94-year-old Tuskegee Airman vet taken on flight in World War II-era plane he used to fix

PEACHTREE CITY, Ga. — A Tuskegee airmen veteran took flight again Friday in a World War II-era plane.

Thomas Bristow of Suwanee was among the heroic African American airmen who served in the 1940′s. At Falcon Field in Peachtree City, he was back in the sky Friday.

Bristow told Channel 2′s Bryan Mims that the flight brought back many memories for him.

The Commemorative Air Force Airbase Georgia took him on a flight to recognize his service and to recognize Juneteenth.

The mission for Bristow way back in his younger days was to “keep ‘em flying.”

“As long as we kept the planes flying,” Bristow said.

He was among the storied Tuskegee Airmen, serving as a mechanic in the years after World War II. He’s 94 years old now, and Mims found him Friday morning seated in a rocking chair flanked by admirers.

Bristow was in a hangar about to board a P-51 Mustang, a fighter plane that proved invaluable to Allied forces during the war. Bristow worked on those planes and kept ‘em flying.

“It’ll be something that takes me back many years,” Bristow said.

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John Currenti is the pilot taking him back those many years.

“You take an iconic aircraft, and you take an iconic veteran, and you put that thing together, it’s just something you have to do,” Currenti told Mims.

Bristow grew up in Jim Crow-era Virginia, where he looked longingly at the sky.

“I said one day maybe I’ll get a chance to fly, too,” Bristow said.

As African Americans, he said the Tuskegee Airmen had to soar in everything they did.

“We always had to do extra things to be recognized. We had to prove ourselves. By the grace of God, we did,” Bristow said.

Mims asked Bristow how he proved himself as a Tuskegee airman, and here’s the answer: “By being a gentleman.”

The Commemorative Air Force Airbase Georgia will perform a flyover for the Juneteenth parade in Atlanta on Saturday.

Friday’s flight lasted about 20 minutes. Mims asked Bristow what it was like. He said it was “beautiful, beautiful.”

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