NY Veterans Hall Of Fame Member Flew 95 WWII Missions

Another of the Tuskegee Airmen has gone west. Captain Clarence Dart, who flew 95 missions with the Red Tail Squadron and was shot down twice flying Curtiss P-40s during WWII, passed away Friday at Wesley Health Care Center in Saratoga Springs, NY. Dart, 91, never regained consciousness following a stroke on February 4, according to the Albany Times Union.

In January, Dart, while frail, was able to attend a screening of Red Tails, the George Lucas film dramatizing the story of the first black US military aviators (screenshot of movie trailer above). The paper reports movie-goers gave Dart, who watched the film from his wheelchair, a standing ovation at the Wilton Mall's Regal Cinema. With him was his wife of 61 years, Millie.

Dart grew up in the hardship of the Great Depression of the 1930s, but recalled building model airplanes as a boy. He had just turned 21, and was singing with his church choir at a radio station on December 7, 1941, when an announced interrupted the broadcast to inform the public that Pearl Harbor had been bombed by Japanese forces. He was drafted, and served with a field artillery unit at Fort Sill, OK before joining the Army Air Force pilot school.

After the war ended, he had a 39-year career as a draftsman with GE, and continued his service as a reservist with the New York Air National Guard, retiring as a Lieutenant Colonel.

As is the case with many WWII vets, Dart reportedly didn't speak much about his experiences during the war. But one of his seven daughters, Dawn Ray, recalls, "He taught us that you don't let anyone tell you that you can't do something. He put us all through college because education was paramount to him."

Services for Clarence Dart were held Tuesday at Saratoga Springs United Methodist Church. He was interred in a family plot at Greenridge Cemetery. Fewer than 100 members of the Tuskegee Airmen survive today.

FMI: www.hfcsd.org/ww2/Interviews/CLARENCE%20DART/Clarence%20Dart.htm