News-Info-Alerts

Re: New Book

From: POW-MIA InterNetwork

Date: June 30, 2003

"When World War II broke out Jacob E. Smart was a colonel on the staff of General Hap Arnold, chief of staff of the Army Air Corps.
-Special to the Carolina Morning News

Since retiring to Jasper County, Smart has been active in the historical society and helped spur the renovation of the old Ridgeland Elementary School, which now houses a library, museum and Chamber of Commerce office.
-Special to the Carolina Morning News

Witness to history
RIDGELAND: Retired general's book details service of Lowcountry men and women during World War II.
By Ruth Ragland Carolina Morning News

Ridgeland native Gen. Jacob E. Smart has written "Lowcountry Families in World War II: A Memorial" to be published by Palmetto Bookworks later this year.
The 1,300-page survey includes the roughly 6,000 men and women who served from Jasper County, Hampton County, the lower half of Beaufort County and the southern part of Colleton County.
The book covers the history of the war and details those who served, in which theater of war, casualties and where they are buried, noting the locations of cemeteries. Battle stories from individuals who served from Europe to the Pacific are offered including an account from Minnie Ingram, a nurse in a field hospital at the edge of the Battle of the Bulge. Ingram and her sister, Alberta, also a nurse, both served as officers in the war.
The book also recounts the story of former Ridgeland Town Manager Carl Lehmann, who lived in Germany during the war as a young boy and would grow up to be a commissioned officer in the U.S. Army.
Smart, 94, graduated from West Point in 1931 to take up flight training with the Army Air Corps. At the outbreak of World War II, he became Chief of Flying Training. He saw combat duty with the 9th Bomber Command and the Fifteenth Air Force in the Mediterranean theater when, on his 29th mission, he was hit by anti-aircraft fire, wounded, and made a prisoner of war for the next 11 months. During the Korean War, General Smart was again wounded while flying combat missions. Subsequently he commanded the Twelfth Air Force, was Commander-in-Chief of Pacific Air Forces, and retired as Deputy Commander of U.S. European Command. In his post-Air Force career, he joined NASA to aid in directing the newly established civilian space agency. Harold Guerry has been working with the general on the book since 1997. "It's been absolutely fascinating, particularly when you can get him to talk about his experiences," he said of General Smart. "He's very reluctant to do that."
When World War II broke out Smart was a colonel on the staff of General Hap Arnold, chief of staff of the Army Air Corps.
Smart was involved with the planning of the invasion of Europe and witnessed the meeting between FDR and Churchill at Casablanca in 1943. "He has tales to tell about that," Guerry said. Later Smart would plan and execute a daring and successful low-level raid on an oil refinery in Romania, flying under German radar.
"I was a group commander of B-17s, the four-engine strategic bomber," he said. "Earlier I flew combat missions in B-24s.
"Those airplanes (B-17s) cruised at something under 200 miles an hour and carried what then seemed like large bomb loads. They were protected by on-board gunners from enemy fighters, but also later in the war were escorted by American fighters designed and built specifically to escort the bombers.
"It was hazardous business, a hard way to earn a living," General Smart said. "But it was necessary and the work they did (the bombers) contributed importantly to bringing the end to the war."
Guerry said the source material for the survey of Lowcountry servicemen and servicewomen was a six-volume work put out by the adjutant general of South Carolina after the war.
He pointed out that according to the 1940 census the population of all four counties was about 70,000, so that roughly 8 or 9 percent of the whole population served.
"A considerable number were volunteers because they were unemployed," he said. "This was at the end of the Depression."
Manufacturing jobs were scarce in the Lowcountry with just a few lumber mills as a source of employment.
"A lot of young men had just before that joined the Civilian Conservation Corps to have work and to get some job training," he said. Guerry and Smart picked through the lists of South Carolinians who served to find those from the Lowcountry and translated the abbreviations in the work into a narrative, giving details about the battles various units were involved in.
Setsuko Saito has created illustrations depicting campaigns and battles.
"Her contributions are extremely important to one's understanding of how and where the war was fought," General Smart said.
"There are a few people who will read this from cover to cover," despite its voluminous length, Guerry said. "I would categorize it as a good textbook on World War II from the standpoint that it starts with the political situation before the war and carries you through the occupation of both Germany and Japan.
"As a family geneologist I look at it as a gold mine for those people who don't know anything about their ancestors' roles in World War II," he said. "That was a very closed-mouthed generation. They were very reluctant to talk about their roles themselves."
Since retiring to Jasper County, Smart has been active in the historical society and helped spur the renovation of the old Ridgeland Elementary School, which now houses a library, museum and Chamber of Commerce office.
"Like my father I think I was born with a homing instinct," Smart said. "He moved away from Jasper County when my brother and I were quite young children because his work took him away but he always wanted to come back, and I wanted to come back also. As soon as I sensibly could I came back here to make this my permanent home. Even while I was away though, in the service, I considered this home and voted in Jasper County.
"General Smart is what I consider a true American hero," said Wofford Malphrus, immediate past president of the historical society. "He's just been an all-round good citizen."
Malphrus nominated Smart for the S.C. Hall of Fame and Smart was inducted earlier this year in Myrtle Beach.
For more information about the book call Charles Taylor of the historical society at 726-6723.
Reporter Ruth Ragland can be reached at 837-5255, ext. 124, or by e-mail at arts@lowcountrynow.com


©2002 Carolina Morning News"