Arkansas Native Tuskegee Airman Celebrates 104th Birthday

Sergeant First Class Thomas Franklin Vaughns (born July 7, 1920) recently celebrated his 104th birthday and has accomplished many great things during his lifetime. The American veteran was a member of the famed group of World War II African American pilots known as the Tuskegee Airmen, serving in both WWII and the Korean War.

Thomas, born to Harrison and Dessie Vaughns, grew up on a 50-acre farm in Felton, Arkansas in rural Lee County. He attended Marianna High School where he was drafted his senior year and reported for duty at Camp Robinson in 1942. Completing his basic training in Bakersfield, California, serving in the Fifty-Fourth Aviation Group, he was trained to be a mechanic for B-25 bombers, and was assigned to the 2143rd Army Air Forces Base Unit in Tuskegee,  where he served throughout the war. 

After WWII, Vaughns competed his high school education in St, Louis, Missouri and returned home to Pine Bluff, Arkansas where he attended college at Arkansas Agricultural, Mechanical, and Normal College (University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff) graduating in 1950. He worked for the Arkansas Department of Veterans Affairs, teaching agricultural skills to former soldiers while continuing to serve in the Army Reserve. During the Korean War, Vaughns was stationed stateside at Fort Hood, Texas, serving as a supply sergeant with the Twenty-Ninth Heavy Tank Battalion and was discharged in 1952 at the rank of sergeant first class.

Vaughns received several military decorations, including the World War II Victory Medal, the American Campaign Medal-World War II, the Good Conduct Army Medal, the Honorable Service Lapel Button, and the National Defense Service Medal for his service during the Korean War. 

Sergeant Vaughns established the first African-American Farmers Market in Crittenden County after multiple failed attempts for black farmers to sell their produce in the local markets. He went on to establish a similar program in Jefferson county as his programs provided employment for 1400 people. His career included twenty years of service with the Cooperative Extension Service and twelve years as a horticultural specialist at UAPB. The city of Pine Bluff honored the veteran by naming August 21 as Thomas Franklin Vaughns Day, as he was inducted into the Arkansas Agriculture Hall of Fame in 2020.

Vaughns shared three children (a son and two daughters) with his late wife Luvada who passed away in 2001.