Roy T. Smith Jr. was born on January 21, 1918, in Rochester, New York.  Soon after graduating from Hobart College in 1940, he enlisted in the Marine Corps, and after attending Airborne School at Lake Hurst, New York, he shipped out in June 1942 to the Pacific with the First Parachute Battalion, First Marine Division.  He remained in the Asiatic-Pacific Theater for 37-months taking part in the Marine landings on Guadalcanal, Bougainville, Tulagi and Guam.  While on Guam he met Stella Makar, one of a group of twelve Navy flight nurses who were flying to Iwo Jima and Okinawa, evacuating the more seriously wounded and taking them to base hospitals.  Makar subsequently became his wife.

After discharge from the Marine Corps, Roy Smith went into sales of construction equipment and serviced contractors in Connecticut and western Massachusetts.  He died on December 29, 2010, and was buried at Orange Center Cemetery in Orange, Connecticut.

Submitted by CDR Roy A. Mosteller, USNR (Ret)