{{Short description|Tuskegee Airman and coup plotter (1919–1958)}} {{Infobox military person | name = Alix Pasquet | birth_date = November 14, 1919 | death_date = July 29, 1958 (aged 38) | birth_place = Haiti | death_place = Port-au-Prince, Haiti | burial_place = | burial_label = | image = Alix Pasquet.jpg | caption = | allegiance = {{flagcountry|Haiti}}<br/>{{flagcountry|United States}} | branch = United States Army Air Forces<br/>Haitian Air Force | service_years = | rank = Captain | unit = | battles = World War II | awards = | other_work = }} '''Alix Pasquet''' (November 14, 1919 – July 29, 1958) was a World War II fighter pilot, one of only five Haitian members of the Tuskegee Airmen, a soccer star, and a political revolutionary.<ref name=cassagnol>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7L_yreK_I-YC&q=pasquet |title=Mémoires D'un Révolutionnaire |author=Raymond Cassagnol |publisher=Educa Vision Inc. |year=2003|isbn=9781584321729 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1958/07/30/archives/haitis-president-quells-revolt-leads-counterattack-on-foes-rebel.html |title=Haiti's President Quells Revolt; Leads Counter-Attack on Foes; Rebel Force Reported 'Wiped Out' in Battle in Capital—American Among the Dead HAITI'S PRESIDENT CRUSHES REVOLT |newspaper=The New York Times |date=July 30, 1958}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1166756/3/index.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100313024152/http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1166756/3/index.htm |url-status=dead |archive-date=March 13, 2010 |title=The Hero Who Vanished |newspaper=Sports Illustrated |date=March 8, 2010}}</ref> He was killed while leading a coup attempt against Haitian President François Duvalier in 1958.
==Fighter pilot== In 1942, Haitian President Élie Lescot implemented an aviation corps program<ref name="cassagnol"/> and chose 3 men out of 42 corps members to receive pilot training in Tuskegee, Alabama.<ref name=cassagnol/> Alix Pasquet, a law graduate of École Millitaire d'Haiti and an officer in the Haitian army at the time, was one of these three chosen officers.<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBlkAZkRrvQ Dead or Victorious but not prisoner]. ''Amistad Films''.</ref>
The U.S. government needed the Haitians to organize a patrol of the Caribbean Sea during World War II and gave the Haitian government six airplanes. These airplanes could carry bombs and could be used to attack German submarines within that area. In February 1943, Pasquet, along with Raymond Cassagnol and Philippe Célestin, traveled from Port-au-Prince to Alabama to begin training at the famed Tuskegee Flight School.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.tuskegee.edu/about_us/legacy_of_fame/tuskegee_airmen/tuskegee_airmen_pilot_listing.aspx |title=Tuskegee Airmen Pilot Listing |publisher=Tuskegee University |access-date=2012-12-19 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131203000349/http://www.tuskegee.edu/about_us/legacy_of_fame/tuskegee_airmen/tuskegee_airmen_pilot_listing.aspx |archive-date=2013-12-03 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name=kreyolicious>{{cite news |url=http://kreyolicious.com/haiti-history-101-the-haitian-tuskegee-airmen/1597/ |title=Haiti History 101: The Haitian Tuskegee Airmen |newspaper=Kreyolicious}}</ref> The Tuskegee Airmen were renowned for their unmatched record of more than 200 combat missions with few losses.<ref name=seminolechronicle>{{cite news |url=http://www.seminolechronicle.com/vnews/display.v/ART/4bcf5103517f1 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130203023239/http://www.seminolechronicle.com/vnews/display.v/ART/4bcf5103517f1 |url-status=dead |archive-date=February 3, 2013 |title=Tuskegee Airman honored in Oviedo |newspaper=Seminole Chronicle |author=Gary Roberts |date=April 21, 2010 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.taichicago.org/archives/950 |title=Haitian-Tuskegee Airman Receives Medal |newspaper=Tuskegee Airmen |date=April 6, 2010 |archive-date=December 29, 2012 |access-date=December 19, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121229060203/http://www.taichicago.org/archives/950 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Pasquet's training went through three stages—primary, basic, and advanced—and was extremely rigorous. He was trained by Jimmy Plinton Jr., who was reputed as one of the best trainers in the Tuskegee Air Force program, over the course of a 7-month program.<ref name=cassagnol/>
