Alix Pasquet was born November 14, 1919. Unfortunately, not much is known about his childhood. However, we do know that he was born in Haiti and graduated with a law degree from Ecole Millionaire d’Haiti.
At some point, Alix joined the Haitian Army. In 1942, Haitian President Elie Lescot implemented an aviation corps program and was allowed to choose three men to receive pilot training in Tuskegee, Alabama. Alix Pasquet was one of the men selected.[1]
In February 1943, Pasquet and his fellow trainees traveled to the Tuskegee flight school and began their training to become Tuskegee airmen. Took part in a seven-month program that was extremely rigorous and was taught by one of the best trainers in the Tuskegee Air Force program, Jimmy Plinton Jr. He graduated from the program in August 1943 as a member of class 43G.[2]
After the end of World War II, Pasquet returned to Haiti, where he was exiled in 1957 for supporting Louis Dejoie in the May 1957 Haitian Civil War. He escaped to Miami, where he led a political movement to restore stability in his country with a plan to overthrow the current ruler, Francois Duvalier.[3] In 1958, he returned to Haiti intending to overpower the capital’s army barracks and capture the ammunition depot. He gained entry to the barracks by convincing the century that he was an officer delivering prisoners, which were really the men he traveled with. They quickly gained control of the barracks. However, The plot was foiled rapidly when one of Pasquet’s accomplices, Henri Perpignan, sent a prisoner to get cigarettes where he then revealed crucial details to the incumbent government about Pasquets position.[4]
Pasquet died on July 29, 1958, during the attempted coup.[5]
[1] Dead or Victorious but not prisoner. Amistad Films.
[2] Raymond Cassagnol, Mémoires d’un Révolutionnaire (Coconut Creek, Florida: Educa Vision Incorporated, 2003).
[3] “A Weird, Fatal Dash into Turbulent Haiti”, Life Magazine, (August 11, 1958).
[4] Elizabeth Abbott, Haiti: A Shattered Nation (New York City, NY: Peter Mayer Publishers, Inc., 2011).
[5] Ibid.
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