Capt. Andrew Maples Jr., Tuskegee Airman

Andrew Maples grew up in Orange and completed the Civilian Pilot Training Program at Hampton Institute in 1941. He graduated from the Advanced Flying School at the Tuskegee Army Air Field on 14 Jan. 1943, was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Army Air Corps, and deployed to Italy with the 301st Fighter Squadron. On 26 June 1944, Maples's plane went down over the Adriatic Sea during a bomber escort mission. While officially missing in action, he was promoted to captain and awarded the Air Medal. The Army declared him dead in June 1945 and posthumously awarded him the Purple Heart. His name appears on the Tablets of the Missing at the Florence American Cemetery and Memorial in Italy.