Major Victor Terrelonge was born in St Andrew, Jamaica, and grew up in Morant Bay before migrating to the USA. 

Victor Terrelonge was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal on March 29, 2007

Austin McKenzie was born in Cuba of Jamaican parentage.

Austin McKenzie was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal on March 29, 2007

Retired Lt. Col. Charles "Chuck" Dryden, one of the first of the black World War II pilots known as the Tuskegee Airmen, has died. He was 87. Dryden died June 24 in Atlanta of natural causes, said Roger Neal, a spokesman for the National Museum of Patriotism in Atlanta. Dryden was on the museum's board of directors.  Retired Lt. Col. Charles "Chuck" Dryden, one of the first of the black World War II pilots known as the Tuskegee Airmen, has died. He was 87. Dryden died June 24 in Atlanta of natural causes, said Roger Neal, a spokesman for the National Museum of Patriotism in Atlanta. Dryden was on the museum's board of directors.

"He was not just a part of American history; he helped to make it," museum founder Nick Snider said. Dryden's 21-year military career included combat missions in Korea and assignments in Japan, Germany and at U.S. bases. He retired from the Air Force in 1962. About 1,000 pilots trained as a segregated unit with the Army Air Forces at the Tuskegee Army Flying School in Alabama during World War II. Dryden was selected for aviation cadet training in August 1941, only a month after the program began and four months before the U.S. entered World War II. He was commissioned in April 1942 as a second lieutenant. Only five pilots had earned their wings ahead of Dryden's class of three. Dryden was a member of the famed 99th Pursuit Squadron and later the 332nd Fighter Group, which served in North Africa and Italy. His P-40 fighter was nicknamed "A-Train," and Dryden titled his autobiography "A-Train: Memoirs of a Tuskegee Airman." It was published by the University of Alabama Press in 1997.Last year, President Bush and Congress awarded the Tuskegee Airmen the Congressional Gold Medal. Some 300 surviving airmen -- including Dryden -- gathered in Washington for the ceremony in March 2007. While attending the Washington gathering, Dryden told the Associated Press that he had mixed feelings about the event because it came so many years after the war. But he added that the medal helped convince him that the country does recognize the airmen's contributions. "It's really something," he said. He recalled that after returning from his overseas service, he was stationed in Walterboro, S.C., where he saw German prisoners of war get privileges in theaters and cafeterias that were denied to black soldiers. Dryden was born in 1920 in New York City to Jamaican parents. He earned a bachelor's degree in political science from Hofstra University and a master's in public law and government from Columbia University. He later became a professor of air science at Howard University and worked for Lockheed Martin in Marietta, Ga. Survivors include his wife of 32 years, Marymal Morgan Dryden, three sons from his first marriage, three stepsons, a stepdaughter, a sister and five grandchildren.

Dr. David Watson Daly Dickson, the first black president of a New Jersey state college or university, died on Dec. 10. Cause of death was not released. He was 84. The son of Jamaican immigrants, Dickson received a bachelor's degree from Bowdoin College and a master's from Harvard University. During World War II, he served in the medical division of the segregated Army Air Forces unit based in Tuskegee, Ala. When the war ended, Dickson returned to Harvard to earn his doctorate in English literature. An educational trailblazer and scholar of Renaissance and biblical literature, Dickson spent 15 years teaching at Michigan State University, where he was the institution's first black faculty member. He worked in administrative positions at Northern Michigan University, Federal City College and Stony Brook University in New York before becoming the first black president of Montclair State University in New Jersey. From 1973 to 1984, Dickson raiseed academic standards and developed 30 new undergraduate and graduate programs. Student enrollment tripled and 11 new buildings were constructed during his tenure. The School of Humanities and Social Sciences building was named in his honor. After stepping down from his post, Dickson became a distinguished service professor and taught at the university until his retirement in 1989. He won the Michigan State University's first Distinguished Faculty Award in 1952 and the Distinguished Bowdoin Educator Award in 1971. He also published several books, including "Memoirs of an Isolate." Posted at 11:37 PM | Tributes (1)

Ivan James McRae, Jr. (age 75) who lives in Dix Hills, NY and he was a 2nd Lieutenant who co-piloted B-25 Mitchell Bombers during his days at Tuskegee. He was trained at a later stage of WWII so he never actually went overseas or into battle. His father (Ivan Sr.) was a proud Jamaican immigrant who convinced local NY congressmen to have my father accepted into the Tuskegee program during his college years at Columbia University (he eventually graduated at the top of his Mechanical Engineering class and was in the defense industry his whole career). While he has shared some of his experiences with me and my older brothers, he has never been a "conversationalist" so I have never gotten much out of him. However, he has kept in contact with a couple of Tuskegee colleagues over the years (one of which is the father of former NBA player James Edwards) and has attended several reunions. I believe the last one he attended was in San Francisco around 1986 or so. As a tribute to him back then, I built a model replica of a B-25 Mitchell Bomber which he still holds dear to him. He also has a number of squadron photos in his collection (he has been an avid amateur photographer over the years) and some day I'd like to make them available to any interested parties (if my father permits). It's definitely a proud history that should never be forgotten. Thanks and take care. As a side note, my mother (who is 50% Cherokee, 50% black & white) met my father during his Tuskegee training days while he was on weekend leave. He and a couple Tuskegee Airmen attended a party at all-women's Bennett College in Greensboro, NC where my mother was a student. The stories my mother tells (now she's a talker!) are quite entertaining re: their early dates and how strict the Dean of Bennett College was re: on-campus relationships. On another unrelated note, if you're familiar with the late Jazz singer Carmen McRae, she and my father were first cousins. Brian McRae (age 35), Sr. Technical Officer, Chase Manhattan Bank (New York, NY),.