Lieutenant Colonel Charles W. Dryden (USAF-Retired) passed away Tuesday, June 24, 2008 after a brief illness.  A funeral service celebrating the life of Lieutenant Colonel Dryden was held on Tuesday, July 1, 2008, at Cascade United Methodist Church, 3144 Cascade Road SW, Atlanta, Georgia 30311.  He lay in state from 9:00 a.m. to 10:30 a.m.  The service was from 11:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.  He was eulogized by Reverend Andrew Young, former Mayor of Atlanta and former Ambassador to the United Nations.  A “fly-over”, in celebration of his life, took place immediately after the funeral service.

Charles Walter Dryden was born on September 16, 1920, in New York City to Jamaican parents, Charles Levy Tucker Dryden and Violet Buckley Dryden.  He lived out his dream of flying airplanes,  and wrote about it in his autobiography , “A-Train: Memoirs of a Tuskegee Airman”, which was published by the University of Alabama Press.   

Dryden earned a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Hofstra University (NY) and a MA in Public Law and Government from Columbia University.  In 1996, he was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters by Hofstra University.

In August 1941 Dryden was selected for Aviation Cadet training at the Tuskegee Army Flying School.  He was commissioned in 1942 as Second Lieutenant, in 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 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.

Lieutenant Colonel Dryden's 21-year military career included combat missions in Korea and duty assignments in Japan, Germany, and bases in the United States.  He was a Professor of Air Science at Howard University and retired as a command pilot with 4,000 hours of flying time.

He was a member of the board of directors of the Georgia Aviation Hall of Fame, Quality Living Services, and the Atlanta Chapter-Tuskegee Airmen, Inc. which he helped found in 1978.  He served as president, vice president, and national convention committee chairman.

Lieutenant Colonel Dryden was designated an “Outstanding Georgia Citizen” by the Secretary of State and inducted into the Georgia Aviation Hall of Fame.  President Bush conferred the Congressional Gold Medal on Lieutenant Colonel Dryden, and all Tuskegee Airmen, in the Capitol Rotunda in March 2007.  He was a member of the First Congregational Church often speaking to youth and college students encouraging them to seek careers in military and civilian aviation.

Lieutenant Colonel Dryden had three sons by a former marriage – Charles Walter Dryden, Jr. of Maui, Hawaii, Keith Cameron Dryden of Orlando, Florida, and Eric B. Dryden of Atlanta, Georgia.  He was father to his wife’s four children – George Bingham, Anthony Bingham, Kenneth Bingham and Cornelia-Rose White, all of Atlanta, Georgia.  They have five grandchildren.  He is also survived by his sister, Pauline Miles from Denver, Colorado and a host of relatives and friends.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that contributions be made to the Charles W. “A-Train” Dryden Legacy Foundation.