we all do that then his teaching will all go on and he will live on through us.”

A true hero and a friend to everyone he met.

“I know that he loved me and I loved him. We’ll keep the airplane going and continue to carry on his legacy. You couldn’t help but love the guy. He was a wonderful man.”

His daughter says he worked up until last year, signing autographs and sharing his story with school children. Now he will forever be a part of our history.

One of the Last Surviving Tuskegee Airmen Has Died