LYNCHBURG, Va. -- A group of Virginia pilots performed a flyover to honor a former Tuskegee Airman who died just days before his 100th birthday.
Alfred Thomas Farrar, who was part of the program that famously trained Black military pilots during World War II, died earlier this month. He was 99.
Farrar left his Lynchburg hometown for Tuskegee, Alabama, after graduating from high school to began his aviation training in 1941.
“It was the next best thing to do,” Farrar had told The News & Advance in a story that ran last week.
Farrar learned to be a pilot during his time in U.S. Army Air Corps program but didn't fly any combat missions overseas, according to his son.
Roy Farrar said he was proud of his father's service but doesn't remember him having much to say about his time as a Tuskegee Airman.
“It was just something that he did at the time, that was needed at the time,” Roy Farrar said.
After his discharge in 1943, Alfred Farrar studied to be an aerospace engineer and worked as an engineer with the Federal Aviation Administration for four decades.
News outlets report that several local pilots performed a flyover honoring Farrar in his hometown of Lynchburg on Saturday, which would have been his 100th birthday.
"It grew even bigger and became more important actually. It was just a kind gesture but now it's actually a full on tribute to the man," said Williams, a General Aviation Pilot https://t.co/NQPKezg2UY
— WDBJ7 (@WDBJ7) December 27, 2020
