SIERRA VISTA — Retired Tuskegee Airman George Washington Biggs will visit Cochise College later this month as part of the school’s annual Black History Month celebration.
Biggs will be the featured speaker at a 12:15 p.m. presentation Feb. 25 in the Student Union on the Sierra Vista Campus during the college’s black history information display, which runs from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. The event is free and open to the public, co-sponsored by the Student Government Association of Sierra Vista, the Tuskegee Airmen Group of Arizona and the Cochise College Cultural Diversity Committee.
George W. Biggs. (Contributed photo)
Biggs grew up in Nogales in a military family, joined the U.S. Air Force and was sent to the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama at age 18 to train as bomber escort during World War II. His father, who was stationed on Fort Huachuca for a time, and grandfather were both Buffalo Soldiers.
Biggs went on to graduate from navigation school in Hondo, Texas, in March 1945, and headed to bombardment school in San Angelo. Then the war ended, and Biggs never saw combat. He left the military, but re-enlisted and served through the Cold War, Korean War and Vietnam War.
Biggs, 87, retired from active military duty July 1, 1970, with two Distinguished Flying Crosses, seven Air Medals and multiple battle stars, and around 30 military citations and commendations. In 2007, he was honored among fellow Tuskegee Airmen during a Congressional Gold Medal ceremony in Washington. Biggs and his wife, Olga, still live in Nogales.
For more information about the Tuskegee Airmen, visit www.tuskegeeairmen.org and www.nps.gov/tuai. For more information about Black History Month events at Cochise College, email svstudentgov@cochise.edu.