Posted on 12/10/2009 11:39:23 PM PST by dit_xi
By TIMOTHY LOGUE, tlogue@delcotimes.com
RADNOR — Luther H. Smith, a World War II pilot who flew 133 combat missions over Europe as a member of the famed Tuskegee Airmen, died Wednesday morning at Bryn Mawr Hospital. He was 89.
A longtime resident of Villanova, Smith dropped out of the University of Iowa in 1942 to join the U.S. Army Air Corps.
“Before World War II began in 1941, black Americans were not accepted in military aviation and I wanted to be a military aviator,” he told the Daily Times in a 2007 interview. “We performed much better than anyone thought possible.”
Along with 275 other African American pilots, Smith completed nine months of aviator training in May 1943 and was commissioned at Tuskegee Airfield in Alabama. During the war, he escorted B-24 Liberators and B-17 Flying Fortresses over Yugoslavia, Hungary, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Poland and southwest Germany.
“The Tuskegee Airmen never lost a bomber to an enemy aircraft,” said Media Mayor Bob McMahon, who met Smith in 2004 at a preview event for the Pennsylvania Veterans Museum. “They lost 66 men but they never lost a bomber.
“The escorts who preceeded the Tuskegee Airman did not have discipline.
They were baited by the Germans and too often left their positions to attack, leaving the bombers exposed.”
Smith was credited with destroying two German aircraft in aerial combat and 10 German aircraft on the ground in strafing attacks. He suffered permanent injuries on his final mission, when he parachuted from his burning P-51 Mustang fighter over Hungary on Oct. 13, 1944 and lost consciousness.
Presumed dead by his fellow pilots, the 24-year-old Smith was plucked out of a tree by German soldiers and spent the next seven months in hospitals and prison camps before he was repatriated in May 1945.
His injuries, which occurred when Smith’s right foot got stuck beneath the rudder pedal of his aircraft and turned 180 degrees, would require 18 surgeries and force him to retire from the army as a captain in 1947.
“I learned about 90 percent of my father’s many, many accomplishments during the last 10 years of his life,” said Smith’s son, Gordon. “He felt that what he did was no different than what millions of other men did at the time.”
Smith earned numerous awards and commendations for his military service, including the Distinguished Flying Cross, Air Medal with six Oak Leaf Clusters, Purple Heart, eight European and Mediterranean Theaters Campaign Ribbons and the Prisoner of War Medal.
“Luther represents part of a unique group of men who possessed an unabashed devotion to this nation and belief in the strength of American values, even at a time when their country’s laws failed to reflect the values for which they fought,” said U.S. Rep. Joe Sestak.
“We owe it to Luther and those with whom he served to pass on the legacy of their sacrifices as one of the great examples of selfless service to one’s nation and commitment to the cause of freedom for all.”
The second of nine children, Smith was born in Des Moines and learned to fly as a teenager at the local airport.
After his honorable discharge, he returned to the University of Iowa and earned an engineering degree. Despite his distinguished war record and academic achievements, Smith suffered through dozens of job interviews before he was finally hired by General Electric, where he spent 37 years working as an aerospace engineer.
In 2007, he was among roughly 300 original Tuskegee Airmen who gathered in the U.S. Capitol to receive the Congressional Gold Medal of Honor, the highest civilian honor bestowed by Congress.
Smith had been in and out of a handful of hospitals the last two years but still managed to join his fellow airmen in Washington D.C. for Barack Obama’s inauguration.
“It had enormous meaning to him,” his son said. “We were 40 feet away from the podium and it was a magnificent day in every respect. The president was kind enough to send my father a note a few months ago saying that he was worried about his illness and that he was standing on his shoulders and the shoulders of the other (airmen).”
During their first conversation in 2004, McMahon and Smith talked about doing a Tuskegee Airmen documentary.
“We had already started the film on the Band of Brothers and Luther thought it was really important to get their story out there,” McMahon said.
The film, “On Freedom’s Wing, Bound for Glory,” debuted in 2006 and features Smith and fellow Tuskegee Airmen Lt. Col. Lee Archer and Col. Charles McGee and Capt. Luther H. Smith.
“It is a tremendous film and they consider it the real story of the Tuskegee Airmen,” said McMahon, who visited the Smith family Wednesday afternoon.
Gordon Smith said his father opened up about his war experiences shortly after retiring from General Electric in 1988.
“That’s when the genie kind of came out of the bottle,” he said. “This group of men suffered so much discrimination while they were in the military. One story that stands out was when they were heading up to the Brooklyn Navy Yard to ship out overseas.
“They stopped in Virginia on Christmas night and tried to go to the movies but the theater owner wouldn’t let them in. Imagine that you are an officer, you are college educated, a fighter pilot and you get turned away from the movies just before heading off to war.”
Smith once explained how the prejudice he faced in uniform only fueled his drive to succeed.
“I felt the better I did my job, the better the possibility things would improve at home. It was also a labor of love,” he said in an interview with TRACES, a non-profit educational organization. “I was doing exactly what I wanted to do. You know, in 1941 nobody wanted the Tuskegee Airmen. In 1945 only the Nazis didn’t want us.”
Smith suffered a heart attack Monday and died 5 a.m. Wednesday.
He is survived by his wife, Lois G. Smith, son Gordon L. Smith of New York City, daughter Deborah Smith, three sisters and one brother.
May God comfort all who love him.
High Flight
John Gillespie Magee, Jr.
Oh, I have slipped the surly bonds of earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds — and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of — wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov’ring there,
I’ve chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air.
Up, up the long, delirious burning blue
I’ve topped the windswept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or even eagle flew.
And, while with silent, lifting mind I’ve trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.
RIP Capt. Luther H. Smith... Thank you for your service.
The president was kind enough to send my father a note a few months ago saying that he was worried about his illness and that he was standing on his shoulders and the shoulders of the other (airmen).”
Note, the President at the time was President Bush.
Excellent article!!!!!May he and all those men never be forgotten!!!!
Rest in peace. Thank you for your service, Mr. Smith.
Warner Robbins Air Base has a most wonderful Museum of Aviation that has a fine tribute to the Tuskegee Airmen.
Young black kids looking for true heros should find out everything they can about this fine group of aviators.
And the Mid Georgia collection of aircraft and weapons is free.
Thanks Mr. Smith
They freely put their lives on the line for America in the days when there was real racism in every facet of American life.
Clear skies, Captain, and God bless you and your family.
The media has been pushing that affirmative action lie for generations, it is not true.
While it may be true that the media are indeed pushing this “affirmative action lie”, this is one case where I personally don’t have a problem with it.
These were indeed brave men serving their country in a time of segragation. Let them have their glory as it will help glorify ALL the great men who served with them in battle.
You can’t just make up military history, or any history, for racial reasons or any other reason.
If you must rewrite history for PC reasons, at least leave military history alone.
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