Paul Loeffler interviews Nyle Smith for Fresno Christian’s Veterans Day chapel

Every year, Hometown Heroes’ host Paul Loeffler invites a veteran to speak at Fresno Christian’s annual Veterans Day chapel. This year, Nyle Smith told his story to hundreds of FCS middle and high school students on Tues., Nov. 9. 

99 year old WWII and Vietnam War veteran Nyle Smith dedicated 22 years, two months, and six days of his life to the US Air Force, serving as a mechanic in WWII and as a first sergeant in Vietnam. When he joined the USAF in January 1942, Pearl Harbor had just been bombed, and Smith, 19 at the time, was one year into college. 

Smith first heard about the attack on Pearl Harbor over the radio, and describes the shock that the announcement gave him in a separate Hometown Heroes interview by Paul Loeffler.

“It was about one o’clock in the afternoon, and I was sitting there listening to the radio,” Smith said, “My dad was asleep when the announcement came on: the Japanese had just bombed Pearl Harbor. I woke my dad up and told him, he couldn’t believe it. It was hard to believe.”

Initially, Smith had no plans to join any branch of the military, and planned to go to a college in Carthage, Illinois to continue his education post-high school. He enlisted in the Air Force with an interest in piloting, not wanting to join the army. However, back then, the requirement for pilots was two years of education, so he was made a plane mechanic. 

Joining the 96th Bomb Group, Smith was responsible for one 10-man crew of B-17 bombers, charged with general upkeep and repair if need be, after every flight. This job was grueling, and performed overnight, taking up to 6-8 hours. In contrast, German mechanics could get their planes back up and running in the span of 15 minutes with interchangeable parts.  

Mechanics were usually never allowed to fly missions, but one night in April 1944, a volunteer was needed for the ground crew. Smith, wanting to participate in missions, stepped up.

“We had pathfinders, which had a radar dome, and they could lead missions through clouds and other stuff,” Smith said, “We had to furnish planes at bases all around. We had to go the night before, with two ground men to see them off the next day.”

What was supposed to be just another mission, taking no more than 20-40 minutes in the cover of the night, ended up becoming much more dangerous when the Germans attacked the crew in England.

“I thought it was the English first. When I saw the tracer bullets going by the window I knew it was a German fighter,” Smith said, “That’s when I took cover as best I could.”

As the Germans began shooting, Smith, behind cover in the back, was hit in the hip, parts of the bullet still in his leg to this day. Eventually, the plane crashed, sliding through about a half mile of forest and crashing through a brick wall. When the plane finally stopped moving, Smith, despite his injury, and with the help of the copilot, proceeded to get all but three members of the crew a safe distance away from the burning plane.

“I was the first one out,” Smith said, “It [the plane] was on fire, and I knew it would blow up. We had gasoline, bombs, and ammunition on board. ”

At the end of the mission, the crew was rushed to the hospital, and most were sent back to the US. Smith, however, was sent back to the base two weeks later and continued to serve. 

Smith, who married a Scottish woman in 1945, details how the end of WWII was announced to the world. 

“We [my wife and I] were sitting in a theater in Edinburgh watching a movie,” Smith said, “and all at once the movie stopped, the lights went on, Churchill came on, and said ‘The war in Europe is over.’ It was May the eighth, 1945.”

In the aftermath of all of these events, Smith has just one thing to say:

“I’m not a hero,” Smith said, “I was just doing my job.”

Even with that humble statement, Smith went on to receive a Good Conduct Medal, a Purple Heart, and a Bronze Star in his next 20 years of service, as well as the Soldier’s Medal for his actions that night, a high honor for a soldier to receive. 

Out of the 16 million men who served the US in WWII, only 240,329 veterans are left in 2021, according to the US Department of Veterans Affairs. These dwindling numbers make it even more difficult to preserve their heroic stories, which only makes listening to these brave men all the more important.

To hear Nyle Smith’s full account of his story, go to Aircraft Mechanic Saves Lives.

To read another Veterans Day article, go to Paul Loeffler interviews WWII vet during Veterans Day chapel, Nov. 14.

To read more articles by The Feather, go to What is the Momentum campaign? or Tri-sport athlete Brad Cheney chases his dreams.