Jack DeBar Smith 90 Today!

Jack DeBar Smith - Born in Chicago in a very multi-ethnic neighborhood in 1921, He grew up learning to appreciate our great American Constitution, Bill of Rights, and the history of the nation. Harry DeBar ( his granddad on his mother's side) was a seaman in the halcion days of "Iron Men & Wooden Ships." His dad, Herbert Ellison Smith, was in WW I as a cox-wain, serving as gun captain on a destroyer & light cruiser. His dad was a traveling salesman & the family moved frequently -- Chicago, Minneapolis, Dallas, & finally came to California in what his dad said was the "family vibrator," a 1927 Ford 2 door sedan jogging over washboard roads to the land of sunshine, fruits & nuts, and a home in Long Beach, California..

Before that tragic day of December 7th, 1941., Jack moved to Hollywood with his parents, and hitchhiked to Los Angeles City College & also played trumpet in an orchestra while taking business courses to prepare for the future. He took a summer job at NBC on Sunset Blvd. in Hollywood, parking cars and was then put inside as a Page trainee for radio sound effects. While shopping with his dad at a market they heard the news about Pearl Harbor, along with the rest of the world.

So, on August the 8th, 1942 he enlisted in the navy, as the family had been all navy for several generations. His dad was proud, his mother in tears. The next 4 years are described in his book THE ICONOCLAST GOES TO SEA. http://www.iconoclasts.com/

Upon discharge from the navy, he attended the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, on the GI Bill, where he obtained his bachelor degree in business administration with a minor in aviation. He embraced his love of flying and became a private pilot with a partner for seventeen of the twenty-three years that he flew. He and his wife flew the twelve Western states, Canada, Mexico and into the Southern states of Oklahoma, Texas, Louisiana, Georgia, Alabama, and Florida. The Mooney he flew was his own version of the anti-gravity machine while airborne. He used his bachelor degree to become a State Farm Insurance agent, owning his own insurance office for over thirty years.

Now retired, he resides in Van Nuys, California, with his daughter Nan. He is a senior member of Rotary International and has also been a member and past president of the North Hollywood, California, Chamber of Commerce.

IconJacls's Books:

The Illimitables (Nicky Levitation)
http://www.theillimitables.com/

The Iconoclast Goes To Sea - Dilemma In Blue
http://www.iconoclasts.com/

He hopes the readers will enjoy his books and jog their memories of their military experiences, perhaps before WWII & after, for the seemingly never ending "needs" for American participation around this planet.

Please visit my opinions website: www.iconveritas.org
Icon ~ an image or representation of an idea or person.
Veritas ~ truth, real, factual, quality or state of being true.
IconVeritas~ Images and ideas of fact and truth.
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