About
Albert Walter Smith, the son of Albert and Frances (Holzhauer) Smith, was born on June 14, 1921, in Amsterdam, New York. By the 1925 census, he was living in Rotterdam, New York, with his family. Albert played baseball, basketball, and soccer while attending Draper High School. He graduated in 1939. Prior to joining the Navy Reserves, he worked at General Electric in the radio transmitter department.
In June 1942, Albert enlisted in the United States Navy Reserve. He received his training in Newport, Rhode Island. Albert held the rank of Radio Operator and was stationed at the Naval Air Station Pensacola. On July 17, 1943, Albert's plane was scheduled to return by 1:30 in the afternoon while on a Navy training mission in Pensacola, Florida, but it never arrived. The plane's remains and eight crew members were never found.
Sources: The Schenectady Gazette, Find A Grave, Ancestry
"Keep a little fire burning; however small, however hidden."
~Cormac McCarthy
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.
For the Fallen
Laurence Binyon