Alfred Thomas Humbles was born September 19, 1919. He grew up poor on a tobacco farm in Greenville, North Carolina, then joined the Army Air Corps in 1943. Trained as pilot in command to fly Boeing B-17s, he was stationed at Grafton-Underwood Air base in England. He completed 30 missions from April to September 1944, even flying a sortie on D-Day. His B-17 was named the Royal Flush. After the war, A.T., as he was known, was base commander in Kingman, Arizona, where one of his officers was the famous Clayton Moore, otherwise known as the “The Lone Ranger.” He began flying for TWA in 1945 and he flew the DC-3, Boeing Stratoliner, Martin 404, Constellation, 727, and 707, retiring in 1979 as an international check captain on the L-1011. After retirement he spent a period of time as editor of the Tarpa Topics, TWA's retired pilots magazine. A. T. Flew west May 5, 2001.
