Smith, George, SSgt

PLEASE DESCRIBE WHO OR WHAT INFLUENCED YOUR DECISION TO JOIN THE AIR FORCE.
Reflections On My Service...

I was a high school teenager during WWII, and wanted to enter the service when I became seventeen. The war had ended, and I was in my Junior year at the time I enlisted. I had my seventeenth birthday on February 22, 1948, and enlisted in the Air Force on the 28th. My parents wanted me to finish high school before I enlisted, but I was determined to have my way. I convinced them that I would complete high school while in the service.
I attended the last class of the US Army Air Core basic training at Lacklin Air Base, San Antonio, Texas which was more intense than what the enlistees experience today. We were issued O.D. dress uniforms at the time, and didn't change into Blues until the US Army Air Core became the U.S. Air Force during the later part of 1948.
After basic training, I was sent to Lowery AFB, Denver, Colorado to attend Armament Training School. While there I attended evening classes, and was able to earn enough high school credits to graduate along with my class mates in May of 1951. The evening of graduation the principal called my mother forward to receive my diploma on my behalf. A week or two later there appeared a short article in the local paper announcing my being able to graduate along with the Class of 1951, and that my proud parents and family were in attendance.

WHETHER YOU WERE IN THE SERVICE FOR SEVERAL YEARS OR AS A CAREER, PLEASE DESCRIBE THE DIRECTION OR PATH YOU TOOK. WHERE DID YOU GO TO BASIC TRAINING AND WHAT UNITS, BASES, OR SQUADRONS WERE YOU ASSIGNED TO? WHAT WAS YOUR REASON FOR LEAVING?
Career Choices: From my enlistment into the Air Force, I have considered myself to be a career airman.

After training at Lowery AFB, in munitions and weapons, I was sent to Davis Monthan AFB, and worked in supply for a while until the need for those with my background to

Judo Instructors

transfer into the Ariel Gunnery Field. From 1950 to 1963, I was trained as a Defense Systems Operator (gunner) on the B-29, B-50, B-36, B-66, an B-52 until June 18,1963.

Within the years (1950-1963) I was a gunner on lead select crews in SAC, first on the B-50 at Davis Monthan AFB and then on the B-29 at Yokota AFB, Japan, while flying missions over North Korea. Our crew rotated back to Fairchild AFB, Spokane, Washington where our crew was chosen to be an (Instructor Crew) for the B-29 crews that were to replace those rotating back to the states. Just before our return to stateside our last mission was the 10,000th sorties flown over North Korea by the Far Eastern Command. After landing we were instructed to taxy up in front of operation office, and as we approached we were met by a host of photographers, news paper reporters, and commanders to highlight the event. Really it was quite a moment in time as everyone was congratulating one another for a job well done. See related photos in the picture section...The target of the day was one that was critical to the war effort, and believed to have shortened the North Korea conflict.

The B-29 crews that we trained to replace those rotating back to the states came to Fairchild AFB from all over SAC for five to six weeks of intensive training to be made combat ready before replacing the crews that were scheduled to rotate back to the states.

SAC wanted to offer to the crews going overseas some hand-to-hand combat skills should they fall into the hands of the enemy. To set the training program up, SAC called on the Kodokan Judo Collage, Tokyo Japan, to send to Fairchild two of their instructors to help in setting up such a program. They also hired a Black Belt Judo Instructor from the San Francisco area to be the ongoing organizer of the program once the two instructors from Japan returned home. While in Japan, I had earned the first degree black belt from the Kodokan Judo Collage...Guess What!...they enlisted me to be a part of the team to set up the self defense program for all of Strategic Air Command.

There are ten degrees of proficiency within the black belt range of skills... the last two are red in color. The two instructors they employed from Japan to set up the training program for SAC were both tenth degree. To work out with them, every move that you attempted to execute was a mistake...Guess What!...I became the enemy on the attack (coming at you from any angle) with a knife, gun, club, etc., and our instructors from Japan demonstrated the different methods of disarming your attacker. Then we would pare off in twos, and practice the techniques on one another. The classes were one hour a day (Monday through Friday) for four weeks. Each hour of combat crew training consisted of a demonstration of the technique to be practice during the hour, a brief warm period, and the rest of the hour was practicing the disarming technique of the day. The instructors moved about watching each student, and giving one-on-one instruction as needed.

On a typical day the training team worked with four to five different crews. As instructors, we met briefly before the first crew arrived for training to critique ourselves, and to make any necessary changes in the program. After the first cycle of crews through the program, the instructors from Japan went home. This left Mel Augustine, 4th degree black, and myself, 1st degree black to carry on the program to it's conclusion. As I reflect on this period of time in the service from September 1952 to May of 1954, I enjoyed every moment. As I consider the physical impact on my body, I am one lucky G.I. One broken rib, a few lumps here and there, a faint scar over my right eye, and a worn out right shoulder. I am in pretty good shape to be eighty-four years young in 2015. The doctors have informed me that I need to have my right shoulder joint replacement to gain any normal use of my right arm.

My second tour of service in Japan took place in 1960. This time I was part of the Tactical Air Command in a B-66 Reconnaissance Squadron stationed at Yokota AFB where I was stationed ten years earlier. This move was significant in that the decision I made during this tour of duty would affect a change in my whole life.

The Far Eastern Command invited a group of ministers from the various religious denominations to hold Revival Services at each of the military bases throughout the command. I attended the services held at Yokota, and received Jesus into my life which resulted in a series of decisive decisions, and what impact they would make on my career. At the time, I had no idea that the B-66 Tactical Squadron that I was presently assigned would be curtailed in three short months, and transferred to Shaw AFB, Sumter, South Carolina. Since there was no future need for gunners in a RB-66 Weather Reconnaissance outfit of which I was assigned, I applied for a transfer into the B-52 program, and was soon assigned to Castle AFB, Merced, California.

By this time I was within six months of completing my enlistment, and had to decide whether to re-enlist or accept a discharge, and go to collage and seminary in order to meet the qualifications for an Air Force Chaplain. I was discharged June 18, 1963, completed all of my degree work, and applied for the chaplaincy expecting to be admitted, and finish out my military career as a chaplain. That didn't happen...the door was closed to all branches of service at that time for the chaplaincy.