James Durick Smith was born on November 1, 1923 in Chicago, Cook County, Illinois. He served in the US Air Corps as a Technical Sergeant and Radio Operator of an aircraft during World War II. He was killed when the B-24J bomber on which he was in crashed twenty miles south of Luliang, China. All aboard were killed. The aircraft was part of the 10th Air Force, 7th Bombardment Group, 9th Bombardment Squadron. The Squadron was being used to fly fuel and supplies from India over the Himalayas to the Chinese and United States Army Air Forces based in China.
Technical Sergeant Smith was one of over 2000 Americans who lost their lives defending China from their Japanese invaders from 1941-1945. He is commemorated on the The Monument to the Aviation Martyrs in the War of Resistance Against Japan in Nanjing, China.
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