2 Tuskegee airmen die in Los Angeles at age 91
Two members of the famed Tuskegee Airmen have died in Los Angeles.
Relatives say Clarence E. Huntley Jr. and Joseph Shambrey, both 91, died last Monday in their Los Angeles homes.
Huntley and Shambrey were friends who enlisted together in 1942. They served as mechanics in Italy during World War II and kept the planes of the all-black squadron in the air.
Huntley was a crew chief who worked on the squadron commander’s plane, earning him the nickname “Mother.”
The airmen faced racism at home.
Shambrey’s son, Tim Shambrey, says his father recalled that when squadron members got off a train in Alabama after the war, they had to pay for coffee that was being handed out to white servicemen for free.
