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Edward Gibson, one of the three surviving Tuskeegee Airmen in South Carolina, passed away Monday, July 2. Here's an interview he did in June :
"'In his trademark red blazer, 89-year-old Charleston native, Edward Gibson, is more than proud of his time as Tuskegee Airman.
"I wanted to be given the opportunity to fight for my country just like anybody else, because it's my country too," he said.
He was a bombardier-navigator in WWII, and based in Walterboro at one point while fulfilling his childhood dream.
"As a boy, I would use my nickels and dimes to buy model airplanes," Gibson said. "I think that lived with me right on to a young man."
Gibson logged 2,300 flight hours, and was one of nearly a 1,000 segregated airmen that helped break down racial barriers in the military.
"You have to put up with a whole lot of things to get something you really want," he said.
In the midst of racism and discrimination, Gibson never stopped fighting to serve his country.
"They told me I was too ignorant." he said. "My people couldn't fly airplanes and do all these things, but I fought and fought until I got the opportunity."
In 2007 Gibson and the other airmen were awarded the Congressional Gold Medal.
"I wouldn't part with it for anything in the world," he said. "In order to get this medal, it wasn't easy, but I found you have to learn to persevere."
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If God had intended airplane engines to have horizontally-opposed cylinders, Pratt & Whitney would have built them that way.
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