Stewart, Harry T., Jr.
(born: 1924)Harry T. Stewart, Jr. was born in Newport News, VA. In 1948, Stewart, a decorated member of the Tuskegee Airmen, was sighted falling from the eastern Kentucky sky by 9-year-old Callie Daniels, who mistook his parachute for a white eagle. Stewart's P-47 fighter plane crashed into a hilltop in Butcher Hollow, and Stewart landed beneath a rock cliff. His leg was broken in two places.
Young Callie's father, Lafe, found Stewart and took him to the house, where his wife Mary cleaned and bandaged Stewart's leg. Stewart was given moonshine, which he mistook for water, to help ease the pain; afterward he was taken to the Paintsville Clinic, where members of the U. S. Air Force would later arrive to transport him to Ohio.
Over the years, the story was told that the Air Force shot down a B-52 bomber that had been stolen by a black man. Stewart was actually on a simulated armed reconnaissance from Columbus, OH to Greenville, SC when his plane had engine failure and he had to bail out.
For more see L. Mueller, "WWII Pilot to Revisit Site of Kentucky Crash - Over Van Lear, Tuskegee Pilot Bailed Out in '48," Lexington Herald-Leader, 7/6/2005.
