Associated Press

NEW YORK –A former member of the pioneering black aviation group the Tuskegee Airmen has died. Audley Coulthurst was 92.

Audra Coulthurst says her father died Thursday at a Veterans Affairs facility in Brooklyn after suffering a cardiac arrest. Coulthurst enlisted in the Army in 1942 and became one of the first black military pilots in the U.S.

Although Tuskegee Airmen faced discrimination in a segregated military, the fighter squadrons were among the most respected in World War II.

Audra Coulthurst says after the war her father became a certified public account and served as controller of the National Urban League.

He also is survived by his wife, Matilda Coulthurst, and a son, Jeffrey Coulthurst.