Thomas Franklin Vaughns, 99-Year-Old Former Mechanic for the Tuskegee Airmen, Just Received Five Army Medals

After his service in the Korean War, Thomas Franklin Vaughns was so desperate to come home that he didn’t stick around to collect his National Defense Service Medal. The Northwest Arkansas Democrat Gazette reports that now, at the age of 99, Vaughns has finally received it.

Along with the Korean War medal, Arkansas Congress members also presented Vaughns with four replacement awards for his service in World War II: the World War II Victory Medal, the American Campaign Medal-World War II, the Good Conduct Army Medal, and the Honorable Service Lapel Button. Vaughns had initially received these after the war, but misplaced them in the decades since.

Vaughns was a mechanic for the Tuskegee Airmen in World War II, serving the U.S. at a time when the military made it difficult for African Americans to do so. Segregation in the armed forces didn’t formally end until 1948, two years after Vaughns was discharged the first time.

“You are the ultimate patriot and the ultimate hero because you served when even by law and by practice many said you couldn’t and you shouldn’t,” Arkansas state representative Vivian Flowers said during the ceremony. “There was discrimination on every level of society and you served despite that.”

After the Korean War, Vaughns returned to Arkansas and started setting community youths on the path to success through his work with AmeriCorps VISTA, Delta Service Corps, and 4-H Clubs of America. Some of his former mentees even attended the medal ceremony. Ben McGee recalled how Vaughns helped him and his two brothers through college at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff (UAPB).

“I had 20 cents in my pocket. I got on this campus and never got a penny from home in four years,” McGee told the Northwest Arkansas Democrat Gazette. “I got on work study, got in the agriculture department, and worked every evening on the college farm.”

Vaughns firmly believes in the importance of education, and estimates that he’s probably helped 80 to 90 students pursue degrees at UAPB; he refers to them as “my kids.”

"He’s a hero in every sense of the word," Arkansas senator John Boozman said of Vaughns. "Not because of his military service—that’s part of it—but he’s a hero because of the way he’s lived his life."