Background
Pruitt grew up in Saint Louis, Missouri, as the youngest of ten children to Elijah and Melanie Pruitt and attended Sumner High School.
Pruitt grew up in Saint Louis, Missouri, as the youngest of ten children to Elijah and Melanie Pruitt and attended Sumner High School.
He was killed during a training exercise in 1945. After his death, his name, along with William L. Igoe"s was given to the notorious Pruitt–Igoe public housing complex in Saint Louis. Pruitt, already a licensed pilot, enlisted in the Army Air Corps Cadet Flying Program in Tuskegee, Alabama, eventually graduating and being commissioned as a second lieutenant on December 11, 1942.
After graduating from flight school at Tuskegee, Pruitt was assigned to the 332nd Fighter Group, then stationed in Michigan.
The 332nd was transferred to the Mediterranean theater in late 1943 where Pruitt flew the P-47 Thunderbolt. Thereafter, the 332nd flew the P-51 Mustang as their primary fighter aircraft.
Pruitt teamed with Lee Archer to form the famed "Gruesome Twosome", the most successful pair of Tuskegee pilots in terms of air victories. The "Gruesome Twosome" are featured in a History Channel show entitled Dogfights: Tuskegee Airmen.
Pruitt flew seventy combat missions, was credited with 3 enemy kills, and reached the rank of captain.
Pruitt was killed, along with a student pilot, during a training exercise in Tuskegee, Alabama on April 15, 1945. United States. decorations and badges Things named for Pruitt.
Tuskegee Airmen]
He then furthered his education at Lincoln University in Jefferson City, Missouri, becoming a member of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity.