MAJ. GEN. HOMER D. SMITH, JR. (Ret.) of San Antonio, TX
passed away on March 6, 2011, with burial at Fort Sam
Houston National Cemetery in SA.
He was born in Breckenridge, TX on Feb. 16, 1922. He
graduated from Ranger High School in the Class of 1938 at
Ranger, TX. He was President of the Ranger Exes Association
in 1989 & Director for many years.
The General responsible for planning and executing Operation
Frequent Wind and Operation Baby-Lift during the fall of
Saigon. Major General Homer D. Smith served in the United
States Army for thirty-six years and was 89 at the time of
his death. Besides Vietnam he also participated in Word
War II and Korea but he is most known for his second tour
in Vietnam where he was in charge of planning and executing
operation “Frequent Wind” and helping several thousand South
Vietnamese flee before the North Vietnamese entered Saigon.
Operation “Frequent Wind” was responsible for the evacuation
of the U.S. Embassy personnel and the remaining military
contingent by air and later by helicopters from the Embassy
roof. He recounted the days leading to the fall of Saigon
and the evacuation of orphan’s in the Discovery Channel
productions, the “Fall of Saigon” and “Operation Baby-Lift.”
General Smith respected and appreciated the Vietnamese people
and when he spoke about his role in the evacuation from
Saigon he often said, “It was the saddest day of my life.”
General Smith was a bona fide member of America’s “greatest
generation.” A native of Breckenridge, Texas, he was the son
of Homer D. Smith, Sr., and Sara Elsie Snodgrass. At the
height of World War II, General Smith graduated from the Texas
A&M class of 1943. Almost immediately upon his graduation,
he was sent to England to help plan the logistics for D-Day.
After D-Day he continued to serve in the European Theater
until 1946 when he returned to civilian life for a few years
before re-entering the Army once more. General Smith became
a career logistician and during his first tour in Vietnam he
served in various senior logistical assignments from 1968 to
1970. While he was in charge of mortuary affairs he would
visit the morgue every day for “someone should be there to
send the soldiers off.” To him, the morgue also served as a
daily reminder of the seriousness of war & therein especially
the ultimate sacrifice endured by military members and their
families.
When General Smith returned to Vietnam in Sept. of 1974,
major U.S. combat operations had ceased and our assistance
to the South Vietnamese was driven by the 1973 Paris Agreements.
As the Defense Attaché he was the senior military officer in
the country. Major hostilities between the warring Vietnamese
parties were supposed to have stopped as they sought national
reconciliation, but they continued their military operations
against each other.
Retired Army Colonel Stuart A. Herrington who authored the
book “Peace with Honor: An American reports on Vietnam 1973-75”
recently stated in reference to his service in Saigon with
General Smith, “it was a tense, demanding, and depressing duty
as the realization hit us that national reconciliation had
failed and the war was not going to end well. Most of us would
exit Vietnam when the North Vietnamese dictated it was time to
go and not at the end of our tours and worse, we would be
writing the final act of America’s first military defeat. As
with General Smith, I felt devastated for we would also be
forced to abandon most of our South Vietnamese comrades-in
arms and their fate would most likely not end well when the
North Vietnamese took control.”
Saddled with the task of “shutting out the lights” on our
South Vietnamese ally General Smith tried to save as many
lives as possible in the process and through his efforts,
7500 South Vietnamese were evacuated from Saigon. To some
it might have seemed like an insurmountable task but General
Smith tackled the highly charged political challenge and
defeated obstacles that developed during the course of the
evacuation. When the South Vietnamese government refused to
let members of their military leave, General Smith through
the embassy staff, issued them American passports. As much
as he tried to help them, he once said; “it was not easy to
convince them to leave since not only did they have to take
their immediate family with them but also their extended and
many of them decided to stay because of it.”
