Stanley L. Smith

Stanley L. Smith was drafted into the United States Army in 1944, and achieved the rank of Corporal. To prepare for his service in World War II, Mr. Smith initially set off for Fort Dix, New Jersey for orientation and then to Camp Blanding, Florida for 90 days of training.

Mr. Smith valiantly served as a Rifleman and a Military Police Officer and was stationed in Europe from November 27, 1944 to August 19, 1946. His company of approximately 200 military personnel, moved into “taken” territory, relieving Allied troops who had been stationed there for a long period of time.

His company marched from France into Germany and all around that nation, excluding the City of Berlin. Mr. Smith noted that it would take almost a month for a batch of cookies from his mom to reach him from the States.

On a routine day, the soldiers were practicing using 81 millimeter mortar fire, and Mr. Smith’s job was to drop the shell into the tube. During this training, Mr. Smith was injured and hospitalized. After recovering from his injuries, he returned to his Company and was then sent to Nuremberg.

After WWII ended, Mr. Smith was called to duty at the Palace of Justice and Nuremberg Prison in Nuremberg, Germany. There, he guarded three high-profile prisoners: Hermann Göring, Rudolf Hess and Joachim von Ribbentrop. Many of the 200 prisoners being guarded were witnesses that later testified at the trials.

A member of the greatest generation, Mr. Smith is a life member of the Fair Haven Fire Department. For several years, he maintained the Little League Field on Cayuga Street, Fair Haven for the children of the Town of Sterling. The Village dedicated the ball field to him as “Stanley Smith Field.”

Mr. Smith has been an outstanding member of the American Legion, George I. Ingersoll Post 658 for 69 years.