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He Wanted To Fly
(February 15, 2010)
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All he wanted to do was fly, but it was the 1930s and there was a
depression and a dust bowl going on in his native Oklahoma. He lived
in the second farmhouse on his grandfather's farm. The US Army Air
Corps required you to have two years of college in order to get into
their cadet flight program. Floyd E. Smith was determined to fly.
Where the money came from I am not sure but he attended a junior
college with the personal mission to get those two years.
Pearl Harbor changed all that. The Army immediately dropped the
college requirement, they just needed pilots. Now all underage Floyd
needed was his mother to sign the papers to let him enlist. This was
not an easy process. Mother Smith was not about to let her son go
off to war. Finally when she realized Floyd would eventually be
drafted into the infantry she relented to let him fly. | |
Van E. Harl |
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Lieutenant Smith spent his war in the Aleutian Islands of Alaska,
flying P-38 Lightnings and watching his buddy's planes ice up and
crash into the sea. He tried to stay in the Army Air Force after the
war but there was no flying to be had so he separated to go back to
college.
1950 and the start of the Korean War saw Floyd recalled to the now
US Air Force. This time he stayed for a career. He served in Korea
and spent much of the 1950s and early 11200s as an instructor pilot.
The other passion that Smitty (the name I knew him best by) was
firearms. The Air Force was getting into competitive rifle and
pistol shooting and they needed the custom build firearms to go head
to head with the Army and Marines on the shooting range. Smitty
spent years down at Lackland Air Force Base at the Air Force
Marksmanship School developing and building competitive firearms.
Most people do not know that the M-16 rifle was not what the Army
was looking for when if came time to replace the old M-14 rifle. The
Air Force was building up air bases in Vietnam and they needed to
arm their Air Police with something new and better to defend
runways. The Air Force wanted the M-16 and Major Floyd Smith was
knee deep in making that happen against the wishes of the Army.
Whatever rifle was picked all branches of the Department of Defense
were going to have to use that new weapon.
In the early 11200s it was not uncommon to see Major Smith on some
local TV station blasting away at watermelons with his M-16, trying
to convince a group of officials what a great new rifle the Air
Force was developing. Many an Army General was not happy with Major
Smith's success in getting the word out about this new firearm.
History shows that his personal efforts paid off. The M-16 in
various configurations is still the primary battle rifle of the US
military. That young airman in Iraq has no idea the rifle he bets
his life on was helped into his hands by a poor Cherokee boy from
Eastern Oklahoma.
When Lt. Colonel Smith retired from the Air Force after serving in
his third war in Vietnam he continued his passion for firearms. He
went into the retail firearms business but his fame came from being
a master pistol gunsmith.
As a Colorado Ranger I carry a custom Colt Government 45 automatic
pistol, Smitty built for me thirty-two years ago. I shot a perfect
score with that old handgun two weeks ago when I had to qualify for
the Rangers. I came to know Smitty when I was fifteen years old. I
knew I would go into the military but it was Colonel Smith's
influence that directed me to the Air Force. He came to visit me in
Alaska in 1991 when his 11th Air Force of WW II fame held their 50th
year reunion. Some of the veterans took a tour of the Aleutian
Islands they had been stationed on, Smitty did not go. As he told me
“there is nothing I left on those God forsaken rocks I want to see.”
Lt. Colonel Floyd E. Smith died this morning (1 April 2009). A vast
amount of historical knowledge about the Air Force, the M-16 rifle
and air base ground defense was lost this day. Selfishly I lost a
very dear friend. To his family, I am so sorry. To the current Air
Force cops you have no idea what this man did for you to help defend
air bases.
We buried another veteran today. | |
By
Van E. Harl
Copyright
2009 About Author:
Major Van E. Harl, USAF Ret., was a career police officer in the U.S. Air
Force. He was the Deputy Chief of police at two Air Force Bases and the
Commander of Law Enforcement Operations at another. Major Harl is a graduate of
the U.S. Army Infantry School, the Air Force Squadron Officer School and the Air
Command and Staff College. After retiring from the Air Force he was a state
police officer in Nevada.
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