Dr. Granville Coggs, One of the Last Surviving Tuskegee Airmen, Dies at 93

Dr. Granville Coggs, a pilot who fought with the Allied powers in World War II, died on Tuesday, May 7, WCNC reports. The 93-year-old was one of the few Tuskegee Airmen still alive in 2019.

The Tuskegee Airmen made up the first group of African American pilots to serve in the United States military. They led more than 15,000 air attacks in Europe and North Africa during World War II and paved the way for the integration of the military in 1948. Just a handful of the original 355 pilots are still around, and a few of them live in San Antonio, Texas, where a chapter of the Tuskegee veterans' group is based.

Coggs was living in San Antonio with his wife, Maud, when he passed away. The couple met in college and married in 1946. Following the war, Coggs earned a degree from Harvard Medical School and worked as a diagnostic radiologist detecting breast cancer. He spent his later years teaching at the UT Health Science Center in San Antonio and competing as a track athlete in the Senior Olympics.

In March, the Tuskegee Airmen marked 78 years since the group was founded. A few surviving veterans, including Coggs, celebrated the occasion with a reception held at a San Antonio senior living facility.

[h/t WCNC]