When he was 7 years old, Richard Toliver decided that he would become an Air Force pilot, but by age 13, he started doubting himself, feeling like a caged eagle.
“I was in a cage where my circumstances — poverty, a broken home — kept me trapped,” Toliver said. “I was surrounded by people who couldn’t understand me.”
Saving every penny and working from the age of 10, Toliver eventually made it to the Tuskegee Institute and became a second-generation Tuskegee “top gun” fighter pilot.
“I was 18, and it was the first time I ever met a black pilot,” Toliver said of the Tuskegee Airmen he met at the institute. “I was 19 before I ever set foot in a base and took my first flight. The pilot let me come into the cockpit and take hold of the controls, and I thought I was in heaven.”
Toliver, 72, a 26-year Air Force veteran and graduate of the University of Northern Colorado, traveled through Colorado this weekend with his message about overcoming adversity.
He made a stop in Denver on Saturday for a book signing, and is in the Colorado Springs area today to speak at the Air Force Academy.
“My book and my lectures are meant to be instructional, motivational and inspirational,” Toliver said.
Toliver grew up in Louisiana before the civil rights movement.
The oppression he said he felt there created another barrier for him, one of resentment and bitterness, which he overcame only after a near-death experience when he was struck by lightning while flying at 20,000 feet.
“I had soared higher than eagles, but I had this anvil of baggage,” Toliver said. “When I didn’t die, it gave me an opportunity to reset my course. I found my freedom after 33 years.”
Even though he flew an impressive 446 combat missions intended to protect or increase freedoms around the world, Toliver said he has come to think that true freedom can be found only through faith, love and perseverance.
“Adversity knows no color barriers,” he said. “But I’ve seen human love in Vietnam, in Korea, even in Libya. Human love trumps adversity every time, but you have to have your eyes open to see it.”
CLARIFICATION: Robert “Dick” Tolliver describes himself as a second-generation Tuskegee Airman. While the original Tuskegee Airmen operated from 1941-1949, a second wave of pilots trained in the 50s, and 60s consider themselves second-generation Tuskegee Airmen because they were trained by the original fliers. Tolliver attended Tuskegee Institute in 1957.
