Robert Clyde Smith - Poe Prairie Cemetery - Parker County, TX
N 32° 42.517 W 098° 00.299
14S E 593256 N 3619422
A memorial to Robert Clyde Smith serves as a cenotaph in historic Poe Prairie Cemetery, south of Millsap in rural Parker County, TX. He was killed during World War II while serving aboard the USS Saratoga.
Waymark Code: WMYQRX
Location: Texas, United States
Date Posted: 07/12/2018
Views: 2
The memorial stands in the Smith family plot, where several members of the family -- perhaps the father, siblings, and a cousin -- are buried. The memorial also serves as a headstone for Majorie Louise Smith, and below the family name, "Smith", it reads:
Majorie Louise
Apr. 23, 1925
June 22, 1927
Peace Be Unto You
Robert Clyde
July 17, 1923
Feb. 21, 1945
Boatswain's Mate First Class
U.S. Navy U.S.[S.] Saratoga
Killed at Iwo Jima
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The USS Saratoga left Pearl Harbor in early 1945 to rendezvous with the USS Enterprise, in order to provide air cover for an amphibious assault on Iwo Jima. By mid-February, she was launching assaults on the Japanese islands, and provided combat air patrol over Iwo Jima on February 19-20. On February 21, she was detached with an escort of three destroyers to assist the amphibious forces by carrying out night patrols over Iwo Jima and nearby Chichi Jima. Unfortunately, six Japanese planes took advantage of low cloud cover and the ship's weak escort, striking the carrier with bombs five times in three minutes. Three of the planes also struck the carrier in kamikaze attacks. While the ship was not destroyed, she lost 123 of her crew dead or missing, and 192 wounded. BMFC Smith was among the missing, and he is listed on the courts of the missing at the Honolulu Memorial at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu, HI.