Luther E. Smith, Jr. Papers

This collection is comprised of 286 letters by or about Sgt. Luther Edward Smith, Jr. during his military service in World War II. Smith wrote the majority of these letters to his parents, Luther E. Smith, Sr. and Evelyn Lois Smith of Jacksonville, between January 1942 and September 1944. The correspondence primarily focuses on daily base life in the U.S. during the war, but the letters from 1944 depict combat experience over Africa and Europe. The collection spans 1939 to 1949.

The majority of the collection consists of letters from Luther to his parents describing his experiences at the various bases he visited during his training. The letters begin with Smith in pre-pilot training in South Carolina. He wrote often, sometimes twice in the same day, from January 1942 until May 1944. Smith traveled to a number of bases across the country including bases in South Carolina, South Dakota, Alabama and Georgia. He covered eight states in his training before being shipping overseas to Africa and Corsica. These letters would be of particular interest to researchers studying daily life on an Army training base during the war.

In addition to Smith's correspondence with his parents, the collection includes several letters pertaining to the crash of Smith's plane in Italy. Letters from the War Department to the mothers of those individuals lost in Smith's plane and letters between the mothers themselves depict the weeks following the crash. Some of the mothers whose sons were lost in the crash began to receive vague letters from their sons weeks after being declared "missing in action." The letters discuss the condition of the survivors and that of their comrades.

Other letters in the collection include correspondence from friends and family to Smith Jr., as well as letters from Smith Sr., a Coast Guard officer in Jacksonville, to his wife. Accompanying some of these letters are newspaper clippings and photographs.