Byron A. Smith

Byron A Smith

Official Military Personnel File of Byron “A” Smith, National Personnel Records Center, National Arc

Quick Facts

Significance:

US Navy Sailor, World War II, KIA

Place of Birth:

Holcomb, Missouri

Date of Birth:

May 17, 1925

Place of Death:

Off the Southwestern Coast of Okinawa

Date of Death:

July 30, 1945

Place of Burial:

Honolulu, Hawaii

Cemetery Name:

National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific

Born on May 17, 1925, Byron Smith grew up with his large family in Holcomb, Missouri. The Depression brought hardship to large rural families such as the Smiths, forcing them to move several times. Smith attended formal school through only the fifth grade.

At age 18, Byron Smith was living in Grand Haven, Michigan. He worked at the Campbell, Wyant and Cannon Foundry Co. as a coremaker, earning $40 per week.¹ The company expanded and diversified production during the war, making crankshafts for submarines, tank treads and tracks, and brake drums for B-29 bombers.² Performing this critical work for the war effort, Smith likely would not have been drafted into the war.

However, a month after marrying Winifred Ruth Sheehy on July 24, 1943, Smith voluntarily enlisted in the US Navy. He signed up to serve for two years as an apprentice seaman (AS). Apprentice seamen had a base pay of $50 per month, so this was a significant cut in pay for AS Byron Smith. He chose to have about half of his pay deducted and sent to his wife in Springfield, Michigan.

From September 3 to November 13, 1943, AS Smith attended the Farragut Navy Training Station in Idaho, the Navy’s only land locked training station. Upon completing his training, Smith was promoted to seaman second class (S2c). The Navy then sent Smith to California for a little more training: two days of firefighting, three weeks Deck Petty Officer School, and six days of gunnery.

On December 31, 1943, S2c Smith was received aboard on USS Cassin Young (DD-793), making him an original member of the crew, commonly known as a plank owner. He spent the next year and a half on Cassin Young, sharing boredom, laughter, and danger with his shipmates as they served in the South Pacific. On March 1, 1945, Smith was promoted to seaman 1st class (S1c), and on March 18, 1945 he crossed the equator for the first time earning the coveted status of a "trusty shellback." Despite stamping Smith’s induction papers "Illiterate," the Navy invested in him with training, multiple promotions, and responsibility.

The crew of Cassin Young used the ship’s radar and sonar to protect the fleet while on picket duty. The ship’s agility and speed were used to rescue sailors and pilots from the ocean, deliver mail, and occasionally outrun a typhoon. They laid a smoke screen to mask maneuvers of landing attack vessels. The Cassin Young crew experienced many campaigns: Western Caroline Islands Operations, Leyte Gulf Operation, Luzon Operation, Iwo Jima, Marianas Operation, and the Philippines Liberation. During the Okinawa campaign, the ship faced two kamikaze attacks. On April 12, 1945, the first kamikaze hit killed one shipmate and injured 59 others. On July 30, the second hit wounded 45 and killed 22 crew members, including S1c Smith. He was 20 years old. He was buried with his shipmates on Okinawa. Commander John Ailes described the scene to Smith's wife Winifred in a letter:

I did have the opportunity to visit the cemetery where your husband is interred and would like to give you some of the details. The cemetery is a Naval Cemetery on the Island of Okinawa located just above the Hagushi beaches where our troops first landed on Easter Sunday. It is a lovely spot overlooking the ocean and surrounded by low rolling hills. The graves are neatly marked and are well taken care of. I am enclosing a picture of the cemetery to show you what it is like.³

Smith’s older brother Woodrow Alex Smith also served in the Navy in the Pacific theater (died 1992). Byron Smith’s final resting place is in the National Cemetery in Honolulu, Hawaii. Among Smith’s personal effects were letters from home, and stamps yet to be used.⁴
 

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Footnotes:

1. Official Military Personnel File of Byron “A” Smith, National Personnel Records Center, National Archives and Records Administration, St. Louis, MO.
2. Paula Holmes-Greely, “Forging Ahead” (Michigan Live Webpage: mlive.com/chronicle/2008).
3. Official Military Personnel File of Byron “A” Smith, National Personnel Records Center, National Archives and Records Administration, St. Louis, MO.
4. Ibid.