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1st Lt. AAC World War II 12th Air Force B25 Pilot. Flew 66 missions over No. Italy and the Brenner Pass From Nov. 1944 to April 1945 Awarded the DFC and 6 Air Medals and a Presidential Citation                                       

This is Sheild Watkins Stadium at the University of Tennessee where Fred lived in the Stadium on the right when in the Cadet training detachment in 1943

Fred's combat home, A tent in Corsica

Fred celebrates his 86th birthday

When he enlisted in the Army Air Corp Aviation Cadet program in September of 1942 along with another 50 or so Marquette students. They were asked to stay in school and were called into active service in Febuary of 1943. Many of those same students reported along with Fred to Sheppard Field Wichita Falls Texas to eventually train in the Eastern command of the Aviation Cadet program.

Fred's cadet training included college training at the University of Tennessee Knoxville Tenn., Classffication as a pilot at Nashville Tenn. Then as an Aviation Cadet to Maxwell field, Montgomety .PrimaIy flying training at Lafayette La., Basic flight training at Walnut Ridge Arkansas and advanced training at Blytheville Arkansas graduating as a 2nd Lieutenant Pilot . Lt Smith then reported to Columbia Army Air base at Columbia S. C. for transition training in the B-25 Bomber. There were only five of Lt Smiths graduating class who were assigned to B-25s and after a couple of weeks at Columbia the other four were transferred to B-17s. Lt Smith was the only one to wind up in B-25s. The reason was that all other pilots reporting to Columbia had training in B-25s in advanced training. Lt smith was given a fast course in B-25 training and some of that from officers who had :flown the Doolittle raid

Great training for Lt Smith. . .

In fact one day after they got crew assignments, Lt Smith was called by Major Bill Pound who was a Navigator on the Doolittle raid and asked to fly him to Chicago on an RON. (Remain over night) Which he did and was able to visit his home in Milwaukee while Major Pound took in some baseball games in Chicago. Each morning Smith would check in with the major to see if they would go back and the Major would tell him that weather in route prevented it The fourth morning when Lt Smith checked in, the Major told him they had better go back. As it turned out the reason Major Pound asked Smith to take him was that Smith did not have an instrument rating so the only flying had to be in perfect clear weather, . So a few clouds kept the plane in Chicago and a couple more baseball games On the crew assignments Smiths crew was George Fairchild Pilot, Fred Smith Co-pilot Phil Gantner Bombardier/navigator, Charles Weise engineer gunner. Harvey Stocker radio gunner and Marvin Goldman Tail gunner. They :flow 30 transition missions together at Columbia, cross country dropping bombs and strafing targets. The Gunners also had special gunnery practice. All training was for either the ~ Pacific or Europe ~ they did not know which way they would be sent

In late September of 1944 they were transferred to Savannah Georgia for overseas assignment and soon learned two things. One they were headed for Europe and second they would go there by Ship. This meant the Island of Corsica which was where the B-25 groups were at that time. They were sent by train to Hampton Roads Va. And by sea to Naples Italy where they arrived on October 23rd After a couple of days in camp B-25s from Corsica :flew down to Naples and picked them up There were 13 B-25 crews on that shipment to Naples and the B-25s that picked Lt Smith up were headed for the 321st Bomb Group located at Southern Corsica and were then split around the 4 squadrons with Lt Smiths crew assigned to the 447th Bomb Squadron.  One of the Major decisions that Lt Smith made was to express his desire to fly as many missions as possible so he could complete the 50 mission tour as soon as possible. After 23 missions he was promoted to First Lt and became an airplane commander. He was asked if he wanted to fly element lead and the next stop after that would be a Squadron leader. Lt Smith asked again to fly wing and go on every mission. The first snag in this strategy was the Air Force orders to raise the limit to 60 missions. And when Lt Smith reached 50 missions they raised the limit to 70 missions. In April of 1945 Smith had flown 66 missions and the 121h air force decided that anyone with more than 60 missions could go home so Smiths strategy did pay off as most of the pilots he went overseas with who survived didn't go home until after the war in Europe was over.

Lt Smiths first realization that war was a killing field came on his third mission. After the first two as milk runs ( no Flak or enemy aircraft) they were badly shot up while bombing a rail bridge in the Po valley, lost several planes.and came back with a crippled airplane. That period of time. ( the winter of 1944 and 45) saw the greatest loss of air craft in the history of the 57th Bomb wing. The main reason was to get effective bomb patterns on the rail. bridges in the Brenner pass they started flying 5 minute straight and level Bomb runs so they could get a good :fix on the target and it was very effective as Smith flew on many missions where 100 percent on the bombs hit within the target area However these long straight and level bomb runs gave the German flak gunners that much longer to get a radar :fix on the aircraft. A good example of this was Lt Smith's 25th mission to the Rovereto rail bridge at the bottom of the Brenner pass. The German flak gunners were so effective that by about 3 minutes into the bomb run most of the aircraft had been shot out of the sky. Lt Smith with. a hydraulic system shot out was able to bomb the alternate target and pilot the crippled airplane back to his base landing without brakes. That day 16 bombers .got back to the base out of 36. And Smith got the Distinguished Flying Cross.

Lt Smith returned to the states in May of 1945 and was sent to rest camp for a month .before being assigned to a second tour in the South Pacific. During that month it was decided not to send Europe pilots to the war in the     South Pacific and Smith was sent back .Fort Sheridan to be discharged

This was the raid  where Fred got his DFC   36 planes on the raid and 19 got back to the starting base. Brought back a badly crippled plane to an emergency landing after a successful bomb run

Fred on the first tee at Ventura ready to shoot his age of 80

Fred and long time golf buddy Jim Mills

Fred at 80 at the western GCS golf championship

Fred 83 years old, giving his acceptance speech for the Golf Collectors Society Founders Award at the Suncoast Hotel in Las Vegas

Fred and wife Shirlee at a Bomb Wing Convention

Fred started his career as an Investment Banker as a branch manager for the Wisconsin Co. in Wausau Wisconsin and one of his customers was Roddis Plywood and he joined their management program and he ran branches for them in Miami, Florida and Newark ,New Jersey. In 1960 Weyerhaeuser Co. purchased Roddis Plywood and he was transferred to Los Angeles to manage Weyerhaeuser's five Operations in Southern California. In 1963 he was promoted to Executive management at the Companies headquarters in Tacoma Washington. He manage their marketing programs  in the 1960s and 70s and in the middle 1970s took over 13 of the Companies Businesses which he managed until his retirement in 1979;

The lower left pictures Fred in his retirement as President of Classic Flooring Products a Corporation he formed in 1981 and still runs Today

57th Bomb Wing convention 2007

FRED at 84