Delbert Marshall Smith
September 15, 1921 ~ May 6, 2022
Burial: Sarasota National Cemetery
Sarasota, FL
Plot: Section 1, Site 1642
(Pictured at right from the 1939 Spy)
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03/04/2023:
A note from the KBHSAA website admin:
We have been unable to locate a published obituary for Delbert Smith. We did find two posts on the Military Sea Services Museum (MSSM) website, located in Sebring, FL, which reference Delbert Smith's passing, and we share them here:
It is with heavy hearts that the MSSM bids adieu to former Navy LTJG Delbert M Smith, who passed on 05/05/2022, 4 months short of his 101st birthday. Del was part of “The Greatest Generation”, as he flew his SB2C Helldivers and F4U Corsairs from the decks of aircraft carriers in the Pacific. Del was the recipient of numerous accolades and awards for his combat flying prowess, to include the Distinguished Flying Cross. When queried about the awards, Del would always answer with, “Just doing my job”. Aviators will attest that Del has not passed; he has simply climbed to a higher altitude.
- MSSM Scuttlebutt Jul-Aug 2022, in an article entitled "Flying with Del at Midway," recounts the day friends accompanied "Del" to see the new movie, "Midway" (in theaters in 2019):
His hands gripped the chair arms, as if he had throttle in one and the joystick in the other. The windshield of his cockpit was filled with the length and breadth of the enemy ship as he bore in at a dizzying angle, his bomb sight filled with the center of the Japanese carrier. As he pressed the release button and the heavy bomb came away from its rack, he pulled back hard on the stick as the pent-up G-forces pressed down into his seat, his sweat-soaked cloth helmet gushing its contents down his face and neck. As the stick went forward and the weight of the pull-out bled away, he banked left and could see the blossoming explosion and fire leaping skyward from the carrier's deck.
As Del Smith, former U.S. Navy dive bomber pilot, sat watching the new "Midway" motion picture in the darkened theater, but he was back in his SB2C Helldiver in the South Pacific. It was 1944, and he was yet again a young, determined man at the point of his nation's spear, locked and loaded to smite the enemies of America. On either side, my brother Chris and I monitored our friend, Del, as his hands and arms tensed and his chest heaved - the only person in the theater who knew the fear, excitement and satisfaction of a combat pilot flying through flak, enemy fighters and surviving to fight another day. Chris and I had seen "Midway" the previous week and floated the idea to Del, uncertain of his reaction. After all, Delbert Smith was the REAL DEAL, a for real dive bomber pilot flying from the carrier Hornet in the Pacific in World War II. In addition to bombing runs at Saipan, Guam and Iwo Jima, Del had destroyed cargo ships in Manila Bay and later sank a Japanese destroyer off Davao in the southern Philippines. He once had to ditch his plane in the Philippine Sea after running out of gas on the return of a long-range strike on the retreating Japanese carrier fleet. No matter. He and his crew were picked up by a destroyer's whaleboat and high-lined back aboard Hornet the next morning and back flying that afternoon. We were beginning to think the excitement might be too much for Del, but his decades of vigorous golfing and miles per week on his treadmill had kept his ticker in great shape. As the lights were coming up at the end of the show, and we began our slow shuffle out to the corridor, I asked Del what he thought of the movie. He responded strongly, "It was realistic. In fact, it was too realistic."
Del was one of "The Greatest Generation" author Tom Brokaw wrote about in his book a few years back. Millions of ordinary Americans put their personal lives on standby as they donned the uniforms of all the Armed Services or marched into the factories which produced all the tanks, planes, ships, and bullets to defeat Germany, Japan, and Italy in World War II. I spent many hours listening to Del these past few years. Learned a lot about his family, growing up in and near Kenosha, WI. Taking to the air at a small local airport under the tutelage of a woman pilot acquaintance of Amelia Earhart in a scratch- built Navy training program. Learning to land on the wooden flight deck of a converted coal-fired, side paddle-wheel passenger ferry on Lake Michigan. Learning to dive bomb with unerring accuracy. Preparing for the final push into Japan awaiting the carrier Wasp while flying the powerful F4U Corsair on the Big Island of Hawaii and then getting the news about an atomic bomb that ended the war. Sticking with the Navy through the great demobilization and marrying Agnes and the start of a great family. The tragedy of her death by a hit-and-run driver while training up for the Korean War. Leaving the Navy and making a new life and later a new wife and new babies. Fulfilling the wartime pledges to God and comrades that if he were blessed with surviving war, he would make a good life in the new America. Del lived a good and full life. Filled with the joys of family love, community respect and the admiration of people who knew him. Despite his Distinguished Flying Cross, he declined to tell his story on film. No flamboyance. "I was just doing my job," he said. Let us be thankful that Del did his job, kept his faith in America just as so many others have and will. God bless and keep you in eternal life my friend.