Texguy84
Literotica Guru
- Joined
- Aug 1, 2003
- Posts
- 4,288
So, this is nerdy if you're me: I'm doing research for a presentation I have to give about someone or something that is an important part of Air Force enlisted heritage. I looked up enlisted Airmen who received the Medal of Honor and learned about an Aerial Gunner named Maynard "Snuffy" Smith.
He was drafted at the age of 31, where they found him in the county jail, locked up for failing to pay alimony. He was undisciplined, considered himself quite the intellectual, and didn't get along with very many people in the military. He volunteered to be an Aerial Gunner because all Aerial Gunners were promoted to NCO status, and he didn't like being bossed around.
On his very first mission, his plane was jumped by fighters and burst into flames. When the other able-bodied gunners bailed out of the plane, he fought the flames (made more intense by the combined effects of cut fuel and O2 lines, and burning ammunition), tended to the wounds of a wounded crewmate, and returned fire against German fighters from the waist guns. All this while he was only kind of sure that anyone was still alive in the front of the plane flying it (the flames kept him from getting to the cockpit).
He eventually threw the burning ammunition overboard through the holes that had been burned/melted in the plane's skin, and the plane made it safely back to Britain. Where it immediately snapped in two upon landing due to the frame being so badly weakened by the fire.
Being the first enlisted airman to receive the Medal of Honor, a big to-do was made of the occasion, and no lesser person than Secretary of War Henry Stimson was sent to present Snuffy with the medal. When he arrived, it turned out that Snuffy Smith was working KP Duty, as punishment for missing a briefing. He later ended up being taken off flying status after suffering "Operational Overexhaustion" and was later busted down to Private before being discharged in 1945.
He was drafted at the age of 31, where they found him in the county jail, locked up for failing to pay alimony. He was undisciplined, considered himself quite the intellectual, and didn't get along with very many people in the military. He volunteered to be an Aerial Gunner because all Aerial Gunners were promoted to NCO status, and he didn't like being bossed around.
On his very first mission, his plane was jumped by fighters and burst into flames. When the other able-bodied gunners bailed out of the plane, he fought the flames (made more intense by the combined effects of cut fuel and O2 lines, and burning ammunition), tended to the wounds of a wounded crewmate, and returned fire against German fighters from the waist guns. All this while he was only kind of sure that anyone was still alive in the front of the plane flying it (the flames kept him from getting to the cockpit).
He eventually threw the burning ammunition overboard through the holes that had been burned/melted in the plane's skin, and the plane made it safely back to Britain. Where it immediately snapped in two upon landing due to the frame being so badly weakened by the fire.
Being the first enlisted airman to receive the Medal of Honor, a big to-do was made of the occasion, and no lesser person than Secretary of War Henry Stimson was sent to present Snuffy with the medal. When he arrived, it turned out that Snuffy Smith was working KP Duty, as punishment for missing a briefing. He later ended up being taken off flying status after suffering "Operational Overexhaustion" and was later busted down to Private before being discharged in 1945.
