A World War II veteran and one of the original Tuskegee Airmen turned 100 years old over the weekend.
Law enforcement, firefighters and the Tuskegee Airmen East Coast Chapter gathered in a parade Sunday to celebrate Dr. Shelton Ivan Ware in Montgomery County.
"His history is our history," said Jerome Hodge, president of the Tuskegee Airmen East Coast Chapter. "But more than that, at 100 years old, he's been here a long time, and he's still here and so we just want to congratulate him, we just want to take a minute too to celebrate him, and not just him but that whole era of our World War II veterans."
According to his biography, Ware was born in Neptune, New Jersey on January 29, 1923.
While college attendance gave him a legitimate reason “to duck the draft” as others had done, he instead joined the US Army Enlisted Reserve Corps on April 1, 1942, and reported for active duty in 1943.
He was assigned to the 3420th Ordnance Medium Automotive Maintenance Company in England in November 1943 and was on Omaha Beach in Normandy, France on July 3, 1944. His unit “kept the wheels rolling and the guns firing” as part of the renowned Red Ball Express.
Ware served a total of 26 months as a Weapons and Vehicle Maintenance Technician in England, France, Luxembourg, Belgium, and Germany during WWII. After hostilities, he served another six months of Occupation Duty in Munich, Germany.
He earned Service Stars for the Battle of Normandy and the Battle of Northern France.
Ware was honorably discharged in June 1946 at the rank of Staff Sergeant.
He still had two years of junior college credits when he returned to the U.S., so he enrolled at Howard University utilizing the GI Bill. Ware had originally intended to enroll at the law school but was encouraged by the dean to consider a Liberal Arts degree, as he could begin his studies immediately.
He graduated from Howard University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Government (cum laude), and having completed the Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps program, was commissioned as a USAF 2nd Lieutenant in June of 1948.
Ware was in the first class of AFROTC at Howard and had served as Cadet Battalion Commander. Ivan and five of his Howard University classmates reported to Col. B.O. Davis, Jr. and the 332nd Fighter Wing at Lockbourne Army Air Base (later Lockbourne Air Force Base) on July 13, 1948.
Following a three-year tour of duty as Director of Military Training at Wiesbaden Air Base, Germany, Ivan served three years in the early 1960s with the Tuskegee Institute AFROTC Program in Alabama.
Ware later returned to Washington, D.C. as an AFROTC professor of aerospace studies at Howard University from 1969 to 1972.
He retired from the USAF in September of 1974 with thirty years of military service.
Read more about Ware's biography here.
The Tuskegee airmen were Black pilots and flying units with the U.S. Army Air Forces. Their bravery and success helped pave the way for the desegregation of the military.