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World War II Veteran: Jack Smith
Duration: 12:56
Transcript (RTF)
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Collection: Iowa's WWII Stories
Jack Smith says his service really began in High School. He had 3 years of junior ROTC and knew he wanted to fly. He joined the Navy and flew Wildcats and Hellcats. Jack tells us about joining the Suwanee as a replacement pilot following the invasion of Tarawa. Kamikazes hit the Suwanee and her twin ship the Santee while Jack was up flying. The casualty rate on the hangar deck that day was tremendous. He also tells us about flying over a fleet at Yapp. This was a big enough operation that every major fleet unit in the Pacific coagulated at the time of the invasion. He tells us you can see fifty miles from ten thousand feet. He couldn't see across that fleet; It was that big.
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- Transcript (RTF)
Post Date: November 7, 2007
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