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General Jacob E. Smart, USAF (ret.)
graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1931. He completed flight training in 1932. At the
beginning of World War II he served as staff officer in the Flying Training Command. Later
in the War he was assigned to overseas command; “He participated in strikes against Nazi war making industries in Italy,
Austria, Hungary, Yugoslavia, Rumania and Bulgaria until his aircraft was shot down by enemy antiaircraft fire on May 10,
1944. Seven crewmembers were killed. Smart and two others were wounded and made a prisoner of war. He, along with some twenty
thousand other Allied Prisoners of War, was liberated by General George Patton's Third Army on April 29, 1945.”
He continued to serve in the military until he reached the mandatory retirement age in 1966. In his retirement,
he served as president of the Jasper County Historical Society. General Jacob E. Smart is the author of Lowcountry
Families in World War II: A Memorial.
The MOAA said of Lowcountry
Families in World War II: A Memorial, “The first 459 pages of the book is a description of the actions
of World War II, including the events that led up to the war. The book is divided into parts, in which the actions that took
place in the theaters of war are fully described. There are 85 maps that further describe various military operations. The
last 720 pages of the book contain biographical information of many South Carolina Lowcountry citizens and their roles in
the war. (The South Carolina Lowcountry is defined as the counties of Jasper, Colleton, Hampton, and Beaufort). Many of these
biographical sketches contain personal interview material. The book was written to memorialize the participants in the war
for their grandchildren. Smart donated all rights to the Jasper County Historical Society, Ridgeland, S.C., of which he is
a past president and Director Emeritus.”
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