A truly inspiring story, given the climate of today's fraud's and phonies!!!
Long story, but worth every minute of the read, IMHO.
Well done, Sir!!!
Holly
http://www.tulsaworld.com/scene/arti...1_CUTLIN954138
A duty to Serve
J.D. Smith continues the fight for the nation's warriors
By MATT GLEASON World Scene Writer
Published: 12/13/2010 2:22 AM
Last Modified: 12/13/2010 4:49 AM
Ninety years ago, Veterans of Foreign Wars Tulsa Post 577 was born on Dec. 14, 1920. Four years later, James Dores Smith came into the world on Dec. 24, 1924.
The historic VFW post and the 85-year-old Tulsan - who everyone knows as J.D. - are linked by time, memory and a shared mission to serve the warriors of America.
The VFW, as a national organization, dates back to 1899 when veterans of the Spanish-American War and the Philippine Insurrection aimed to fight yet another battle - one for medical care and a veterans' pension.
"Since then, the VFW's voice has been instrumental in establishing the Veterans Administration," according to the VFW website, "creating a G.I. bill for the 20th century, the development of the national cemetery system and the fight for compensation for Vietnam vets exposed to Agent Orange and for veterans diagnosed with Gulf War Syndrome."
VFW members, and its Auxiliary, contribute more than 13 million hours of volunteerism annually, the site states.
On a local level, Steve Porter, Post 577's commander, called Smith a prime example of a 577 member giving back to the community.
"One of the points J.D. won't press is that he spends (about 20) hours per week working for veterans, veterans' families and children," Porter explained. "J.D. is generally regarded as one of the most selfless members of the VFW in the state of Oklahoma."
Porter is right about Smith not pressing his community service on folks. But not long after Smith helped his wife, Jo Smith, make sausage balls for a holiday party at the Claremore Veterans Center, his stories came easily.
At sea
In December 1943, Smith, who grew up in Stillwater, graduated from high school early to join the Navy. Eventually, the teenager ended up a torpedoman serving in the South Pacific on a PT, or patrol torpedo, boat. While patrolling in the cover of dark, Smith fired 12 torpedoes, complete with 600-pound warheads armed with TNT that stank of rotten eggs once they found their targets. Only three of Smith's torpedoes - the ones that would cost more than $736,000 in today's money - went off target.
It was important not to miss during a war when, as Smith said, a PT boat was "right there in the kitchen with what it was going to shoot at."
To join the VFW, as Smith did in 1964, he had to meet three primary requisites for membership: citizenship, honorable service in the armed forces, and a campaign medal. Smith earned one of his most prestigious medals the day he helped another sailor rescue two servicemen trapped in the cab of a barge's half-submerged crane, which had been tipped into the ocean during a typhoon.
"At the time," as Smith recalled, "it wasn't a big deal to us, you know?"
There's a reason why Smith's generation is "the greatest."
On land
Smith got out of the Navy on a Saturday in January 1946. He went home to rest on Sunday, then began classes that Monday at the then-Oklahoma A&M College in Stillwater. While there on the G.I. Bill, Smith joined the American Legion. Decades later, Smith was the 2007-08 Legionnaire of the Year.
To make money in college, Smith woke at 2:30 a.m. almost every morning to deliver milk from a creamery to the dormitories. The college milkman went on to graduate with a degree in food microbiology that served him well in his 42 years working for Borden.
While living in Oklahoma City in the mid-1960s, Smith joined VFW Post 9265 in 1964. He later transferred to Tulsa Post 577 in 1971.
Smith joined the VFW as a way to connect with fellow veterans and, really, it was just "the thing to do," he said.
Family and career kept Smith busy through the 1970s and '80s, but in 1990 - two years before he retired from Tulsa's Borden plant as chief engineer - Smith found himself spending more and more time at Post 577. And that meant taking care of the aging facility via electrical work, plumbing, carpentry or just about any other odd job. After all, the VFW on Sixth Street was built in 1920 as an armory. It needed a man like Smith.
During World War II, as Smith recalled, service personnel transferring from one place to another would stay the night at the facility. They could get a nice meal, a warm shower and a cot all for 25 cents.
"They say it was wall-to-wall cots every night," Smith said.
In 1946, Post 577 bought the facility from the National Guard for about $6,000, Smith said, or about 10 times less than a single torpedo Smith fired during the war. To this day, he said, there are still National Guard rifle targets beneath the VFW's stage.
Smith learned some of the building's history while doing some research a few years ago in hopes of landing it on the National Register of Historic Places. Although the facility belongs on the registry, Smith said a registry plaque just isn't worth the cost of restoring the building to its original form.
Like the VFW, there's not much to be done for Smith's own wrinkles, but they both continue to serve long into their elder years.
Giving back
To tally all that Smith has done over the years is difficult, but a few of his good deeds include cooking breakfast at the post on Veterans Day and planting flags on gravesites on Memorial Day. He's also served as the post's assistant dance chairman and as the community activities chairman, which Smith described as "the guy who does more work than anybody."
Nowadays, if a veteran needs help filling out paperwork to receive any number of benefits - or retrieve earned medals never delivered - Smith's there to help. He's also active in the VFW's annual writing contests that find students writing essays that answer questions like "Does America still have patriots." Yes. His name's J.D. And he can point to countless others.
About five years ago, Smith got tired of seeing veterans fishing from the Claremore Veterans Center's concrete dock without any shade from the burning sun. So he personally raised $18,000, and worked with an engineer friend, to furnish a steel cover for the dock.
Recently, Smith has been helping to raise $90,000 to furnish new televisions for the veterans center.
For the center's recent holiday party, Smith and his wife served their sausage balls, and Smith made sure to take plenty of his famous apple cider.
"We heat it up, and, boy, they just can't wait to get hold of that cider," Smith said. "They'll all take a sip and look at each other. But there's nothing in there that doesn't belong in there."
Beyond the Claremore Veterans Center, Smith is active in the Veterans Administration Volunteer Service, which recently raised $11,000 so that families of veterans receiving treatment at the Jack C. Montgomery VA Medical Center in Muskogee can, among other needs, eat, and stay in motels for free. When Smith's not out serving others, folks can probably find him in his Tulsa backyard, where he's spent 17 years cultivating a garden that's 2,400 square feet. You could plop a decent-sized house in the middle of it. Each year, Smith grows about 1,000 pounds of tomatoes, along with onions the size of softballs, among other veggies.
"If you have a pocketful of seeds," Smith said, "and one falls, you better move your foot, because that plant is going to grow."
Smith's house is but one of the roughly 2,400 homes which he presides over as president of the Charles Page Neighborhood Association.
Long after Smith leaves behind Post 577, and this world, his legacy will remain in stories told, perhaps, in the post's bar, the Uptown Lounge. As for a more permanent reminder of Smith, there's a lone red brick around the post's flagpole that is emblazoned with Smith's name and a nod to the PT boats that patrolled the dark with the torpedoman ready for action.
Just don't stand on that brick. If you do, a kindly man everyone knows as J.D. will politely ask: "Please get off my brick."
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