The Tuskegee Airmen were the first African American military aviators in the United States Armed Forces. In the ranks of that famed group was one Cecil Countian, 2nd Lt. Calvin Theodore Warrick. He was born in Chesapeake City in 1921 and graduated from the George Washington Carver High School in Elkton.
After graduating, he worked at Triumph Industries in Elkton before going to the Army in 1942, where he was sent to Tuskegee to be trained for service in the Air Force. “Lt. Warrick is to be commended for he was one of the outstanding trainees of a class made up for the most part of college graduates,” TNT, the Triumph Company magazine, proudly wrote in May 1945.
“From Triumph and from Cecil County, Happy Landing Warrick,” the editor wrote.
Lt. Warrick passed away on March 26, 2008. He achieved distinction as an Air Force Second Lieutenant & Pilot during World War II, Find a Grave reports. He was buried at Quantico National Cemetery.
Family members still live in the county and his sister-in-law Jennie Matthews recently talked to me about the aviator’s pioneering experience as one of the Tuskegee Airmen
