Mr. Write's Page

I’m in Washington, D.C., this week, catching up on my sight-seeing. You know, doing the monuments and museums. I wanted to tour the White House, but I’m not a group of 10.

One key stop on my rounds was the World War II Memorial, which wasn’t here the last time I was in town. It opened in 2004, and I was curious to see it. My dad’s war experiences were the formative events of his life, and for that matter, the lives of all the Smiths of the time.

Frankly, I was disappointed in the monument. It was neither as emotional as the Vietnam War Memorial, nor as dramatic as the Korean War Memorial. It just fell a little short, at least in my view.

But as I was leaving, I noticed a sign in the window of the visitor information booth that read:

WELCOME TO THE WWII REGISTRY

The Registry can be searched for names of those whose service and sacrifice helped win the Second World War.

http://www.wwiimemorial.com

Last night, I went to the website and searched for my dad. I didn’t know if he would be in the database, but I certainly intended to add him if he weren’t.

Dad was there, all right. This is the information I found:

HONOREE: Walter A. Smith, Jr.

HOMETOWN: Savannah, GA

BRANCH OF SERVICE: U.S. Army Air Forces

HONORED BY: Walter A. Smith

ACTIVITY DURING WWII — PANAMA COMMAND, COMBAT PILOT. 55TH BOMB WING (HEAVY), 15TH U.S. AIR FORCE, ITALY. SHOT DOWN ON PLOESTI, ROMANIA, MISSION. POW JUNE 1943. SENIOR ALLIED PRISONER. LED MASS ESCAPE TO TURKEY OF 365 AIRMEN. DECORATED WITH LEGION OF MERIT. 20 AWARDS, DECORATIONS, MEDALS, AND COMMENDATIONS BY ARMY AND AIR FORCE.

Wow.

The details are all correct, and I was delighted to see it. But the HONORED BY entry stopped me cold. HONORED BY on the website means SUBMITTED BY.

Huh? Did I submit the information, but forgot I did it? Of course not.

Did Dad submit the entry himself after the war? Not likely. In that case, the HONORED BY entry would be Walter A. Smith, Jr.

That only leaves one Walter A. Smith who could have done it: my grandfather, the original Walter A. Smith.

The family called him Papa. That’s pronounced Pah-pah, not Pop-uh. As the oldest grandkid, I had naming rights, and Papa is what I called him.

Papa died far too young. Cancer took him in 1951. But he lived long enough to see all three of his sons come home safely from the war and return to normal lives.

Suppose that sometime between the end of the war and his death, my grandfather submitted information about Dad’s war service to a memorial registry of some kind in Savannah.

Suppose that information was vacuumed up by the World War II Registry when it was being compiled years later. That would explain what I found last night.

I hope I never find a different explanation.

I like being able to say, Thanks, Papa.