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(CBS DETROIT) – The 2-day viewing for Tuskegee Airman Lt. Col. Alexander Jefferson started Thursday, July 7, on the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American Historical past. Public visitation will proceed on Friday, and a funeral service will probably be held on Saturday.
On Friday, July 8, public visitation will proceed from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. at James H. Cole Dwelling for Funerals situated at 16100 Schaefer in Detroit.
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A funeral service will probably be held Saturday at Hope United Methodist Church, 26275 Northwestern Freeway in Southfield.
The Tuskegee Airmen have been the nation’s first African American army pilots, and Jefferson was among the many first to escort bombers in WWII.
From 1944 to 1945, he flew 18 missions as a P-51 fighter pilot with the 332nd Fighter Group-301st Fighter Squadron throughout WWII earlier than being shot down and held as a prisoner of struggle in Poland for eight months.
In 1947 he was honorably discharged from lively obligation and in 1969 he retired with the rank of lieutenant colonel.
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“Col. Jefferson not solely represented the perfect of Detroit and our nation, he represented the perfect of humanity,” Mayor Mike Duggan. Stated in an announcement. “As a member of the Tuskegee Airmen, he helped to win the struggle, and regardless of spending eight months as a prisoner of struggle, he was an educator and made a long-lasting influence on numerous younger lives. He’s profoundly deserving of the popularity he’ll obtain when the plaza named in his honor opens subsequent 12 months. Our metropolis and our world are higher locations due to Lt. Col. Alexander Jefferson.”
Along with this, Jefferson was a lifelong Detroiter and impacted the group in a number of methods, together with spending time as a Detroit Public College science trainer and being one of many founders of the Detroit Chapter of the Tuskegee Airmen.
Jefferson turned 100 years-old in November, and on his birthday Detroit officers awarded him a key to town, shared plans to assemble Lt. Col. Alexander Jefferson Plaza.
Officers additionally rededicated Jefferson Subject in Rouge Park to Jefferson, as it’s the place he performed as a toddler and flew mannequin airplanes.
Jefferson was the final surviving member of the founding group that established the Detroit chapter of the Tuskegee Airmen.
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