Plaque a deserved thank-you token for pilot

Sitting at home now, 60 years later, he can still hear the noises: the flak bursts around the plane, the muffled explosions of the bombs below, the sighs of relief and expressions of joy of returning to base safely.

A movie was made several years ago about these men and what they did. "Memphis Belle" was the name of the movie and the B-17 that survived. It told the story of the bomber crews who flew over Germany and France during World War II, bombing factories, munitions depots, anything that could stall the German war effort. Many planes and many men didn't come back.

The men who survived, like Smith of Greeley, will tell you they were just lucky. Luck may have been involved, but there had to be skill, there had to be strength, there had to be tremendous fortitude for these men who would become known as The Greatest Generation.

Smith is now 82, has lived with his wife, Barbara, in west Greeley for 20 years and doesn't talk much about the war. You have to coax him a little.

But earlier this month, that bit of coaxing arrived from California in the form of a huge plaque, designed and built by the nephew of another "lucky" man who survived the war. Roger Werksman, a retired tennis pro, wanted to honor the B-17 crew and his uncle, Jack Fromkin, a nose gunner on Smith's plane.

Werksman wants people to remember the bomber crews, whose risk and sacrifices resulted in the outcome of WWII. "We should always tell these men thank you for what they did," Werksman said from his Los Angeles home. "But 'thank you' isn't enough. The words hang in the air for a 50th of a second and they're gone."

So, spending his own money, Werksman launched the project to thank the veterans. He's completed most of the huge plaques, prints on black, laminated and mounted to be a permanent memorial to the men who flew the war. Smith's was the first to arrive.

In the movie, the men named their plane the "Memphis Belle," and it became the most famous of all the B-17s.

Smith and his crew were allowed to select their plane's name, too, and picked "The Fort Worth Jailhouse," because Smith, their pilot, was from Fort Worth, Texas.

"As a new crew with a new plane coming in, we were allowed to pick the name," Smith says. "But about that time, President Roosevelt announced that soldiers fighting overseas would be allowed to vote in the election. The military re-named the plane 'The Soldier's Vote.'"

In the movie, the bomber crew was able to go back home after they'd flown 25 missions. For Smith and his crew, the number was 35. On every mission, some planes and crews went down. By the end of the war, 200,000 men died in air combat and missions. It was one of the most dangerous assignments in the war.

"Actually, the idea was fairly simple," Smith says. "Simple, except they were shooting at you — that was a drawback."

Rhoten and Barbara were married before he received his wings, before he finished flying school, before he was shipped out. Barbara stayed home. She had a college degree as a dietitian and nutritionist, and she was pregnant with their first baby. "I was afraid," Barbara says today, "I knew a lot of his buddies had gone down. But he was young and thought he was invincible."

Smith flew the missions for six months — from July 1944 to January 1945 — when the crew completed the 35 missions and was sent home again. He arrived back in Ottawa, Kan., on Feb. 6, just two days after their first daughter was born.

Smith was sent to P-51 fighter school to prepare for the war in the Pacific. Barbara stayed home with the new baby. But before the war ended, Smith completed his military service points. He was finally out of the military in June 1945. The war ended two months later.

As if piloting one of the most important planes in the war wasn't enough, Smith's career followed that leadership role. He received his bachelor's and master's degrees in political science from the University of Kansas and a doctorate from the University of California at Berkeley. He taught at his alma maters and other universities, became the president of Northern Illinois University in the midst of the Vietnam War and the unsettled 1960s.

"Every university worried they would become a Kent State back then," Smith says. "It was a difficult, difficult four years."

He was later named the senior vice president and provost at the University of Pittsburgh. He retired in 1983, and he and his wife moved to Greeley to be closer to their children and grandchildren. Their daughter, Susan Warren and her family, live in the Keenesburg area, and at the time their son Tyler was attending the University of Northern Colorado. They've now been in Greeley longer than any place they're ever lived.

Another battle is facing Smith now. He was diagnosed with a tumor of the brain, and doctors say he has three to six months to live. "They've done radiation and that wasn't much help," he says with the fearlessness of a WWII pilot. "They can't get rid of it, and at my age, there's not much point in surgery."

Smith and Barbara speak fondly of the Hospice and Palliative Care nurses and how they're helping now.

And Smith says it's been a good life. "It starts with a good wife, two great kids and their families and interesting, challenging experiences."

Question: "What was more difficult, flying a WWII bomber over Germany, or being a college president in the late 1960s?"

Smith: "Well, I think (emphasis on 'think') I was much less likely to be killed as a college president."

And for Smith and the WWII heroes we're losing every day, Werksman was right. "Thank you" is just not enough.

Staff writer Mike Peters' column about Weld County people appears Mondays in the Tribune. His humor column, Gnarly Trombone, appears Saturdays.

That was true until they(the bombers)got long-range fighter escorts.The Luftwaffe pilots that attacked our bombers with impunity knew that there was"A New Sherrif In Town"when the P-51's appeared and flew high and low cover all the way to and from the target!

True.

The bombers and fighters together gave the Luftwaffe a tactical problem it couldn't solve. By the spring of 1944, the Germans were in the absurd position of providing fighter escort to their --bomber destroyers-- the same way the USAAF fighters protected our bombers.

Walt

Rhoten Smith

Rhoten A. Smith, 82, of Greeley died Saturday, Sept. 6, at the Hospice and Palliative Care of Northern Colorado inpatient unit in Greeley.

He was born Jan. 17, 1921, in Dallas, Texas, to Rhoten A. and Ruth Elizabeth (Cooke) Smith.

On Dec. 24, 1942, he married Barbara Okerberg in Houston, Texas.

Mr. Smith graduated from Paschal High School in Fort Worth, Texas, in 1938. He attended Texas Wesleyan College in 1940 and the University of Texas from 1940-42. From 1942-45 he served in the Army Air Corps. He flew 35 missions over Germany and occupied Europe as a B-17 pilot. He was in the 92nd Bomb Group 8th Air Force from 1944-45 and was discharged as a first lieutenant in June 1945.

Mr. Smith received his bachelor's and master's degrees in political science from the University of Kansas in 1946 and 1948. He earned a doctorate in political science from the University of California-Berkley in 1955. An instructor of political science at the University of Kansas from 1947-49, 1951-55, he was an assistant and associate professor of political science at KU from 1955-58. He was the professor of political science and director at the Citizenship Clearing House at New York University from 1958-61, dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Temple University from 1961-67, president of Northern Illinois University from 1967-71 and provost senior vice-chancellor at the University of Pittsburgh from 1971-83. In July 1983, he retired and moved to Greeley.

Mr. Smith was on the board of directors at the Weld Mental Health Center, now Front Range Behavioral Health, from 1984-94 and 1995 until his death. He was president from 1985-87. He was a charter member of the Greeley Redeye Rotary Club and was president from 1993-94, was a member of the Friends of the University of Northern Colorado Libraries from 1984 until his death and was president from 1989-91. He also was a board member of the Greeley Retired and Senior Volunteer Program from 2001-03.

Survivors are his wife, Barbara Smith of Greeley; a daughter, Susan Jane Warren of Keenesburg; a son, Tyler Rhoten Smith of Denver; a sister, Maclyn Kesselring of Tucson, Ariz., four grandchildren; and a great-grandchild. His parents are deceased.

Memorial services will be at 10 a.m. Friday at Allnutt Funeral Service Macy Chapel. Cremation.

Contributions may be made to the Kansas University Endowment Fund or Hospice and Palliative Care in care of Allnutt, 702 13th St., Greeley, CO 80631. An online obituary is at www.allnutt.com.

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