clarence_dart.jpegSARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. (AP) — Funeral services have been held for an upstate New York veteran who was among the dwindling ranks of the Tuskegee Airmen of World War II fame.

Services were held Feb. 21 morning in Saratoga Springs for Clarence Dart, a former fighter pilot who flew nearly 100 combat missions in Europe during the war and survived being shot down twice.

He died Feb. 17 at 91.

The Elmira native enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Forces after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. He became one of the Tuskegee Airmen, America's first black fighter pilot group in World War II.

He recently joined his family at a showing of the new movie Red Tails which tells the story of the segregated Air Force unit.

Only a few dozen of the airmen are still living.