Wagener resident and World War II veteran Spencer Smith has been awarded by the Honor Flight Network with a flight to Washington, D.C. on May 13.
Along with other select South Carolina veterans, Smith will be honored at the World War II Memorial and will participate in a private tour of many war memorials in Washington, D.C. The memorials will include the WWII Memorial, the Korean, Vietnam and Lincoln Memorials, the Women's War Memorial, Arlington National Cemetery and the Changing of the Guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
A Heroes' Welcome Home celebration will be held at the Columbia airport upon their return at 8 p.m. May 13. The public is invited to attend the celebration.
Smith, 93, has never seen the World War II Memorial. Retired from a life-long service of teaching vocational agriculture at Wagener-Salley High School, Smith often hears from former students, and it was former student Donald Shumpert who nominated Smith for the flight. Once Smith was chosen, Shumpert agreed to travel with him.
Smith was drafted at the age of 20, having completed two years of a four-year degree at Clemson University. Smith was assigned to the 5th Armored Division, which was, along with the 628th Tank Battalion, part of the Third Army, General Patton's army. Smith's division went to Europe on the Aquitania in February of 1944.
The 5th Division landed in Normandy at Utah Beach in July 1944. They were divided into three groups and given their objective for spearheading missions to surround certain villages. Smith and his division, with the 628th Tank Destroyer Battalion, went through the first break in the enemy line in Normandy on Aug. 4. They were inside the German territory of France.
"We were the secret army - no news coverage - we just did what Patton told us to do," Smith said. "The first four days in action, we liberated 14 French villages. We liberated Paris. We ran Germans up from the breakfast table. One village we took, the Germans left the breakfast table and their coffee was still warm."
"The sweetest words you could hear when you entered the village was 'boche caput:' Germans are gone. We would liberate a village and all at once they would realize they were liberated from four years of Nazis. It is indescribable how excited they were, marching up and down, kissing us, giving us flowers."
For six weeks, Smith's division marched and liberated. "I never unrolled my bedroll except for two nights. I slept whenever and wherever I had the chance and we just kept moving."