Copy from Chilkat Valley News article by Tom Morphet , April 7, 2016

World War II vet awarded ‘honor flight’ to nation’s capital

Leo Smith, a 50-year Haines resident and one of the area’s few surviving World War II veterans, will make an expense-paid trip to Washington, D.C., as part of “The Last Frontier Honor Flight,” a program honoring aging veterans. Smith, 89, enlisted in the Army at age 17, serving as a paratrooper from 1945-46.

Pausing to talk to a reporter this week while replacing a pipe on a hot water heater at his trailer home in Fort Seward, Smith said he’s not really sure why he enlisted. “I don’t have a clue. Just for the adventure, I guess. The paratroopers paid $50 or $100 more than the regular Army. That’s where the money was, so that’s where I had to go, or so I thought in those days,” he said.

Smith leaves April 26 on a flight with other Alaska veterans. The five-day trip includes receptions in Anchorage, Portland, Ore., and Washington, D.C, meetings with dignitaries, and tours of military monuments and other attractions. “I’m looking forward to getting to travel and not having to pay for it,” Smith said. “And I’m wondering if I might run into somebody I was in the service with. You never know in a case like this.”

Smith grew up in Prineville, Ore. and worked about 65 years as a logger. He still cuts and sells firewood and takes down “danger trees” for friends. He splits about eight cords of wood to heat his home and his domestic water annually and maintains a neat shop full of saws and other tools.

As a paratrooper, Smith jumped out of planes 21 times on non-combat flights. His overseas service included being stationed in Sendai, Japan, a city that was fire-bombed by U.S. forces about a month before the Japanese surrender in August, 1945. It also had been the site of a forced labor camp for Allied prisoners of war. “I didn’t make any combat jumps, but that didn’t hurt my feelings… I didn’t see anything too terrible, but I wouldn’t want to do it again. There are better things to do, I’m sure,” Smith said. Some of the jumps Smith made were required “pay jumps” he made clandestinely for other soldiers who had lost their nerve. “Every two months you had to make a pay jump. I made a lot of extra money at it.”

According to the national World War II museum, there were 1,110 World War II vets in Alaska at the start of 2016 and 698,000 in the nation. Approximately 430 World War II vets die each day. The Honor Flight Network was launched in 2005 to help veterans see the recently completed World War II Memorial. In 2013, Ron Travis of Wasilla started the Honor Flight hub in Alaska, which has since expanded to veterans of the Korean War.

“Right now World War II guys are a real priority. Anytime anyone steps up, he goes to the head of the list,” Travis said. The program is funded by various Alaska veterans groups, including the American Legion, as well as Alaska Airlines and other businesses in the state. Travis said the trip is usually meaningful for veterans who make it. “It’s not so much seeing all the granite. What happens when you get those guys together, who are all the same age and the same experiences, they start talking and by the time they get back, they’re fast friends.”

The trip includes a “mail call” on the return home, featuring letters written to veterans. “We try to make this as big a deal as possible and give them a manila envelope full of letters. Some of these guys never got a letter the whole time they were in the service.” Haines American Legion commander John Newton nominated Smith for the trip.

Haines 4th of July Parade is coming quickly 

4^th of July – Parade – All Veterans encouraged to march in parade 11 am

Post 12 unit to be comprised of Veterans, Sons of Veterans and Auxiliary

Are you ready to join us and march as a proud veteran?

Call or Visit Legion for details – 766-2530

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