Lt. Calvin Spann, an original Tuskegee airman who flew 26 combat missions over Nazi Germany, died Sunday at his home in Texas at the ago of 90, NBC reports. The New Jersey native volunteered for the Army Air Corps in 1943 and was soon after sent to Tuskegee, Alabama to join the first group of African-American military aviators in the history of the U.S. Armed Forces. In a 2012 interview with The Record, Spann said:
“I was determined, because from the very beginning — I don’t know why or where it came from — but the rumor was out there that because I was black, I couldn’t learn. I was determined to prove that wrong.”
Spann was sent to Italy after he finished training. NBC reports that during his time in Italy, Spann “participated in the longest bomber escort mission in 15th Air Force history: a 1,600-mile, round-trip mission, from Ramitelli, Italy, to Berlin.”
Though he never flew again after the war, in 2006, Span was inducted in to the New Jersey Aviation Hall of Fame and was later awarded a Congressional Gold Medal.