"Luther H. Smith Jr., 89, who flew 133 missions in Europe as a Tuskegee Airman before being captured near the end of World War II, died Wednesday at Bryn Mawr Hospital. Capt. Smith, of Villanova, survived the war to have a long career as an aerospace engineer for General Electric Co. His death was attributed to complications from an infection. "My personal good fortune took a turn, on Friday, Oct. 13, 1944," he wrote in 2001. That day, the engine of his P-51 Mustang caught fire, and he bailed out over Yugoslavia. German soldiers pulled his mangled body from a tree. Days after then-Lt. Smith was captured, an SS officer stood over his hospital bed and asked him, "You volunteer to fight for a country that lynched your people. Why?" Before he was liberated in May 1945, he said, he was often asked by the Germans why, as a black man, he was fighting for the United States. "He would become indignant and respond that he was proud to serve his country," his son, Gordon, said. Growing up in Des Moines, Iowa, Capt. Smith's heroes were the military pilots who delivered the mail in open cockpit planes. He wanted to join their ranks, but there were no black military pilots." May he rest in peace :mourn:
I visited Chanute Air Base in Rantoul, Illinois years ago and the museum although small, has a great display of the contributions of the Tuskegee Airmen. R.I.P. Capt. Smith.
