Lt. Colonel Charles A. Lane was born in 1925 in St. Louis, Missouri. Lane entered the Cadet Corps at Tuskegee Institute in Alabama in 1943. After graduating from flying class 44-H, he joined the Army Air Corps, flying with the 99th Pursuit Fighter Squadron, 332nd Fighter Group, on twenty-six combat missions in Italy during World War II. This African-American unit, known as the “Red Tail” group because of their distinctive aircraft paint scheme, established the unprecedented record of flying more than 1,500 missions in Europe and North Africa, losing only ninety-eight pilots.

Lane later served as a Communications/Electronics officer and worked for twelve years in Air Force Special Security, serving in Vietnam from 1964–1968 and Guam from 1968–1970. He flew his final mission in the B-52 Stratofortress, retired in 1970, and moved to Omaha, Nebraska, where he managed the Greater Omaha Community Action Program until 1992. Lane currently represents Omaha’s Alfonza Davis Chapter on the Tuskegee Airmen, Inc. National Board of Directors.

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