Alix Pasquet
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Alix Pasquet | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | November 14, 1919 |
| Died | July 29, 1958 (aged 38) |
| Allegiance |  Haiti United States |
| Branch | United States Army Air Forces Haitian Air Force |
| Rank | Captain |
| Conflicts | World War II |
Alix Pasquet (November 14, 1919 – July 29, 1958) was a World War II fighter pilot, one of only five Haitian members of the Tuskegee Airmen, a soccer star, and a political revolutionary.[1][2][3] He was killed while leading a coup attempt against Haitian President François Duvalier in 1958.
In 1942, Haitian President Élie Lescot implemented an aviation corps program[1] and chose 3 men out of 42 corps members to receive pilot training in Tuskegee, Alabama.[1] Alix Pasquet, a law graduate of École Millitaire d'Haiti and an officer in the Haitian army at the time, was one of these three chosen officers.[4]
The U.S. government needed the Haitians to organize a patrol of the Caribbean Sea during World War II and gave the Haitian government six airplanes. These airplanes could carry bombs and could be used to attack German submarines within that area. In February 1943, Pasquet, along with Raymond Cassagnol and Philippe Célestin, traveled from Port-au-Prince to Alabama to begin training at the famed Tuskegee Flight School.[5][6] The Tuskegee Airmen were renowned for their unmatched record of more than 200 combat missions with few losses.[7][8] Pasquet's training went through three stages—primary, basic, and advanced—and was extremely rigorous. He was trained by Jimmy Plinton Jr., who was reputed as one of the best trainers in the Tuskegee Air Force program, over the course of a 7-month program.[1]
The Afro-American Newspaper, one of the most widely circulated black newspapers at that time, ran a feature story on Pasquet, Cassagnol, and Célestin in April 1943, and the trio was noted for their aptitude with the English language.[6][9] Additionally since Pasquet and his compatriots were from Haiti, they were unfamiliar with the pervasive racial segregation and racism in the American South at that time and were forced to ride on Blacks-only transportation or sit in the back of trains.[6] As a result, they rarely ventured off-campus. Pasquet had a bad case of the flu and lost a month of his training, but ultimately graduated in August 1943 as a member of class 43G.[1]
