General from Patrick to take final rest in Arlington

By Taylor Boyd

Patrick County native General Stanley O’Neil Smith will be honored with a formal burial in the Arlington National Cemetery – a United States military cemetery in Arlington, Virginia.

Smith will be one of the first Patrick Countians to be buried at the cemetery.

Candace Sammons, a close childhood friend and sister to Smith, said they grew up as neighbors in the Five Forks area of Patrick County. Because she was only 20 months older than Smith, she said they grew up playing with each other.

“I played cowboys and Indians with him, and he would play paper dolls with me. We would sit in front of a window so that nobody could see, so he could see if anyone was coming,” she said.

Sammons said Smith decided he was going to be a pilot early in life.

“He came home one day, we’d been playing outside, and he said ‘an airplane flew over, and that pilot waved at me. I know he did, I saw him,’” she said she was told.

After graduating from Stuart High School in 1959, Smith attended Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (VT) and joined its Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) program. He and his wife, Linda, married during the summer before his senior year, and Smith graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in business administration in 1963.

He began flight training in October 1963 at Craig Air Force Base, Alabama, and earned his wings in October 1964.

Smith served five tours in Vietnam during the Vietnam War. In June 1965, he was deployed to Andersen Air Force Base in Guam and completed four, six-month tours flying with the U.S. Strategic Air Command’s Arc Light forces and flying B-52 bombing missions.

In October 1968, Smith was transferred to Da Nang Air Base in the Republic of Vietnam to work in the 20th Tactical Air Support Squadron. During his year-long tour, Smith flew 281 missions as a forward air controller in 0-2A’s, from October 1968 to August 1969.

“During that year, he was awarded the distinguished Flying Cross twice for action that saved American lives,” Sammons said.

He was then assigned to Wurtsmith Air Force base in Michigan, where he served as a B-52H commander. While deployed form the base to Thailand, he completed his 150th combat mission in a B-52. He received his M.A. in management from Central Michigan University while at the base.

Smith began serving as the 37th Bombardment Squadron commander at Ellsworth Air Force Base near Rapid City, South Dakota in June 1980.

“He said it was the closet place to heaven on earth for somebody who grew up playing cowboys and Indians. He went to real, rodeos when he was out there, and he loved the real rodeos, not the show rodeos,” she said.

He was transferred to Loring Air Force Base in Maine in December 1982 and served initially as vice commander of the 42nd Bombardment Wing. He became the wing commander in October 1983.

He also served as the commander of the 45th Air Division Pease Air National Guard Base in New Hampshire.

“When he was there, he would meet President George H.W. Bush’s plane every time he came to the airport. They would go over to the officers’ club and have a drink together and sit around and talk awhile,” she said.

Sammons said that Smith told her that during one of those meetings, Bush remarked “Oh, I got to go! Barbara will be wondering where I am!”

Smith was promoted to the rank of brigadier general on March 1, 1988, with same date of rank.

He retired during the Cold War era following an Operation Looking Glass flight. With this operation the United States always had a ranking general in the air, so if the country was attacked, there would still be a commander able to lead U.S. troops.

“He was on a Looking Glass flight when he had a heart attack. He waited until the plane landed in Omaha, then flew to Boston, and he went to the hospital there and had a bypass surgery,” Sammons said.

Because of the heart surgery and the medication, Smith was deemed unable to fly anymore. Sammons said once Smith couldn’t fly anymore, the Air Force wasn’t as much fun, and he retired after his surgery on Feb. 28, 1990. He had served 27 years, five months, and two days.

During his tenure in the Air Force, Smith was a part of at least one thousand flight missions.

“They dumped him with cold water when he got back from his thousandth. That’s a tradition in the Air Force,” she said.

Smith and his wife moved to Raleigh, N.C., where he picked up golf.

“He played golf every day. He called it going to the office. One day, he walked out to go to the office, and he missed a step. He fell backwards and broke his neck. He was paralyzed from then on,” she said.

Sammons said Smith lived several more years before his death on August 13, 2021. He was 80.

“I miss him every day, and I can’t tell you how many things have happened that I immediately think, ‘oh, I have to call Stan,’” she said, tearing up.

Sammons said Smith has yet to be buried at Arlington because of the cemetery’s procedures.

Her nephew and Smith’s son, Neil, are working with Arlington National Cemetery on the burial process, which can sometimes take up to six months to arrange and complete. A date for the burial has yet to be set.

Smith totaled approximately 6,000 flying hours and accumulated 1,655 combat hours during 431 combat missions.

He received the Legion of Merit, Distinguished Flying Cross with tow oak leaf clusters, Meritorious Service Medal with an oak leaf cluster, Air Medal with 15 oak leaf clusters, Republic of Vietnam Gallantry Cross with Palm, and Republic of Vietnam Campaign Medal with nine stars.

Smith is survived by his wife, Linda; daughter Candace Smith, of Florida; son Neil Smith and his wife Carole Smith of McLean, VA; five grandchildren; and sisters Candance Sammons of Mt. Airy, N.C., and Anne Smith Cox, of Stuart.