When Lloyd “Scotty” Hathcock looked around the POW camp near Sagan, Germany, he was the only black face among the thousands held in Germany’s Stalag Luft III.

A pilot in the all-black 301st squadron of the 332nd fighter group – the legendary Tuskegee Airmen – Hathcock had volunteered to fly a P-47 fighter to a new base in Ramitelli, Italy, while the rest of his unit went by truck. A man who loved to fly and spent his leave time in the air while his friends went into town, he had the most hours in that aircraft.

Learn more about Lt Lloyd Hathcock in Tuskegee Airmen Profiles!

See items on display in the WWII Gallery at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force.