Audley Coulthurst, left, with Turkegee Airmen William Johnson, Wilfred R. DeFour and Herbert C. Thorpe, in June. (AP Photo/Hans Pennink)
NEW YORK – A former member of the pioneering black aviation group the Tuskegee Airmen has died. Audley Coulthurst was 92.
Audra Coulthurst says her father died Thursday at a Veterans Affairs facility in Brooklyn after suffering a cardiac arrest.
Coulthurst enlisted in the Army in 1942 and became one of the first black military pilots in the U.S.
Although Tuskegee Airmen faced discrimination in a segregated military, the fighter squadrons were among the most respected in World War II.
Audra Coulthurst says after the war her father became a certified public account and served as controller of the National Urban League.
He also is survived by his wife, Matilda Coulthurst, and a son, Jeffrey Coulthurst.
