Sgt. Preston Jowers is the oldest living member of the first all-black aviation unit, The Tuskegee Airman.

Jowers said that the years of racial discrimination since his time in the airmen “breaks his heart.”

Jowers lives in Michigan and speaking to People Mag said:

“I just have to ask ‘Why?’”

“We proved all those years ago that black men and women weren’t dummies; we showed the nation that we are capable of doing a job and doing it well, but racism—it just hasn’t stopped.”

“I want young people to realize that you, too, can make it and make a difference, just like we did in the war,”

Even though proud of his service he talked about the racism he faced, saying:

“We couldn’t eat together; we couldn’t fight the war with white men,”

It was the “worst segregation” he’d ever seen.

“The racism didn’t pertain to me as much because I was a mechanic, but men with the same rank who were different races couldn’t even talk to each other back in those days.

“Officers during the war thought the black man’s brain was so different that they couldn’t fly a plane,” Jowers added. “So what we did was stop and put God on our side and try to love each other—and that’s what we need to do now as a country.”

After leaving he tried to find work as a plane mechanic, he said:

“It was my dream job, so I went to the Detroit City Airport to try and get a job, but they wouldn’t even let me in the door because of the color of my skin,” he told People. “It was hard because I’d just served my country, but here I was being turned away from a job I was qualified for.”

Watch Jowers speak below: