Uli, an Igbo Community in Anambra State, honour a pilot who died flying food and medicine to a malnourished civilian population inside Biafra during the Nigerian Civil War (1967 – 1970).
The pilot, August Harvey Martin, died 30 June 1968 when his plane ran into a rainstorm at Uli airstrip while flying in relief materials.
Tragically, his wife Gladys was equally aboard the ill-fated flight and both of them perished in the freak accident.
The Uli Community honoured the brave pilot last week by renaming the town’s civic centre after him.
President General of Ulli Community announced the recognition for Martin’s humanitarian assistance to civilians in a now-trending social media post.
“After due consultations with the Igwe, Igwe In-Council, and major stakeholders, it was decided that our Civic Center should be named after him.”
“Thus, the Uli Civic Center shall from today, 15 July 2023, be named, called and addressed as ‘August Harvey Martin Civic Centre..”
The Uli Community also plans to erect a statue of the beneficiary in front of the Civic Center in due course.
Incidentally, this honour coincides with a New York Times obituary for the priest that coordinated most supplies of relief materials to the defunct Biafra.
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The supplies became a dire necessity when Nigerian authorities imposed a food blockade on the rebel region to force a quick surrender.
An estimated three million civilians died in the 27-month brutal war, most from diseases and malnutrition.
Millions more however survived through efforts by the humanitarian and aid agencies that defied federal restrictions to fly in food and medicine.
The food sorties flown by foreign aid pilots like Martin saved millions of civilians from starvation, following the Nigerian food blockade.
Uli airstrip provided a safe haven for planes that landed the supplies, often in the dead of night, and relying on oil lamps hurriedly lit alongside the runway.
Expectedly, those planes were piloted by very experienced and brave captains like August Martin.
About August Harvey Martin
August Harvey Martin is the first African American to attain the rank of Captain with a commercial airline, and the first black airline pilot in the United States. Born 31 August 1919 in Los Angeles, California, he was named for his birth month of August.
August Harvey was homeschooled by his mother, a professional teacher, until he turned 13. He started formal schooling when his parents moved to New York but returned to California to attend junior college and enroll in a flying programme. After he joined the US Army Air Corps in 1943, he was sent to Tuskegee Alabama for further flight training and received his wings in 1945.
Although he initially found it difficult to get a job as a commercial airline captain and did odd jobs to support his family until 1955 when Seaboard World Airlines employed him as a captain to become the first African American to hold the post in a commercial airline.
Captain Martin tragically died on a mercy flight to Africa which he volunteerd from time to time to help at risk communities. He was on leave from Seaboard when he volunteered to fly food and relief material to the embattled Biafran enclave. Flying with him were his actress wife, Gladys Frank Riddle Martin, as well as two representatives of the International Red Cross. All passengers perished in the flight after it ran into stormy weather while attempting to land at Uli airstrip, in the present day Anambra State of Nigeria.
There is a high school named after him in Jamaica, New York. The US Federal Aviation also published an activities book on his life to inspire minority children.
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