T. D. Smith

T. D. Smith attended Abilene Christian University on a football scholarship, but also lettered in track there as a sprinter. After graduating he joined the US Air Force and became a fighter pilot, serving in Vietnam. Smith also became an excellent pistol shooter, competing at the 1964 Olympics, winning two gold medals at the 1963 Pan American Games, individual in the center-fire pistol and with the team rapid-fire pistol. He is noted to have broken multiple pistol shooting records during his career.

On 13 January 1966 Smith was captain of a Dakota (DC3) military plane en route from Izmir in Turkey to Naples in Italy, when the aircraft broke apart in mid-flight. Without a parachute he fell 5,000 feet (1,525 m), landing on snow covered Mount Helmos in Greece, and surviving the fall. He was unconscious for several hours, but upon awakening, moved several survivors to the tail of the plane, which had fallen nearby, and covered them with parachutes so they could recover. Of the five other survivors, two died on the first night. Smith was hypothermic, so he started exercising to keep warm, and remained awake for over 48 hours. He put a red parachute out as a marker, and the group was finally rescued after three days and two nights, with Smith and three others still alive. Col. Smith was awarded the Airman’s Medal for extraordinary heroism by General Bruce K. Holloway, Commander-in-Chief of the United States Air Forces in Europe.