Foil: 11 Panel: 1 Column: 3 Line: 27

Wall of Honor Level:
Air and Space Friend

Honored by:
Ms. Christine Smyth Bellino

Robert P. Smyth was born on May 31,1921, raised and went to high school in Yonkers, New York. He attended St. John's University in New York City before joining the US Navy as a Naval Aviation Cadet on July 1942 during World War II. He trained as a Naval Aviator in Pensacola, Florida, receiving his Navy wings and commission as Ensign USNR in October 1943. During World War II he served first as an advanced flight instructor at Pensacola, and later as an R4D/R5D pilot in the Western Pacific in support of the US Seventh Fleet. He was in the Philippines when the war ended on August 15,1945. In 1946 he became a US Navy career officer, being selected and commissioned as an officer in the Regular Navy. After the war he served in various USN ships, squadrons and staffs including Patrol Squadrons Three, and Patrol Squadron Five, the aircraft carriers USS Bennington, USS Oriskany, USS Yorktown and the USS Randolph, the staff Carrier Task Force 77, the HQ Commander-in-Chief Pacific, the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations in the Pentagon, the Office of the Secretary of the Navy, and at HQ North American Defense Command. He was executive officer of the aircraft carrier USS Randolph, and commanding officer of Patrol Squadron Five (VP-5), and the USS Tanner. He had a four-war career in the US Navy, serving during WWII, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and the Cold War. During his Navy years, he graduated with a BA degree from the University of California, Berkeley, and with an MS degree from the University of Southern California. In July 1974 he retired from the Navy with the rank of Captain, USN, settling in Colorado Springs. Following his Navy retirement, he was employed by various aerospace companies including TRW Corp., and the Aerospace Corp. Married in 1946 to Loyce Slocum of Pensacola Florida, they had four children, Christine, Nancy, Robert L., and Jeffrey.