Alan Topping
Pan Am Museum
Foundation has recognized
several pioneering
black aviation pioneers.
Perhaps one of the
best known of these aviation
pioneers is Allan
Topping. Al Topping was
the Station Manager in
Saigon in the 70s when
the south fell to the Communist
north. His heroism
evacuating hundreds
of South Vietnamese Pan
Am personnel and their
extended families was
made into a film starring
James Earl Jones call
“Last Flight Out.”
Congressman Gregory
W. Meeks
C o n g r e s s -
man Gregory W.
Meeks, now in his
12th term, has devoted
his energy
and skill to serving
one of the most
diverse constituencies
in the nation
which include
JFK & LGA Airports.
His efforts
on behalf of his district, New York
City and State, and the nation as a
whole have earned Rep. Meeks the
respect of his constituents, New
Yorkers, and Democrats and Republicans
alike. He is known for
being an effective, principled, and
common sense leader. As a fervent
AIRPORT V 18 OICE, FEBRUARY 2021
supporter of the Affordable
Care Act
enacted under President
Obama, Congressman
Meeks believes
that it should
be enhanced. Congressman
Meeks
is part of the forward
thinking, progrowth
Democratic
members who comprise
the New Democrat Coalition
(NDC), the largest ideological caucus
in Congress. He co-chairs the
NDCC Trade Task Force.Congressman
Meeks is Chairman of the
House Foreign Affairs Committee,
the first black Member of Congress
to serve as Chair of that committee
Eugene Jacques Bullard
Eugene Jacques Bullard made history
as the first Black military pilot. He
was the first African-American military
aviator participating in more than
20 combat missions. However, because
the U.S. Army Air Service (precursor to
the U.S. Air Force) only accepted white
pilots, he was not permitted to volunteer.
The U.S. was training pilots for the
Lafayette Escadrille at the time. Bullard
served as a member of the 170th Infantry
Regiment with the French during
World War I.. Bullard was awarded
the Croix de guerre, Legion d’honneur
and numerous other awards for his service.
He is buried over in the Flushing
Cemetery in Queens.
Army Maj. Nancy C.
Leftenant-Colon
Ida Van Smith
Smith found the
Ida Van Smith Flight
Clubs in 1967. It introduced
children
aged three through
nineteen to the careers
that aviation
and space had to offer.
When Smith was fifty
years old, she was preparing
to enter a doctoral program
at New York University but instead,
she went to the LaGuardia Airport
to take her first lesson in a singleengine
airplane. Ida
Van Smith sponsored
aviation workshops at
York College.. At first,
she used personal
funds to establish her
flight clubs. The she
received funding from
corporate and private
donations and volunteer
efforts. Today, there are a total
of eleven Ida Van Smith Flight
Clubs located in New York, Texas,
and St. Lucia.
Army Maj. Nancy C.
Leftenant-Colon, the first
black nurse in the Reserve
or active-duty Army nurse
corps. She is an initial
member of the East Coast
Chapter of the Tuskegee
Airmen, Inc.
She became the first
Black member of the Regular
Army Nurse Corps.
She also served in the Air
Force as a flight nurse and
continued to make history
as the only woman to hold
the presidency of the Tuskegee Airmen,
Inc., from 1989-1991.
In Las Vegas during the August
2009 Tuskegee Airmen, Inc., convention,
she participated in the
concurrent promotion ceremony
for Brig. Gen. Stayce Harris, the
first black female to command an
operational flying wing in the Air
Force.
U.S. Navy Ensign
Matice Wright
U.S. Navy Ensign Matice Wright,
the U.S. Navy's first female naval
flight officer of African-American descent,
poses for a photograph. Wright
was assigned to Fleet Air Reconnaissance
Squadron 3 (VQ-3), which operated
the Boeing E-6A Mercury from
Naval Air Station Barbers Point, Hawaii
(USA). After serving on active
duty for eight years, Wright received a
presidential appointment and served
as a White House Fellow for the Treasury
Department. In a blog written for
the White House's website, Wright acknowledges
the "many African Americans
that donned a uniform and flew
before me like Gen. Chappie James
and Vice Adm. Walt Davis."