Lieutenant-Colonel Lee Archer

In an era when racial discrimination was formal military policy and casual bigotry the norm, Lee Archer shot down stereotypes as surely as he shot down five enemy planes in combat during World War II.

Born in Yonkers and reared in Harlem, Archer quit NYU in 1941 to enlist in the Army Air Corps. But the official War Department view was that blacks lacked the intelligence, character and leadership to fly in combat.

Undeterred, Archer joined the Tuskegee Airmen, a segregated Air Corps unit that escorted bombers in raids over Africa, the Mediterranean and Europe. Of 112 enemy planes downed by the airmen, five kills were credited to Archer - making him the nation's first black ace pilot.

He retired from the military in 1970, having flown 169 combat missions - three times the typical number for white pilots - and attained the rank of lieutenant colonel. Then Archer took his leadership skills and talent for breaking barriers into the business world.

He became one of the few black vice presidents of a major American corporation, at General Foods; oversaw, among other enterprises, Essence Communications and Black Enterprise magazine, and helped create what was then the nation's largest black-owned and -managed company, TLC Beatrice. And then, after retiring in 1987, he founded his own venture capital firm.

Last year, Archer joined fellow Tuskegee Airmen as guests at the inauguration of President Obama. It was a fitting honor for this pioneer, who died Wednesday at age 90.

Let all salute his heroism and his service.

New York Daily News

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