''The Afro-American Newspaper'', one of the most widely circulated black newspapers at that time, ran a feature story on Pasquet, Cassagnol, and Célestin in April 1943, and the trio was noted for their aptitude with the English language.<ref name=kreyolicious/><ref name=afroamerican>{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2211&dat=19430410&id=0egmAAAAIBAJ&sjid=FAMGAAAAIBAJ&pg=4045,1190867 |title=3 Haitians Learning to Fly the U.S. Way at TAFS|newspaper=The Afro American |date=April 10, 1943}}</ref> Additionally since Pasquet and his compatriots were from Haiti, they were unfamiliar with the pervasive racial segregation and racism in the American South at that time and were forced to ride on Blacks-only transportation or sit in the back of trains.<ref name=kreyolicious/> As a result, they rarely ventured off-campus. Pasquet had a bad case of the flu and lost a month of his training, but ultimately graduated in August 1943 as a member of class 43G.<ref name="cassagnol"/>
==Political revolutionary== After the end of his training, Pasquet returned to Haiti. However, he was exiled in 1957 for supporting Louis Déjoie in the May 1957 Haitian Civil War.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=A5ltAAAAMAAJ&q='alix+pasquet%22+exiled |title=Papa Doc: Haiti and Its Dictator |author=Bernard Diederich, Al Burt |publisher=Penguin |year=1972|isbn=9780140034585 }}</ref> From exile in Miami, Pasquet led a political movement to restore stability in his native country and overthrow current ruler François Duvalier.<ref name=life>{{cite news |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ylMEAAAAMBAJ&q=Haiti&pg=PA22 |title=A Weird, Fatal Dash into Turbulent Haiti |newspaper=Life Magazine |date=August 11, 1958}}</ref> In 1958, he returned to Haiti with Henri Perpignan and Phillipe Dominique as well as five Americans—Arthur Payne, Dany Jones, Levant Kersten, Robert F. Hickey and Joe D. Walker—with the intention of overpowering the capital's army barracks and capturing the ammunition depot within.<ref name=haitiahshatteredhistory>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6p6QrBL79xEC&q='alix+pasquet%22+exiled&pg=PT90 |title=Haiti: A Shattered Nation |author=Elizabeth Abbott |publisher=Peter Mayer Publishers, Inc. |year=2011|isbn=9781468301601 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://thehaitianblogger.blogspot.com/2012/01/siege-of-casernes-dessalines-story-of.html |title=The Siege of Casernes Dessalines: the Story of Alix Pasquet, Haitian Tuskegee Airman |newspaper=The Haitian Blogger|date=January 23, 2012}}</ref> He gained entry through the barracks' gate by convincing the sentry that he was an officer delivering prisoners, and then quickly seized control of the barracks.<ref name=life/> However the plot was foiled when an accomplice, Henri Perpignan, sent a prisoner to acquire Haitian-blend cigarettes, who then revealed crucial details to the incumbent government about Pasquet's position.<ref name=haitiahshatteredhistory/>
Pasquet was killed during the attempted coup and buried in Port-au-Prince.<ref name=haitiahshatteredhistory/>
==Personal life== Pasquet married Denise Etheart and had three sons: Gilbert Pasquet, Alix Pasquet Jr., and Bernard Pasquet.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://records.ancestry.com/Alix_Pasquet_records.ashx?pid=103368572 |title=Alix Pasquet (Unknown – 1958) |publisher=Ancestry.com}}</ref> In 1973 his son, Alix, married Michèle Bennett, who later married François Duvalier's son, Jean-Claude 'Baby Doc' Duvalier.<ref name=Beyond>{{cite magazine |first=Mark |last=Danner |url=http://www.markdanner.com/articles/beyond-the-mountains-part-iii |title=Beyond the Mountains (Part III) |magazine=The New Yorker |date=December 11, 1989 |accessdate=2011-01-20 }}</ref>
==References== {{Commons category}} {{reflist|2}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pasquet, Alix}} Category:1919 births Category:1958 deaths Category:Tuskegee Airmen Category:Haitian revolutionaries Category:20th-century Haitian people Category:United States Army Air Forces pilots of World War II Category:Haitian men's footballers Category:Haitian exiles Category:Men's association football players not categorized by position