[9] His mother, Zenciye Emine Hanım, was of Nigerian descent;[10] his father, Ali Bey, was also Afro-Turkish.

[11] And then he went to aviation courses in the Naval Flight School (Deniz Tayyare Mektebi), formed on 25 June 1914 at Yeşilköy.

On 14 February 1917, Ahmet Ali was made a Captain (Yüzbaşı) and was then sent to Berlin on 18 December 1917 to complete aviation courses.

[9] At this time, Turkish Nationalists enacted a plan to steal airplanes from Ottoman warehouses and bring them to Amasra, a port town on the Black Sea.

[9] Upon the establishment of the Republic of Turkey in 1923, a division was created to move aviation operations from Konya to İzmir.

Ahmet Ali retired in 1949 as Türk Hava Kuvvetleri Albayi (Colonel) the Turkish Air Force.

Captain Ahmet was a mix of Arab-African and Turkish origin and may have been the first 'Black' Air Force pilot in aviation history, having received his 'wings' in 1914-15."