Editor's Note: This story on Mo Smith's heroics in World War II was written following an interview with him on Wednesday, Nov. 4. Sadly, he passed away Monday morning, Nov. 9. There were no details about services for the 97-year-old veteran as of press time.

About five years ago Fountain Hills resident Moylan Smith and his wife, Maggie were taking a vacation to visit her family in the east. When Mo asked what he was supposed to do to occupy his time during this visit, Maggie suggested he write down his experiences as a pilot in World War II.

Already past 90, Smith was skeptical of how his memory would hold up, but he found the details came flowing back.

Still a kid in the late 1930s Smith learned about aviation from pilots at the Philadelphia Navy Yard where his dad was an aircraft inspector. He made a commitment to the Naval Reserve, but in 1940 a co-worker suggested they sign up for a hitch in the U.S. Army Reserve. Smith was able to get out of his Navy commitment and they became part of a reserve artillery unit that went active for one year of duty in January 1941.

“We were just two weeks shy of completing our one year commitment when the U.S. joined the war, and we were in for the duration,” Smith said.

Being familiar with aircraft and the appeal of the extra flight pay, Smith passed the exam and signed on with the Army Air Corps.

In a training process seemingly designed to determine the best position for each man, Smith came out as a pilot for the B-17 bomber aircraft. He and his crew received additional training in operating the plane using new radar technology. They had the honor of ferrying the first radar equipped bomber, known as a “Pathfinder” to Europe during the war. After a number of missions their experience would eventually lead back to manning a Pathfinder aircraft later in the war.

Smith and his crew became part of the 390th Bomber Group attached to the 8th Air Force.

“The missions were grueling,” Smith recalls. “We had to use oxygen about 9,000 feet (they were generally well about that), and it was so cold we had to use electrically heated suits.

“You couldn’t touch the aircraft metal or you would freeze your fingers. We had to be careful in the heat of battle not to do that.”

In May 1944, just weeks before D-Day Smith and his group attacked a German aircraft engine works at Strasbourg, France. Some 99 percent of the bombs landed with less than half a mile of the target. Half were within 1,000 feet.

This attack was instrumental in grounding the Luftwaffe in the weeks leading up to the invasion.

On D-Day, June 6, 1944, Smith and his crew took off in the pre-dawn hours with the objective of attacking German gun emplacements overlooking the beach at Caen.

According to Smith, they were ordered to drop their bombs within 20 minutes of the time troops were to hit the beach.

“We performed as directed,” Smith writes in his memoir.

Later in the day the bombers took off for a second D-Day mission. This time the objective was a bridge entering the French town of Falaise. With cloud cover they used radar to locate the target and it was difficult to know the immediate results of the mission.

However, Smith said they learned later that they had dropped their bombs on a division of German Panzer tanks that happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. The tank division was on maneuvers and reportedly lost much of its equipment in the attack.

Just a couple of weeks after D-Day Smith and his crew were among those chosen for a mission in support of the war effort in Russia. The Russian Shuttle Run departed England on June 21, with 100 B-17 and some support fighters.

The mission was to establish bases from which American bombers and fighters could set down for refueling and resupplying.

Smith and crew flew to Mirgorad in the Ukraine while more than half the Wing set down at Poltava. After the crews had bedded down for the night those in Mirgorad were awakened by explosions, but they were tired enough to go right back to sleep.

Next morning they learned that the B-17s at Poltava were bombed overnight by the Germans. Fifty-two B-17s were destroyed and another two dozen damaged.

Those planes still at Mirgorad were moved to another airfield in Zaporozhe, about 150 miles away. The airfield at Mirgorad was bombed that night.

From the Russian airfields the planes were able to target objectives in Italy and Romania, too far for planes based in England.

A report on the Russian Shuttle noted that “Smith’s crew was one of the top Pathfinder lead crews in the 8th Air Force. Their performance on each of the four missions they flew on this shuttle was truly outstanding and for their good work each crew member received the Distinguished Flying Cross.”

Fifty years after the war, in 1995, Smith and those involved in the Russian Shuttle, received commemorative medals from the Russian government and President Boris Yeltsin.

By the end of the Russian Shuttle Smith had reached his 30 mission total for completion of his tour of duty. He returned to the states and filled out the remainder of his term of service with training assignments. He was discharged in July 1945.

“As I wrote (the story of my service) I was constantly amazed at how good luck was with me throughout the entire experience,” Smith said.

Mo Smith's story is told alongside several other vets as part of the special Veterans Day B1 page in the Nov. 11 edition of The Times.