Had Been The Oldest Surviving Member Of The Storied Unit

Another Tuskegee Airman has Gone West. Tampa, FL resident Willie N. Rogers passed away on Friday due to complications of a stroke, according to the Tampa Bay Times. He was 101-years-old, and at the time of his death the oldest surviving member of the unit.

Rogers did not talk much about his participation in the war, according to his family, in part because he was among the personnel providing ground and logistics support to the Tuskegee Airmen, and not a pilot. His daughter, Veronica Williams, said that Rogers often said that there were "many who deserved attention more, but were not here to receive it."

Rogers was wounded in action during a mission in Italy in January 1943, and spent three months in a hospital in London before returning to active duty. He also witnessed the Dachau concentration camp following its liberation after Germany's surrender. Williams said she wondered whether that experience haunted him later in life.

Rogers did not reveal to his family that he had been part of the Tuskegee Airmen until 2012, and received his Congressional Gold Medal in 2013, some six years after it was awarded to the unit by then-President George W. Bush in March of 2007.

FMI: https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/infocus/veterans/tuskegee/