TIM PRATT
STARKVILLE — Andrew Lee Smith can still remember the bombing runs.
Flying over enemy territory during the height of World War II, Smith was a fresh-faced 22-year-old from Mantee, serving as an Army Air Force navigator on a B-24 bomber. His job, along with the rest of the B-24 crew, was to “uproot everything we could,” he said Tuesday evening from his table at Starkville Cafe, whether it meant bombing rail lines in Italy and Germany, enemy fuel supplies in Romania, or any number of other targets.
Now 88 years old, Smith moves a bit slower than he once did and his hearing has deteriorated a bit, but his eyes still light up when he recalls his time overseas, sometimes returning to base with his plane riddled in bullet holes.
“There was fear and all, but that was part of being in the service,” he said with a smile.
Smith was one of about 30 veterans who congregated Tuesday at Starkville Cafe for a ceremony to honor those who served in World War II. The celebration came on the 65th anniversary of the day U.S. soldiers erected an American flag at Iwo Jima — an action photographer Joe Rosenthal depicted in the photo that has become an iconic image of World War II.
“A moment like this, when you’re in a room full of World War II veterans, is the type of moment that gives you chills,” Starkville Mayor Parker Wiseman said from the packed dining room in Starkville Cafe. “You realize all of the wonderful things we enjoy about this country and the world today were made possible by the tremendous sacrifices of their generation.”
Read complete article at Commercial Dispatch.
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