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Allen Smith Interview -- Transcript

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Oral Memoirs of Allen Smith

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Interviewee	Smith, Allen
Interviewer	Sloan, Stephen M.
Title	Oral Memoirs of Allen Smith
Interview details	Interviewed by Stephen M. Smith on December 9, 2015, in Elm Mott, TX.
Number of interviews	1
Interview Date(s)	2015
Resource Type	Interview
Format	PDF Audio
Genre	Oral Histories
Language	English
Description, transcript	In Progress
Description, sound recordings	digital audio file; 2.17 hrs.
Collection	Waco and McLennan County
Project	Waco and McLennan County (General)
Summary	Lieutenant Colonel Allen Smith, who had lived in Texas for several decades, was born in Alabama in the 1930s, raised in Mississippi, and had a distinguished military career spanning over two decades, during which time he was one of the only African American officers in the US Air Force.
Sponsor	Baylor University Institute for Oral History;
Sponsor Location	Waco, TX;
Rights	http://www.baylor.edu/lib/digitization/digitalrights

Interviewee	Smith, Allen
Interviewer	Sloan, Stephen M.
Title	Allen Smith Interview -- Transcript
Interview details	Interviewed by Stephen M. Smith on December 9, 2015, in Elm Mott, TX.
Number of interviews	1
Interview Date(s)	2015
Resource Type	Interview
Format	PDF
Genre	Oral Histories
Language	English
Description, transcript	In Progress
Collection	Waco and McLennan County
Project	Waco and McLennan County (General)
Summary	Lieutenant Colonel Allen Smith, who had lived in Texas for several decades, was born in Alabama in the 1930s, raised in Mississippi, and had a distinguished military career spanning over two decades, during which time he was one of the only African American officers in the US Air Force; his father, childhood in Mississippi, Southern Christian Institute school, sharecropping, selling the cotton his family picked 00:00:23 ; attending school at SCI 00:09:05 ; interactions with whites in Mississippi 00:11:43 ; working on the farm, family expectations, SCI, deciding to attend college 00:14:50 ; being taught obedience and respect for authority, family values 00:20:37 ; attending Prairie View A&M University: job busing tables, preparation for college, feeling unprepared 00:23:44 ; starting a debate team at Prairie View 00:33:03 ; interest in history, college thesis, interest in international affairs and law, working for the VA 00:40:05 ; going into the air force after college, teaching white cadets how to read and write, applying to Officer Training School, meeting his wife, punishment for being late 00:49:23 ; racial dynamics of a black officer commanding whites, experiences with racism 01:02:23 ; Korea, security clearance 01:11:10 ; attending and passing flight school, multi-engine training 01:14:01 ; moving to Travis Air Force Base, experience of flying, flight trips across the Pacific 01:23:23 ; encounter with racism while hauling missile from Travis Air Force Base to Cape Canaveral 01:27:56 ; racism during mission in Washington, DC, being sent to Italy, nearly missing his flight to Rome, kindness of that plane’s captain, interaction with German military officer while being stationed in Italy, experiencing racism overseas 01:39:45 ; receiving orders to teach ROTC at Tennessee State University, getting his master’s degree at University of Indiana, being sent to Vietnam, helping to evacuate marines at Khe Sanh, finding a live man among dead soldiers at a mortuary 01:51:17 ; advocating for soldiers with post-traumatic stress disorder 02:05:20.
Sponsor	Baylor University Institute for Oral History;
Sponsor Location	Waco, TX;
Rights	http://www.baylor.edu/lib/digitization/digitalrights

Oral Memoirs of Allen Smith

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Oral Memoirs of Allen Smith