{"id":34619,"date":"2018-01-10T22:47:32","date_gmt":"2018-01-10T22:47:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/airforcetimes\/uncategorized\/2018\/01\/10\/tuskegee-airman-thomas-ellis-dies-at-97\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T21:00:50","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T21:00:50","slug":"tuskegee-airman-thomas-ellis-dies-at-97","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/airforcetimes\/news\/your-air-force\/2018\/01\/10\/tuskegee-airman-thomas-ellis-dies-at-97\/","title":{"rendered":"Tuskegee Airman Thomas Ellis dies at 97"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Former Sgt. Maj. Thomas Ellis, a Tuskegee Airman, died Jan. 2 of a stroke in a San Antonio hospital. He was 97.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Ellis will be buried with full military honors on Friday at the Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery. He was one of six surviving Tuskegee Airmen living in San Antonio, according to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.expressnews.com\/news\/local\/article\/Thomas-Ellis-a-Tuskegee-Airman-is-dead-at-97-12484551.php\" title=\"\" class=\"\" target=\"_blank\">San Antonio Express-News.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/airforcetimes\/news\/your-air-force\/2017\/05\/21\/red-tails-reunited-pioneering-tuskegee-airmen-proudly-look-back\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/air-tuskegee-2.jpg.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">Red Tails reunited: Pioneering Tuskegee Airmen proudly look back<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">Col. Charles McGee \u2014 an original Tuskegee Airman, veteran of three wars, and aviation legend \u2014 still clearly remembers the day he shot down a German Luftwaffe fighter.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Drafted in 1942, Ellis was proud of his unit \u2014 the first all-black Army Air Forces unit \u2014 and was dedicated to proving the worth of his squadron during a racially tense time in the country\u2019s history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;They had the cream of the crop in our outfit because we had to do everything better than the other outfits on account of our race,&#8221; Ellis said during a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aetc.af.mil\/News\/Article-Display\/Article\/262248\/tuskegee-airmen-blazed-trail-of-excellence-before-civil-rights-movement\/\" title=\"\" class=\"\" target=\"_blank\">2010 event honoring Tuskegee Airmen at Joint Base San Antonio-Randolph Air Force Base<\/a>. &#8220;They said we couldn&#8217;t fly, we couldn&#8217;t do this, we couldn&#8217;t do that. We proved them wrong.&#8221;<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Ellis added that the Tuskegee Airmen excelled in their primary mission of escorting bombers \u2014 losing not one bomber to enemy fighter planes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cNo one will ever beat our record,\u201d he said. \u201cYou won\u2019t escort that many bombers without losing one of them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/militarytimes\/off-duty\/military-culture\/2018\/01\/11\/remembering-tuskegee-airman-thomas-ellis\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/150504-F-YQ806-001.JPG.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">Remembering Tuskegee Airman Thomas Ellis<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">It is with great sadness that we report on the 2nd of January, Thomas Ellis, one of six remaining Tuskegee airmen in San Antonio, passed away from a stroke.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cHe was very opinionated, very outspoken,\u201d Rick Sinkfield, national spokesman for Tuskegee Airmen Inc., which has 1,400 members across the country, around 20 of them pilots from the legendary unit, told the Express News. \u201cHe realized he was in the segregated military at the time and so he was very aware all eyes were on those guys to do well.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">After serving, Ellis worked for U.S. Postal Service and performed in a string quartet. He was known to all as approachable and friendly. According to his daughter, Janice Stallings, so friendly \u201cthat he would slow you down if you tried to take him someplace.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Former Sgt. Maj. Thomas Ellis will be laid to rest Friday at the Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery in San Antonio, Texas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":38447,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":67,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":{"2":{"categories":["your-military","news"],"primary_category":"your-military"},"5":{"categories":["your-army","news","daily-news-roundup","newsletters"],"primary_category":"your-army"},"6":{"categories":["your-marine-corps","news","daily-news-roundup","newsletters"],"primary_category":"your-marine-corps"},"7":{"categories":["your-navy","news","daily-news-roundup","newsletters"],"primary_category":"your-navy"}}},"categories":[101,16,26,67],"tags":[],"coauthors":[1178],"class_list":["post-34619","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news-roundup","category-news","category-newsletters","category-your-air-force"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"2HKIKDZ4N5H45AM6O67KMTY5J4","arc_canonical_url":"\/news\/2018\/01\/10\/tuskegee-airman-thomas-ellis-dies-at-97\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.0 (Yoast SEO v28.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Tuskegee Airman Thomas Ellis dies at 97 - Air Force TImes<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Former Sgt. 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