Tuskegee Airman Dr. Calvin Moret dies
22nd September 2015 · 0 Comments
The New Orleans community is mourning the passing of Dr. Calvin Moret, a World War II veteran and the last-known living Tuskegee Airman in Louisiana, who passed away Sept. 11 at the age of 90.
Moret earned his pilot’s wings at 19 and was later awarded a Congressional Gold Medal for his service to the U.S. during the second World War.
He was part of a larger movement of Black solders who served in the U.S. Armed Forces during World War II and proved that men of color possessed the same courage, valor and commitment to serving the United States as their white counterparts.
After returning from the war and experiencing freedoms in Europe that they had never enjoyed in the U.S., these Black soldiers laid the foundation for the Historic Civil Rights Movement. As noted in the annals of Black history, the mantra of these soldiers of color was “We return, We return from fighting. We return fighting.”
In Jan. 2012, Mayor Mitch Landrieu honored Calvin Moret in his office at City Hall. As The Louisiana Weekly reported, Moret took the opportunity to do more than receive the mayor’s gifts and praise, and he turned the spotlight on the crime initiatives in New Orleans by reading a short composition during the ceremony.
Moret, a New Orleans native, was a member of the famed group of Black pilots who fought in World War II and were the first pilots in the United States military. He trained at the Tuskegee Institute in 1943 to 1944, and was commissioned as a flight officer in Nov. of 1944. In 2007, he received the Congressional Gold Medal.
Moret said in 2012 that he had been receiving more attention recently because of the release of the feature film Red Tails, which is an account of the Tuskegee Airmen.
At the ceremony, Mayor Landrieu and then New Orleans City Council president Jackie Clarkson presented Moret with a ceramic Zulu coconut, a wooden replica of the planes he flew in World War II, a football signed by the entire New Orleans Saints team and many kind words.
“You have blessed us with your courage and your tenacity,” said Landrieu. “You’ve been an ambassador for the city of New Orleans.”
Clarkson also praised Moret.
“I want to thank you for your dedication to the World War II Museum,” Clarkson said.
The mayor also presented Moret with a key to the city.
“There’s nothing in the vault, but you can try,” joked Landrieu to which Moret replied, “I read the newspapers.”
Moret took the opportunity to read a short composition on the crime rates in New Orleans.
“Can’t cash this at the bank, but it might be more important,” Moret said of his letter. “Crime reduction will never be fixed by agencies called after the fact.”
Moret criticized the lack of God and morality in public places and said crime will not be reduced by building more jails and adding more people to the police force. Instead, it needs to be stopped before it begins, when young men and women are growing up.
Landrieu thanked him and said, “I think we all have to be called to … making our streets safe.”
After the ceremony, Moret spoke at length about reducing the crime in New Orleans.
“Killing someone is not the way to solve problems,” he said. “[Criminals should ask] ‘What benefit?’ Is the world better off because they killed someone?”
Moret said the crime needs to be quelled before it begins, not after, and one way to do that is to have more direction in life from a young age.
“If we can decide early in life what we want to do with our lives, we can focus,” he said.
He said this is one reason he enjoyed telling his story and all the attention that Red Tails has brought to him.
“I praise [George Lucas] … for the faith he evidently has that this is a story worth telling,” he said.
And Moret said there is a lot that isn’t in the history books that needs to be told. For example, something as simple as the fact he would have to be able to identify enemy aircraft and allied aircraft within a tenth of a second while in the air, or the fact that “66 Black American pilots died over Europe defending the bombers they were assigned to.”
He said so much isn’t written down that he feels lucky to be able to tell the story, especially since the Tuskegee Airmen cannot pass on their experience in full.
“We can’t [preserve] the Tuskegee Airmen,” he said. “Once we’re gone, we’re gone.”
So he took his responsibility seriously, making appearances across the state and telling stories that go otherwise untold. For example, when he returned from the war in which he would later earn a Congressional Gold Medal, he was not allowed to enroll at Delgado Community College to learn to work at typewriter.
“I wasn’t good enough because my skin was not the right color,” Moret said.
Regardless, Moret said he thinks the Tuskegee Airmen were on the forefront of the Civil Rights Movement.
“Not to take away from Martin Luther King or Rosa Parks, but we were opening doors before,” he said.
The ceremony closed with Moret, who sang with a chorus at the World War II museum, singing “Hold Out Your Hand,” the lines of which were fitting for the ceremony.
“You will find many friends all around you if you hold out your hand all the way,” he crooned. “There is hope for tomorrow.”
On Friday, Sept. 11, 2015, Moret passed away after a battle with cancer. He leaves behind a sterling example of personal excellence and a legacy of courage, selflessness, love and honor.
“I want people to know that these were Americans serving the country as valiantly as any other service member who ever lived and died,” Moret told WDSU in an interview. “There were 66 Tuskegee Airmen who did not make it back here. That’s often not divulged, but that’s a fact that we died for the country.”
“We served in the military, but we served with purpose for the freedoms we enjoy,” Moret told WDSU in an earlier interview. “They did not just happen. They were fought for.”
Funeral services were held for Calvin Moret on Friday, Sept. 18, at Corpus Christi-Epiphany Catholic Church, followed by interment at St. Louis Cemetery No. 3.
This article originally published in the September 21, 2015 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
