MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – Former Judge Richard Rutledge, 92, Lt. Col. Leo Gray, 89, and Lt. Col. Eldridge Williams, 96, are lifelong friends.
The three men living in South Florida are among the first African-American servicemen to serve as military aviators in the U.S. armed forces. And they are among the few surviving members of the pioneering group of Tuskegee Airmen.
Aside from making history during World War II, the Tuskegee Airmen success helped pave the way for President Harry Truman to integrate the U.S. armed forces in 1948.
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Gray was a single engine pilot. He went on to become an economic consultant to the U.S. Department of Agriculture in West Africa.
MORE ON HERO: YouTube video of Lt. Col. Leo Gray
Williams -- who worked in the cotton fields of Texas -- was a second lieutenant and director of physical fitness. He is also a veteran of the Korean War and served in Okinawa, Japan.
MORE ON HERO: Lt. Col. Eldridge Williams' biography
Rutledge was an airplane mechanic. He went on to become one of the first blacks to be commissioned in the U.S. Army Air Corps as a warrant officer and later graduated from Brooklyn Law School.
MORE ON HERO: School Board on surviving airmen ( Feb. 11, 2015)
Because of Black History Month, the men are getting recognized. Most recently, The School Board of Miami-Dade County honored them for "their heroism and love of country."
The Miami-Dade Aviation Department is throwing them a party Friday at the Miami International Airport Hotel. The Florida Memorial University Ambassador choral is set to perform.
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