BEAVER FALLS — Calvin Smith was a gentle giant, his children say.
A community volunteer.
Humble.
A lieutenant with the famed Tuskegee Airmen, Smith was on the front lines of racial change. He was one of 103 officers arrested for entering an all-white officers' club, Freeman Field, near Seymour, Ind., as part of the Freeman Field Mutiny in 1945.
His name is one that might not appear in history books, but after Saturday, it's one that everyone in Beaver Falls will know.
City officials Saturday will rename Memorial Park in Smith's honor as the Lt. Calvin Smith Memorial Park. It's important for the community to understand the importance of the Tuskegee Airmen, particularly the impact of one who called Beaver Falls home, City Manager Charles Jones said.
"When I came up in school, I didn't know about the Tuskegee," Jones said. "We recognize that importance and the fact that the Greatest Generation is dying off."
The renaming is a long time coming, Jones said. After attending Smith's funeral viewing in 2013, Jones wanted to find a way for the city to recognize the national contributions of one of its residents. He met with the American Legion, which suggested renaming the entire park in Smith's honor.
City officials loved the idea, Jones said.
After hearing that the American Legion wanted to recognize Smith, Councilman Kevin Kunselman, director of the city's Parks and Recreation Department, agreed to donate a plaque marking Smith's contributions. His business, Hill and Kunselman Funeral Home, donated the plaque.
"We like to be an active part of our community and give back when we can," Kunselman said. "The memorial itself, it serves a dual purpose of recognizing servicemen and women, but the second is the history and how important it is that our youth learn something about the past and what adversity (the Tuskegee) overcame in order to be a part of winning the war in World War II."
Tuskegee history
When Smith died in 2013, he was the last living Tuskegee Airman from Beaver County. An Aliquippa native, he was one of five Tuskegee to serve who hailed from Beaver County.
The group is considered to be one of the most heralded air squadrons during World War II. Their combat record included more than 1,578 combat missions, 150 Distinguished Flying Crosses and 714 Silver and Gold Cluster Air Medals.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt formed the all-black flight-training program based at the Tuskegee Institute and Tuskegee Army Air Field in Alabama. A large portion of the Tuskegee program hailed from western Pennsylvania.
This was a time before Rosa Parks brought national attention to segregation, years before President Harry S.Truman ordered the integration of the armed forces.
Their service is important to their communities and the nation as a whole, Kunselman said.
"We're talking about a group of servicemen, of African Americans, who wanted to serve, who wanted to help win this war," he said. "They were met with great resistance and racism."
Smith was one of several officers who helped plan and lead the Freeman Field Mutiny, which resulted in temporary jailing and exile for the officers.
To keep blacks out, they were designated “trainees” and relegated to their own club in Indiana. When more than 100 black officers refused to sign rules presented by their commanding white officers outlining the segregation, they were flown to a base in Kentucky for trial, but were later released under public pressure.
It took 50 years for the reprimands to be removed from the permanent military records of some of the officers. In 1995, the assistant secretary of the Air Force for manpower, reserve affairs, installations and environment announced the removal of any letters of reprimand on those who were disciplined for the incident.
"They were forgotten for a number of years," Kunselman said. "They were in major battles, major air campaigns and part of the turning point that helped win the war.
"They proved that anybody can do any job; it doesn't matter the color of their skin. They can still perform the job as anyone else did."
"Making history"
Smith served with the 477th Bombardment Group, which was scheduled to go to the South Pacific. Japan's surrender nullified that assignment.
Smith never spoke much about the details of his time as a lietenant bombardier, his son said.
"He didn't talk much," his son, Ahmses Maat, said. "He wouldn't tell us directly what happened during this event or that. ... He's given us kernels of wisdom that had basis on his experience as an officer in the Tuskegee Airmen."
Maat, also known as Sheldon Smith, will travel back this week from his home in Desert Hot Springs, Calif., for the ceremony. It will be a bit of a family reunion, Jones said; several of Smith's relatives have been a part of the planning process with the city.
Maat likened the renaming to the birth of a child or participating in the Million Man March.
"This is something that is beyond glory for self; it's more than just a family reunion," Maat said. "This is Beaver County, Pennsylvania, American history that we're making."
But Smith never saw it that way, Maat said. To him, serving was just doing his job as an American.
"He would be honored and humbled knowing that what he did was just being a man of his times, yet we look at it as being a great American hero," Maat said. "I think he would have felt that he was just doing his duty as a man, an American, and thinking that perhaps it was the right thing to do."
Yet, Maat said, what his father is being honored for is "making a change in America."
Smith spoke to The Times in 2011 about his involvement in the Freeman Field Mutiny, and even then, at age 86, downplayed the impact of his actions.
“I don't know whether we thought it would help out. We were just rebelling in general because we felt it was wrong,” he said. “At that time, discrimination was all over. It was just a way of life.”
One of the phrases that Maat recalls his father often saying to him and his two siblings was: "Life doesn't throw you three pitches. Youhave to get on base with the first swing because you may not get to throw the other two."
Maat said his father lived his life by those simple parables. After his time in the military, he worked for 25 years at Mackintosh-Hemphill in Midland. He was a member of the Improved Benevolent and Protective Order Elks of the World, Brighton Pioneer Lodge 219, where he served in numerous capacities, including grand district deputy emeritus.
The park won't be the first thing named in Smith's honor. In California, his son runs a communal hostel known as Calvin's House, where discounted and free services are offered to veterans and active-duty military personnel.
These types of honors would probably make Smith bashful, Maat said; he was a humble man. But nonetheless, they are important, he said.
"What we're doing in Beaver Falls is raising one up who is a national hero and a change agent," Maat said. "He just happens to be my father."
If you go
The Lt. Calvin Smith Memorial Park Ceremony is scheduled for 1 p.m. Saturday at the park on 11th Street and Sixth Avenue in Beaver Falls. The event will include a posting of colors, proclamations, a Tuskegee tribute and family remarks.
Donations and services were offered by Foodland, Save-A-Lot, Tabernacle Baptist Church Missionary, St. Monica's Catholic School, Beaver County Chorale Society, Beaver County Air Heritage, Beaver Falls American Legion Post 261, Beaver County Vietnam Veterans Association, Beaver County Veterans of Foreign War and 171st/911th U.S. Air Force Honor Guard.
The event is organized by the Lt. Calvin Smith Memorial Park Committee, which includes Charles Jones, city manager for Beaver Falls; Desmond Wiley, of the Beaver Falls American Legion; Linwood Alford, of the Beaver County VFW/VVA; Grant Farmer, chairman of the Western Pennsylvania Tuskegee Airmen; and Rico Elmore, of the 171st Air Refueling Wing of the Pennsylvania Air National Guard.