General Smith wanted to proceed with the evacuation earlier
but U.S. Ambassador Graham Martin stubbornly refused, fearing
it could trigger panic among the South Vietnamese. As the
North Vietnamese got closer to Saigon, General Smith knew he
had to act. Going against the wishes of Ambassador Martin,
he called then Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, and got
permission to implement operation “Frequent Wind.” He later
said about Ambassador Martin, “he didn’t want to leave. Martin
was in denial and did not think Saigon would fall to the North
Vietnamese. In the end we almost had to forcibly remove the
Ambassador to get him onboard the helicopter.”
During 29-30 April 1975, operation “Frequent Wind” saved 7000
people before the remaining American military personnel and
General Smith left Saigon. In reference to the evacuation,
Colonel Herrington said; “As one of General Smith’s officers,
I marveled at how he kept his cool, his display of determination
and courage while also setting an example for the staff by his
methodical approach to problems that developed during the course
of the evacuation. He was not the type to fall victim to
histrionics, posturing, or other conduct that would have been
the undoing of some officers faced with such life-and-death
decisions. Only once, and he can be excused for this, did his
temper ever flare, when ever-so-carefully he directed the
entire DAO (Defense Attaché Office) compound, also known as
“Pentagon East,” be wired with explosives for as General Smith
stated ‘I’ll be dammed if I’m going to leave anything for those
bastards.’”
Before operation “Frequent Wind” was implemented, General Smith
planned and executed operation “Baby-Lift.” During the course of
the American presence in Vietnam, several children were born to
Vietnamese mothers and American fathers. Due to the stigma
attached to ethnically mixed children and the inability of their
mothers to care for them, many ended up in orphanages. On April 4,
1975, the initial flight transporting 328 orphans and accompanying
adults left Tan-San- Nhut airfield in Saigon. Within minutes after
take-off the locks on the rear loading ramp causing it to open.
Rapid decompression occurred, and the plane started to destabilize
and fail. The crew managed to turn the airplane around but due to
equipment failure they missed the landing strip and ended up crashing
in a rice paddy close to the airport. The airplane broke into four
parts during the crash and only 175 orphans and adults survived. The
tragedy of this flight was especially emotional for General Smith
as many of the accompanying adults were women who worked for him,
and most of them died in the crash.
After General Smith returned from Vietnam he reported to Fort Monroe,
VA to become Deputy Chief of Staff for Logistics of the U.S. Army
Training and Doctrine Command. In June of 1977, he took command of
the U.S. Army Logistics Center at Fort Lee, VA. After he retired
July 1979, General Smith moved to Brussels Belgium, to head the
newly established Logistics Directorate at the Headquarters of
the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). During his tenure
at NATO he was also one of four NATO employees who would serve as
Secretary General during his absences. Prior to his first tour of
duty in Vietnam, General Smith was the commander of Camp Darby in
Italy. General Smith received many awards and medals throughout
his military career to include the Distinguished Service Medal
with 2 Oak Leaf Clusters, the Legion of Merit and the Air Medal.
General Smith leaves behind his Danish born and loving wife Jette;
son Clay of Bend, Oregon; daughters and sons-in-law; Amanda Smith
(Brian Mclaughlin) of San Francisco, California; Sophia O’Hara
(Jack O’Hara) of San Antonio, Texas; Karen Smith of Dallas, Texas;
and CPT Frederikke “Ricca” Buhl-Cook, USAR (CW4 Lore D. Cook, USA)
of Tampa, Florida. Left behind are also his lovely grandchildren:
Dameon, Michaela, Bridgit, Rory, Jessica and Dylan. His daughter
Lou-Ann Smith preceded him in death. His brothers were David Smith
(RHS-1944), Robert Smith (RHS-1941), and William Smith (RHS-1940).
To everyone in his family and those who got to know him over the
years, he was a wonderful and caring husband, father and friend.
In the words of his daughter Ricca; “he was not just a father, he
was a friend. He was not just a rock, he was Mount Everest.” For
all the people who knew him “he was a man, take him for all in all,
I shall not look upon his like again.” (Shakespeare)