Photos: War Story
The Enterprise — Sean Mulkerrin
Thomas Joseph Smith Jr. eats breakfast Saturday with other veterans who regularly gather at Cindy Pollard’s Home Front Café in Altamont. He has recently had his memoirs printed by The Troy Book Makers, focusing on his experiences as a Marine in World War II. Smith at the age of 18 was a runner on Iwo Jima. He worked between the lines at night. “The job was to listen,” he said. He saw the first flag raised on Iwo Jima soon after the mountaintop was captured. Smith was wounded three times and has two Purple Hearts, he told The Enterprise earlier.
On Veterans Day, Thomas Joseph Smith Jr. will sign his book, “Marine #419322,” from 2 to 2:30 p.m. at The Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza. In a notice about the event, Book House owner Susan Novotny describes the book as “a very personal memoir, an action-packed adventure and an intriguing mystery involving one Japanese Admiral and two million dollars-worth of Japanese yen. A series of bureaucratic military snafus meant to cover up Tom’s intimate knowledge of the capture of Rear Admiral Kakuda followed him until 2000 when local politicians helped correct his record.”