Tuskegee Airman Lt. Col. Charles W. “A-Train” Dryden Has Taken His Final Flight
 

ATLANTA, GA - Lieutenant Colonel Charles W. Dryden (USAF-Retired) passed from this life on Tuesday, June 24, 2008 after a brief illness. He was approaching his 88th birthday this coming September; and Chuck and his bride of 32 years, Marymal Morgan Dryden, never stopped living life to its fullest.

Funeral services celebrating the life of Lt. Col. Dryden was held on Tuesday, July 1, 2008 at Cascade United Methodist Church, 3144 Cascade Road, SW; Atlanta, GA 30311. He was eulogized by The Reverend Andrew Young, former Mayor of Atlanta and former Ambassador to the United Nations.

Charles Walter Dryden was born on September 16, 1920, in New York City to Jamaican parents, Charles Levy Tucker Dryden and Violet Buckley Dryden. In his book, A-Train: Memoirs of a Tuskegee Airman, Dryden recalls, “Air’pwane! Air’pwane!” is how this two-year-old, tearing paper into bits and throwing them into the air, told the world that he wanted to fly airplanes.” And after many a trial and tribulation, flying airplanes is what Chuck Dryden did. He lived out his dream. And then he lived to write about it. After his book was published, he realized a renaissance in his career and enjoyed the celebrity which his stellar career afforded him.

Following graduation from Peter Stuyvesant High School in New York City Dryden earned a BA in Political Science from Hofstra University. He later earned an MA in Public Law and Government from Columbia University. However, one of the highlights of his career came in 1996 he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters by Hofstra University.

In August 1941 Dryden was selected for Aviation Cadet training at the Tuskegee Army Flying School in Alabama. He was commissioned on April 29, 1942 as a Second Lieutenant in a class of only three graduates, which was the second class of black pilots to graduate in the history of the U.S. Army Air Corps. He was a member of the famed 99th Pursuit Squadron, later the 332 Fighter Group, which served in North Africa, Sicily and Italy during World War II. On June 9, 1943, then Lieutenant Charles Dryden, in his P-40 nicknamed “A-Train,” led a flight of six pilots engaging enemy fighter aircraft in aerial combat over Pantelleria, Sicily. It was the first time in aviation history that black American pilots of the U.S. Army Air Corps engaged aircraft in combat.

Colonel Dryden’s 21-year military career also included combat missions in Korea and duty assignments in Japan, Germany and ten different bases in the United States. He also served as a Professor of Air Science at Howard University and retired in 1962 as a Command pilot with 4,000 hours flying time.

Colonel Dryden has three sons by a former marriage – Charles Walter Dryden, Jr. of Maui, Hawaii; Keith Cameron Dryden of Orlando; and Eric B. Dryden of Atlanta. He helped his wife to guide and support the lives of her four children – George Bingham, Anthony Bingham, Kenneth Bingham and Cornelia-Rose White, all of Atlanta. They have five grandchildren. He is also survived by his sister, Pauline Miles from Denver, CO. and a host of relatives and friends.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that contributions be made to the Atlanta Chapter Tuskegee Airmen, Inc. Lt. Col. Charles “A-Train” Dryden Education Award Fund (contact Mr. Floyd Stanfield, president at 404-217-6393) or Quality Living Services (contact Ms. Irene Richardson at 404-699-1686).

 

The HoSang Family Express Appreciation

Dear Customers, Friends, Relatives and Employees:

It is with deep sincerity that we, the HoSang family, express our sincere appreciation to our many friends, business associates and others for your loving and caring demonstrated at the time of Brian’s untimely passing. Rest assured, it was your spirit, enthusiasm and support in more ways than one that brought us through and continue to sustain us.

For this, we are eternally grateful, and must say, it reinforce the love we have garnered over the years from you.
I do hope this pain we are enduring will never enter your own lives.
Blessings, love and peace.

Sincerely,
Vincent HoSang, OD
 

Think On These Things Change
 

We must understand that any change of the norm, the status quo, the accepted, will cause resistance from within and without the group, and hesitation among many.

The new order must be prepared to deal with resistance of the old order. In a new time of growing urbanization and industrial expansion existing exploitation must be challenged and expect change slowly.

Woodrow Wilson one of the past presidents of the United States of America said, “If you want to make enemies try to change the accepted.” Someone also said, “The guardians of the status quo will lash out with denunciation against the person or organization that they consider most responsible for the emergence of the New Order.”

r Expect the old to seek compromise rather than full change
r Expect the division of leadership
r Expect the enemy of false rumors
r Expect the phrase, “If it is not broken, then don’t fix it.”
r Expect some to say, “We have always done it this way.”

Always remember that one disappointment produces despair, and despair to bitterness and bitterness to blindness, and blindness to assumed death.

When Pharaoh wanted to keep the people in slavery he kept them fighting among themselves. Leaders are change makers. Leaders help followers to achieve goals that they think was impossible. They plough new grounds for change as they hold the banner ahead of the line saying, “We can, We must, We do, and Thank God we have done it.”

After the awareness to change
A few commitments to change
Inform and encourage others to change
Change must move gradually

Dr. King once said, “Morality cannot be legislated, but behavior can be regulated. The law may not change the heart, but it can restrain the lawless.” (1959)

THINK ON THESE THINGS!