BEAUMONT, Texas — A Beaumont native who doubles as an American hero touched down at the Jack Brooks Regional Airport on Monday to visit friends and family.
Becoming a naval flight officer was a dream come reality for Lt. Cmdr. Carl Stewart, Jr. Since he was a child, the Beaumont native said he has been an aviation nut.
Lt. Cmdr. Stewart started flying for the Navy after he graduated from West Brook High School in 1995. He said he drew some of his inspiration from his cousin.
“My cousin who was a prowler ECMO back when I was a kid, you know, he was the reason I decided to join the military,” he said. “I was like, 'I want to go to be around with that guy.' Never thought I was going to end up flying myself.”
What was originally planned to be four years turned into 26. Now, Lt. Cmdr. Stewart is set to retire in May.
On Monday, he flew into Beaumont to see his friends and family.
"Pretty cool,” he said. “I did it once when I was in flight school. We came in on a T6, so that was probably 13, 14 years ago. This is the first time since then I got to fly in to Beaumont."
The Beaumont native is based in Pensacola. During his 26 years in the Navy, Lt. Cmdr. Stewart has fought all around the world, including in Afghanistan and Iraq.
"You just go out there and do what you're trained to do,” he said. “And just make sure you're covering your part and what the crew members are expecting of you."
The Beaumont native said he started out as a helicopter air crewman and then got commissioned before going back through the jet pipeline. He went from flying model navy fighter jets with his dad, to actually being behind the wheel of one.
"You know we went out, going to the airport, watching planes fly, we flying RC planes,” he said.
A 2018 study done by military.com revealed that Black pilots are rare in the service, particularly in fighter units. However, Lt. Cmdr. Stewart said that is not true.
“There's more than you'd think,” he said. “Yeah, there's still kind of not as many out there, but there's a lot more than you'd think."
Lt. Cmdr. Stewart hopes to inspire area youth to join the navy. He shared advice for those looking to join.
"If you want something go for it,” he said. “Don't be afraid to fail. Sometimes you fail because you figure out where you're at, find out what you did wrong, you dust yourself off and you go back and try again."
The Beaumont native said he is looking forward to running his own trucking company after he retires.
