By Luther Smith, Tuskegee airman, dies at age 89
Randor, PA – - Luther H. Smith, a Tuskegee Airman who later
worked as an aerospace engineer, has died in suburban Philadelphia.
He was 89.
Smith's family says he died Wednesday morning at Bryn Mawr
Hospital. He had been hospitalized frequently over the last two
years but attended the inauguration of President Barack Obama in
January.
Smith flew 133 combat missions with the Alabama-based 332nd
Fighter Group of the Army Air Corps. On his last mission he
parachuted from his burning plane and was captured by German
soldiers in 1944.
Smith retired in 1947 and earned his engineering degree in his
home state of Iowa. He was an engineer for 37 years at General
Electric.
Smith was one of about 300 original Tuskegee Airmen awarded the
Congressional Medal of Honor in 2007.