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US Army Air Forces Medal of Honor recipient

Maynard Harrison "Snuffy" Smith (May 19, 1911 – May 11, 1984) was a United States Army Air Forces staff sergeant and aerial gunner aboard a B 17 Flying Fortress bomber in World War II, received the Medal of Honor for his conduct during a bombing mission over France on May 1, 1943. Smith was the first enlisted member of the United States Army Air Forces to earn the Medal of Honor.

Maynard Harrison Smith was born on May 19, 1911, in Caro, Michigan. His father was a successful attorney, and his mother was a school teacher. As a child, he had a reputation of being a spoiled troublemaker, so his father sent him to the Howe Military Academy in Howe, Indiana. After graduating, Smith worked for the U. S. Treasury Department, and the Michigan Banking Commission. In 1929, Smith married Arlene McCreedy (1911 1997), but they divorced in 1932. Smith's father died in 1934, and he quit his job, choosing to live off of his father's inheritance. He married his second wife, Helen Gunsell (1921 2005), in 1941 and had one son, William. This marriage also ended in divorce in September 1942. Smith enlisted in the Army on August 31, 1942. An apocryphal story states that after Smith failed to make child support payments to Gunsell, he appeared before a judge who gave him the choice of serving a jail term or enlisting in the military, and he later appeared for a photo in the local newspaper with fellow inductees leaving for service still in handcuffs and escorted by the sheriff.

After completing basic training, he volunteered for aerial gunnery school. At the time, all aerial gunners were non commissioned officers and the move to the school was a quick way for the private to gain rank and pay. After completing aerial gunnery school, he was shipped overseas to Thurleigh, Bedfordshire, in south central England, where he joined the 423rd Bombardment Squadron, 306th Bomb Group. Staff Sergeant Smith was short in stature, and quickly gained a reputation as a stubborn and obnoxious airman who did not get along well with the other airmen stationed there. He soon earned the nickname "Snuffy Smith", possibly after the character from a popular comic strip of the era, Barney Google and Snuffy Smith. Consequently, it was six weeks before he was assigned his first combat mission. Several of the bombers failed to rendezvous as intended, and others had mechanical problems and had to turn back. The middle portion of the bombing mission went well, with no German fighters engaging the American aircraft until after they had released their bomb loads on target. As the fighters came up, the Americans managed to elude them by flying into a large cloud bank. Staff Sergeant Smith's bomber was hit, rupturing a fuel tank and igniting a massive fire in the center of the fuselage. The damage was severe, knocking out communications and compromising the fuselage's integrity. Smith's ball turret lost power, and he scrambled out to assist the other crew members. Three crew members bailed out, while Smith tended to two others who were seriously wounded. In between helping his wounded comrades, Smith also manned the .50 caliber machine guns and fought the raging fire. The heat from the fire was so intense that it began to melt the metal in the fuselage, threatening to break the plane in half. For nearly 90 minutes, Smith alternated between shooting at attacking fighters, tending to the wounded, and fighting the fire. To starve the fire of fuel, he threw burning debris and exploding ammunition through the large holes that the fire had melted in the fuselage. After the fire extinguishers were exhausted, Smith finally managed to put the fire out, in part by urinating on it. Smith's bomber reached England and landed at the first available airfield, where it broke in half as it touched down. It had been hit with more than 3,500 bullets and pieces of shrapnel. The three crew members who bailed out were never seen again and were presumed lost at sea, but Smith's efforts undoubtedly saved the lives of the six others aboard his aircraft. Smith was assigned to KP duty the week that he was awarded the Medal of Honor as punishment for arriving late to a briefing. U. S. Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson placed the medal around Smith's neck during a formation.

Smith flew four more combat missions after earning the Medal of Honor, but was then grounded as a result of combat stress reaction and was reassigned to non combat clerical work. On December 17, 1944, he was forced to accept a reduction in rank to private for poor job performance, and was shortly thereafter permanently grounded. Smith was sent home to the United States on February 2, 1945, and despite his transgressions, received a hero's welcome and a parade when he returned to his hometown. Smith was discharged from the U. S. Army on May 26, 1945. In his later years, he despised his time in the military and ran into legal troubles, but eventually retired quietly to Florida, dying of heart failure on May 11, 1984, in Saint Petersburg, at the age of 72. Maynard Harrison Smith is buried in Arlington National Cemetery, in Arlington, Virginia.

Smith met his third wife, Mary Rayner (1924 2015), in Bedford, England, while attending a dance put on for servicemen by the USO. They married in 1944, and eventually had four children (three sons, Lawrence, Ronald, and Maynard Jr., and a daughter, Christine). Their daughter Christine was born in England prior to the couple's return to the United States. After Smith's death, his wife remarried to Robert J. O'Brien.