Fred Lorenzo Brewer, Jr. lived a life that embodied the idea of aiming high. Born in 1921 and raised in segregated Charlotte, North Carolina, he grew up in a working-class family that valued education, faith, and perseverance. His father, Fred Sr., worked as a hotel bellman, and his mother, Janie, worked at the same hotel. To make ends meet, the family also took in two young men as boarders.
Despite the challenges of segregation, Brewer thrived. He attended high school, was active in his church, and became the first in his family to attend college. At Shaw University in Raleigh, he served as an assistant in the chemistry lab, edited the student journal, and represented the university at several conferences, including the national conference for Black youth in 1942. That same year, at 21, he registered for the draft and enlisted in the U.S. Army.
Joining the Tuskegee Airmen
Brewer joined a history-making group: the Tuskegee Airmen. At the time, opportunities for Black service members were severely limited. Before and during WWII, the U.S. armed forces were segregated, and Black troops often lacked equal access to training, advancement, and pay. In 1940, only there were only 124 Black pilots existed in the entire country—and none served in the military. Training for the first cohort of Black military pilots began at the Tuskegee Institute in 1941, and they began flying overseas in 1943.
The Tuskegee Airmen went on to earn an outstanding reputation escorting heavy bombers deep into Europe. Their skill and courage protected countless bomber crews from enemy fighters, even as they faced discrimination and unequal treatment at home.
Fred Brewer graduated from the Tuskegee program with honors and earned his commission as a 2nd lieutenant. He continued training in Michigan and South Carolina before deploying to Italy in mid-1944. There, he flew a P-51C Mustang he named Travelin’ Light.
A Mission Cut Short
On October 19, 1944, while escorting bombers to Germany, Brewer experienced mechanical trouble as his aircraft attempted to climb above a cloud front. He was never seen again. In late 1945, at just 23 years old, he was officially declared deceased.
A Homecoming Nearly Eight Decades Later
But Brewer’s story did not end there. For decades, his remains were unidentified and buried in a civilian cemetery in Italy. In 2011, investigators discovered parts of his aircraft, prompting renewed efforts. In 2022, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency tested remains from the cemetery and confirmed a match with his family’s DNA.
At last, in December 2023, Fred Brewer came home. His family descendants and fellow veterans honored him before his final burial at the Salisbury National Cemetery. His obituary captured the heart of his story: a young man who “made great achievements in a society that offered him very little to work with” and who “became the academic dream of a ‘black’ American family”—while always remaining Janie and Fred Sr.’s beloved son, and Gladys’s brother.
Brewer’s life reminds us that courage takes many forms: daring to dream, daring to serve, and daring to aim higher than the world around you believes you can.