850th/857th/858th BS

The Crews of Willard H. Smith

Scanned from Special Orders #205, Station 179, dtd 10 Nov 1944

 

As the 850th BS formed up at Mountain Home, Idaho in the spring of 1944 it had no officers with enough seniority to be designated Operations Officer.  Much to the chagrin of the C.O., Willard Smith was brought in as a qualified Operations Officer for the Squadron. As such Smith had no regular crew until Dickerson took him off the job in August of 1944, replacing him with his favorite, Darby.  Smith then had few missions in as Operations Officer and at that time had to fly a full tour, just as Ops were in decline at Harrington.  He flew with Darby's crew until they finished their tours, then after most of the 850th had finished their tours was in hiatus until new replacements came in. He picked up Stanton as Copilot, who had come in on orders alone in August of 1944, then Rodriguez, who came in on orders in the middle of October 1944, also alone. The remainder of the crew was made up of Hasty, from Carscaddon's first crew, and Callahan, Leichty, Chandler and Sadler from the ill-fated Huenekens crew.  Before long, Smith and his new crew were transferred into the 858th BS, in November of 1944.  Smith piloted two of the 35 C-47 missions in August and September of 1944, and dropped Andrès Gerard on the night of 8/9 September 1944.

Combat Period: May 1944 - ??? 1945

 

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