Lt. Col. Charles Drummond Jr.; Tuskegee Airman

Lt. Col. Charles Harris Drummond Jr., 78, member of the Tuskegee Airmen pilot corps of World War II. A native of Boston, Drummond joined the Army in 1939 to be a clarinetist in the Army band. But after Pearl Harbor, he signed up for both officer and flight training to get out of the infantry. During that war, Drummond flew B-25s in the 477th Bomber Group. He was recalled into the Army during the Korean War, in which he flew L-19 support craft and helicopters. Educated at Boston University Law School, Drummond retired from the Army in 1970. Eight years ago, he founded the Summer Flight Academy at an abandoned Oakland airport to train underprivileged young people to fly airplanes. “If they don’t behave in class, they don’t get to fly,” he told the San Francisco Examiner after starting the school to increase the number of potential commercial pilots and provide educational and character-building opportunities for the youngsters. “That was my idea. I guess it’s the colonel in me.” On Nov. 2 in Monterey, of a stroke following surgery.