Tuskegee Airman who distinguished himself as a pilot and educator

Lt Col Charles Dryden, who died on 24 June, 2008, was an American academic and a former member of the fabled Tuskegee Airmen.

The 332nd Fighter Group, based at Tuskegee, Alabama, was the group of black pilots who literally flew in the face of prejudice during the Second World War. Widespread opinion within the US Army Air Corps was that African-Americans weren't capable of flying fighter aircraft and they were regarded by some within the forces as an expendable force, thus receiving many of the less desirable missions available.

The popular belief that they flew their 200-plus escort missions without losing a single one of the bombers they were charged with protecting was later proved apocryphal. Nevertheless, their record was exemplary, with with 25 bombers lost and more than 108 kills to around 70 losses, an impressive tally considering the dangerous nature of their work.

Charles W Dryden was born in New York to Jamaican parents on 16 September, 1920. His parents were both educators and like all the other Tuskegee Airmen he was college educated, having studied political science at Hofstra University, Long Island, and public law at Columbia University – the Air Corps insisted on high standards of education to compensate for the perceived lack of inherent aptitude of black recruits.

He signed up to the Tuskegee Army Flying School in 1941 and graduated in the second class of black airmen in April the following year. Second Lieutenant Dryden was assigned to the 99th Fighter Squadron which served on the African Front.

The 99th were segregated on base from other pilots, given unenviable missions and subject to official investigations as to whether Negro pilots were capable of flying in combat. But after the formation of the 332nd Fighter Group, which first engaged enemy fighters in June 1943, the Tuskegee Airmen began to excel themselves.

Flying in missions around the Mediterranean, they frequently out-scored their white counterparts over Morocco and Italy. Bomber pilots began specifically requesting escort from the 'Redtails' (as they were known for the crimson paint on their aircraft's tails), often unaware that the pilots were black. The Luftwaffe, on the other hand, began referring to them as Schwarze Vogelmenschen, 'Black Birdmen'.

Dryden, whose call-sign was 'A-Train', ascended to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. Towards the end of the war he returned to the States to train other pilots at Tuskegee. When the fighting was over he became a professor of air science at Howard University but later flew in combat in Korea. He retired as a pilot in 1962 having racked up 4,000 hours of flying time in 21 years of service.

He was a member of several veterans groups, including the Atlanta Chapter Tuskegee Airmen which he helped found. He was also an inductee of the Aviation Hall of Fame of Georgia where he lived after his retirement. In 1996 he received an honorary doctorate from Hofstra University and the following year he published his autobiography, A-Train: Memoirs of a Tuskegee Airman.

Lt Col Dryden was also a strong supporter of the Museum of Aviation, near Robins Air Force Base in Georgia. After his death at the age of 87, the museum's president Pat Bartness said: “He lived a great life. He was an educator, pilot, writer. What a role model he was for anybody.”

“Chuck Dryden personified the true spirit of the airman,” said retired Air Force Lt Col Walter Randall. “America is much better because of people like him.”