Elmer Calvin Smith, who died at age 101 on Sept. 20, 2024, wears his Army Air Corps uniform in this undated photo. Smith was 18 when his Army airfield in Hawaii was attacked by Japanese aircraft on Dec. 7, 1941. (Pacific Historic Parks)
Elmer Calvin Smith, who as an 18-year-old soldier stationed at an Army airfield survived the Japanese surprise attack on Hawaii in 1941, died Friday at age 101.
Smith, originally from upstate New York, was living in Middletown, Ohio, and receiving hospice care, according to an obituary posted on the web site for Jefferson Memorial Funeral Home in Birmingham, Ala.
Smith was among fewer than two dozen still-living veterans who survived the Dec. 7, 1941, attack on Oahu, although the exact number is unknown.
While Pearl Harbor took the brunt of the attack, Japanese aircraft also laid waste to Army and Marine Corps installations in other parts of the island. Smith was stationed at what is now Wheeler Army Airfield, which lies adjacent to Schofield Barracks in central Oahu.
Born March 10, 1923, at his home in Derby, N.Y., Smith enlisted in the Army Air Corps eight days after his 18th birthday in 1941.
The Japanese dive bomber attack on Wheeler lasted only about 15 minutes, but the assault destroyed or disabled most of the planes.
“In 15 minutes, we had 30 dead and 45 wounded. And I just escaped,” Smith told the Dayton Daily News in a story published on his 100th birthday last year.
He went on to fight throughout the North and South Pacific during World War II, according to a Facebook post Tuesday by Pacific Historic Parks.
He was assigned to P-40 Warhawk and B-17 squadrons in the Pacific near what is now the island nation of Vanuatu.
“I was in armaments,” he told the Dayton Daily News. “But I had to fly sometimes. We had a 2,200-mile round trip with a B-29, and they didn’t put good engines in them. And most people, in B-29s, if you were coming home, usually you’d come in on three engines. You’d lose an engine.”
Smith was awarded the Bronze Star by Gen. Douglas MacArthur, according to Pacific Historic Parks.
His unit, the 502nd Bomb Group, received the Legion of Merit from President Franklin Roosevelt.
Smith’s older brother, Walter, also served in the Pacific but did not make it home. He died on Oct. 20, 1944, at age 22 in the Battle of Leyte in the Philippines.
Smith was discharged from service in October 1945 and worked for the South Buffalo Railway in New York until he retired in 1984.
After retirement, he lived in Bradenton, Fla., Trussville, Ala., and most recently in Beavercreek, Ohio, with his daughter and son-in-law, according to the funeral home obituary.
He was preceded in death by his brother Walter; sisters Beverly Arrigo, June Sweeney and Doris Stuck; son Marc D. Smith; and his wife of 76 years, Elinora, who died in March.
Visitation will be held Wednesday from 5-6 p.m. at Beaver United Church of Christ, 1960 Dayton Xenia Road, Beavercreek, Ohio. The funeral will take place immediately after.
He will be buried in Jefferson Memorial Gardens, in Trussville, Ala.
